Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

Dearly, Beloved
(Gone With the Respiration, #2)
by Lia Habel
Released |September 25th 2012 by Del Rey|
Edition |E-ARC|
Source |Netgalley|
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Can the living coexist with the living dead?
That’s the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as “The Laz” hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites.
Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety.
Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren’t the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder’s crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target.
As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora’s scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of “The Laz” and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus—and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.
Lia Habel’s spellbinding, suspenseful sequel to Dearly, Departed takes her imaginative mash-up of period romance, futuristic thriller, and zombie drama to a whole new level of innovative and irresistible storytelling.

Let me first start off saying that I was super excited to receive an E-ARC of this book through Netgalley, because I loved Dearly Departed so much. With Dearly Departed the story intrigued me and it was different than any other book that I had read. But as it came to Dearly, Beloved, I tried so hard to enjoy it and to fall in love with it like I did Dearly Departed, but it just didn't happen. I couldn't even finish the book. I tried, I really did, but I just couldn't get into it.


The thing that killed me with this book was its pacing. It was excruciatingly slow! That is the main reason why I just could not complete this book. I reread pages over and over again because I wasn't grasping what was being said and I could only read a chapter or two at a time. It's hard to explain. The book wasn't boring,     it was the slowness of the book that made it hard to read. Don't get me wrong, the book, at times, had some high points to where things would pick up (like every 2 chapters), but then it would go back to being slow. I made it exactly halfway through the book, which is really sad to me, because I was halfway finished. Book is already long, almost 500 pages, to be slow on top of that....

And I came to the realization that I wasn't going to continue this book, because I read 4 books and 1 novella in between reading this. I would put this down, and pick up another book and have the other book knocked out in a day or two. And then I realized that I was reading those books so quickly because the material flowed together and made for an easy read. And this book kind of dragged out.

Maybe one day, I will pick this book back up just to see how things ended. But I know, it's not going to be anytime soon. I was really disappointed with this book, because I loved Dearly Departed so much, but I just couldn't not get into this book. I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.