The Romanceaholic

Expected Release Date: October 18, 2011 (Available Now!)
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Imprint: Del Rey
Author’s Website: http://liahabel.com/
My Source for This Book: Netgalley
Part of a Series: Yes, Book 1, Dearly
Series Best Read In Order: N/A
Steam Level: Warm

Official Blurb:

A cyber-Victorian/steampunk romance – with zombies.

Almost two hundred years in the future, Nora Dearly lives in a world of bustled gowns, fake manners, watery tea, and uppity lords and ladies.

Thank God the zombies came to rescue her.

Dragged into the night by the living dead, Nora soon finds herself fighting for the father she thought long gone, the friend she was forced to leave behind – and the love of a handsome, noble young army captain.

Who just happens to be a walking corpse.

Almost two hundred years in the future, the world as we now know it is gone.  Rapid climate shifts and nuclear war have reshaped both our planet and society as a whole.  Desperate to find normalcy and civilization amongst the ruins, a new society is formed based on historical Victorian principals, and the New Victorians are born.   Similar to their historical counterparts in manners and fashion, they embrace technology while at the same time rigorously enforcing strict societal rules.

But some people do not approve of the New Victorian society, with its inherent caste system and over-reliance on electricity and computer technology.  These people rebelled, and embrace a simpler life, where a person’s worth stems from their wit and hard work rather than an accident of birth.  Called the Punks by the New Victorians, the majority simply want to be left alone to live in peace, but enough radicals patrol the borders as to create an enormous amount of tension between the two groups.

In the middle of all of this is Nora Dearly, the orphan daughter of the now-deceased Victor Dearly, a prominent physician in his day.sec Well-off but not truly wealthy, Nora is a student at St. Cyprian’s — an all-girl’s academy whose mission it is to turn her into a useless “lady”.  Despite her schooling, Nora has a deep love for war movies — something that by all rights should make a delicate lady swoon — and a penchant for speaking out of turn.

Returning home on holiday, she’s disgusted to learn that her Aunt has run through her inheritance with her luxurious lifestyle, and intends that Nora find a rich husband as soon as possible, despite the fact that they are literally a day out of mourning for her late father. Love, attraction, or even liking the man are completely irrelevant in her aunt’s mind, and Nora is horrified by her aunt’s attitude and behavior.

Soon, however, it becomes apparent that Nora’s concerns of money and marriage are the least of her worries.  Alone in the house while her aunt is off trying to secure a rich husband, Nora goes to investigate a noise only to discover something out of a horror story — rotting, crazed corpses overrunning her house, determined to get their hands on her.   Desperate for escape, she is rescued by masked soldiers who spirit her away — only these are no ordinary soldiers, and Nora’s world is about to change forever.

What Worked For Me:

• Steampunk (the Punks) meets Cyber-Victorian (the New Victorians).  Wow.  Imagine a time with Victorian morals, dress codes (complete with corsets and bustles for ladies, and cravats and waistcoats for gentlemen), and the aristocracy. Now image all of them with flat screen televisions, pda’s, cell phones, and more.  Then throw in sentient zombies for good measure. Oh yeah. Awesome.
• Bram, our hero, has been dead for two years.  His eyes are all milky white, he’s got quite a few scars (though no major disfigurements as some of his comrades do), and he walks with a limp.  And on occasion, he wants to eat the heroine as a snack…. I adored Bram. He’s honest, hard working, loyal, intelligent, and kind, and while his shelf date will expire much more quickly than the average living human, I couldn’t help but kind of wish I had a boyfriend just like him (erm.. Don’t tell Mr. Romanceaholic that!)
• I loved that the sidekicks weren’t useless nor were they flat characters.  Pam, for example, started off rather missish and boring, but very quickly embraced survival, and each of the other members of Z Company added their own flair to the story.
• The pacing was perfect, with just enough heavy action to keep things interesting without leaving you breathless and exhausted, and despite the large number of characters, it was easy to keep up with all the different players in the story.
• I also enjoyed the humor.  Rather than have the story bogged down in the heaviness of what was going on, there was a healthy dose of humor sprinkled throughout which kept the story from dragging.
• The romance was surprisingly sweet. While I admit, kissing a dead man, even if he’s animated and anti-bacterial, is not sexy. However, I think that what appealed to me the most about the relationship between Nora and Bram is that while they acknowledged and understood the difficulties that their relationship would face (such as Bram’s “shelf-life” so to speak running out in about three years to the fact that society would never accept them), they were falling in love and wanted to give things a go anyway. The idea that true love could prevail regardless of the mortality of one of the partners is one that I found absolutely intriguing and supremely romantic, despite any squick factor.

What Didn’t Work For Me:

• While I warmed up to them in the end, the many different POV’s were disorienting at first. We got first person POV’s from Nora, Pamela, Victor, and Bram (and there may have been another in there but I honestly can’t recall), which in first person is especially distracting.
• Oh, the dreaded Monologuing Villain *sigh*

As many of you may know, I don’t typically gravitate towards Young Adult Novels, simply because I tend to prefer steamier fare. However, every now and then a book comes along that reminds me that there are YA novels whose storytelling more than makes up for any “lack” in physical romance, and this was certainly one of them.

I have always enjoyed Steampunk, but I’ve never had a chance to read “cyber-Victorian”. While I’m not certain what the “official” definition is for either term, Steampunk to me is Victorian-style society only with technological advances that were not truly available at the time, all powered by steam engines and clockwork mechanisms (think automata, elevators, steam powered cars, etc.). Cyber-Victorian is even more interesting — it’s Victorian-style society but with actual computerized technology like we have today — flatscreen television, email, PDA’s, cellphones, etc.   I loved the contrasts of bustles and corsets and arranged marriages and the aristocracy against cell phones and digital diaries and computers and medical technology.

I loved all of the main characters — Nora, Bram, Pam, and even Victor — and while I found the POV jumps to be disorienting at first, I soon became accustomed to them and even found myself enjoying the different perspectives.

The entire main concept of a zombie virus that might actually leave you.. well… yourself.. was very intriguing to me.  Sure, there were the Grays (zombies who lost all of their humanity when they reanimated), but so many were exactly as they had been, only dead.

Plus, the entire fact that the members of Z Company were embalmed and ate tofu made me laugh.

Overall, even with the POV shifts, this one is firmly on my keeper shelf, and I am greatly looking forward to the next installment.

An unimaginably solid 5/5 Stars

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