[caption id="attachment_6" align="alignright" width="299"] Dearly, Departed by Lia HabelI admit it. For me, reading a fan-freaking-tastic series is a lot like being in a relationship. I get involved, fall madly in love, and sit on the couch with Ben and Jerry when it's over. I don’t want to get to know other characters![/caption]

Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1)

by Lia Habel

★★★★★★★★★☆

For me, finishing a great book is like ending a real relationship. I sit around miserable, moping because...it's over. 

The plots will never be as good with any other books! After that, there's the non-committal period, messing around, picking up single books here and there for a casual read. Nothing serious. But, eventually, a new series catches my eye, making me want to take a chance again.

I found Dearly, Departed (Gone With The Respiration #1) while still funking about over the ending of The Parasol Protectorate series. Well, actually, I was stalking through reviews and recommendations from other Parasol fans to find something that would fill the void.

Dearly, Departed is another fantastic novel in the Steampunk genre –a genre I'm becoming quite enamored with. If you’re like me (pre-Parasol), you may be asking “WTF is a steampunk?” In short (and not at all comprehensive), it’s a combination of science fiction and fantasy often set in an alternative version of a historical period (usually the Victorian era) or in another era but written much like someone in the Victorian era might’ve imagined (think H.G. Wells The Time Machine). Don't ever let me give driving directions, by the way.

This book takes on a futuristic/post-apocalyptic approach. The year is 2195 and the world has drastically changed. Catastrophic natural disasters wiped out entire continents. The new ice age forced surviving "tribes" toward the equator where they established new governments and territories. Among these territories is New Victoria, Nicaragua where the founding fathers (the "New Victorians" or "New Vics") built their society on the ideals, mores, and fashion of ancient Victorian culture – an era they'd discovered in ancient texts and consider to be the "Golden Era." Nora Dearly is a 16-year-old young lady of status (not by wealth or birth, but by the heroic actions of her father while serving in the military) living in New London (Nicaragua). Unlike proper young ladies, Nora would rather watch documentaries and war holos than attend balls or bat her eyelashes at potential suitors.

Although she had been raised by her father since her mother's death when Nora was nine, Nora's father has passed away the previous year and left her in the care of insufferable her Aunt Gene. 

After returning from boarding school, Nora doesn't even get a chance to step foot in her house before she's disturbed by a cloaked thing claiming to have served with her father and asking that she come with him. Minutes after nearly being abducted. Aunt Gene informs Nora that all of Dr. Dearly's money has been spent (by Aunt Gene) and Nora will need to marry someone of status (and wealth) so they can survive. No pressure. And if that weren't enough of a welcome home extravaganza, more than a dozen rotting corpses invade her house, chasing Nora on the roof in attempt to really abduct her. Just before their skeletal fingers could grab her, Nora is pulled from their clutches...by the frightening figure she first encountered outside her house.

Nora wakes up in a strange place full of alive dead and, with the help of a kind and patient soldier named Bram Griswold, she learns what the government has been keeping secret and the truth about her father. And that the zombies are the least of her worries.

For me, the highlight of Dearly, Departed was Lia Habel’s ability to fuse Victorian era society values with modern technology – a world where people still make formal social calls yet carry digital devices for emailing and writing (what we ancients would call a tablet computer); a place citizens in Victorian-style dress parade up and down streets lined with holograph facades and carriages come equipped with flat screen TVs. With that said, the beauty of it all is that Habel is never over-the-top. The fantastic setting always, as it should, compliments the plot and the characters rather than the other way around.

Although the story focuses on Nora, it is told from five perspectives – Nora, Bram, Pamela (Nora’s BFF), Dr. Dearly and Wolfe (Bram’s vicious anti-zombie Captain). For the most part, the revolving perspectives weren’t disruptive (a common complaint) and flowed naturally together, although I think I could’ve done without the few chapters from Wolfe as they didn’t reveal any information that wasn’t obvious from the other characters' points of view.

The character of Nora was inspiring and surprisingly real. It’s so easy for an author to get carried away with a badass heroine – which, don’t get me wrong, Nora is – to the extreme that she becomes hard and unrealistic. Nora has fear, anger and uncertainty. She isn’t always right, but when she’s wrong she learns. She questions. She’s intelligent. And something that I don’t think I’ve ever noted in the “fearless female” category, Nora isn’t irrational. Okay, she’s not very irrational. We all have our moments.

Bram was a great male lead and love interest for Nora. He managed to be the nice, sweet guy without being a push over (which, admittedly, is hard to do when he’s a zombie and wants nothing more to devour your flesh). He matches Nora’s wits. He cared for Nora's safety, but he never attempted to be a martyr and go against her wishes because "it's what's best for her" (which, seriously, why do authors make characters like that? Is having a guy who thinks he knows what's best for you romantic? Uhm. No. That's condescending). Most of all, he was a little…shy. Not deathly shy (no pun intended), but just enough for it to be kind of cute.

As for supporting characters, Bram's group at Company Z were amusing. In fact, I kind of felt like I was among friends– the way they jokingly insulted and snarked at each other but knowing deep-down they would do anything for one another. I felt like I fit right in.

Nora’s best friend Pamela didn’t stand out as much as she could. She walked a thin line between being the silly, vapid friend that’s kept around for comedic relief and a tough chick that stabs zombies with her parasol, but she wasn’t silly and vapid enough for the humorous best friend role and she didn’t really seem to embrace her inner badass either. I think Pamela has a lot of potential to grow, so I hope that's something I will see in Dearly, Beloved. Overall, I say this was an awesome book.

And now I desperately don’t want it to end.

Damn book.