The Queen of Zombie Hearts Blog Tour: Interview + Giveaway

I'm beyond excited today to be a part of the promotional tour for the third and final installment of Gena Showalter's fantastic White Rabbit Chronicles, The Queen of Zombie Hearts. I couldn't love this series more if I tried, Gena has a gift for writing incredibly strong female characters and to-die-for male characters, so if you haven't had the chance to pick this series up yet, I hope this interview sends you running to your nearest bookstore!

Speaking of to-die-for male characters, I have the pleasure of welcoming River to the blog to answer a few questions about his involvement in Ali and Cole's fight against Anima. It's possible I hit on him a little too. Don't judge me ;-)

You and Cole don’t always see eye to eye given the fact you’re both very much the take-charge type, but what’s one thing about him you can’t help but grudgingly admire? Your answer will, of course, never make its way to Cole’s ears ;-)

I admire the way he admires me. Feel free to tell him I said that.

Let’s say I was suddenly, and unfortunately, made aware of the zombie’s existence and wanted to join your crew to learn how to fight them. What’s the first thing you would teach me?

To obey my every command. Did your mind just go to the gutter, sweet? Well, get it out. Failure to obey me can get you killed. Not to mention me and my crew. So, if you can’t follow a simple set of orders, there’s no reason to teach you anything else.

Cole has found his perfect girl in Ali. What are a few personality traits the girl of your dreams would possess? If your answer happens to include snarky and paranormal book-loving, then all the better ;-)

I like my women with big…brains. And the snarky booklover. Yep. It’s like you were created in a catalogue just for me. Come over later?

*Jenny dies*

If Gena had written this book series from your point of view rather than Ali’s, what would the titles of all three books have been? 

Book one—See Zombies Die
Book two—See A Lot More Zombies Die
Book three—See Zombies Die BAD

Like Cole, Ali and all of your closest friends, you take some physical and emotional hits in the final battle with Anima. Once all the dust settles, what will you most look forward to with regard to your future and that of your crew’s?

A little R and R. Rest and Romance. See you at eight.

*YES YOU WILL, RIVER* *Beats all the rest of you away with a stick*

• • • • • • • • • • • 

THE QUEEN OF ZOMBIE HEARTS

I have a plan.

We'll either destroy them for good, or they'll destroy us.

Either way, only one of us is walking away.

Alice 'Ali' Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers; until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters; and the worst has only begun.

As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies and she isn't the girl she thought she was. She's connected to the woman responsible for killing and turning Cole's mother. How can their relationship endure? As secrets come to light, and more slayers are taken or killed, Ali will fight harder than ever to bring down Anima even sacrificing her own life for those she loves.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

THE WHITE RABBIT CHRONICLES

Find Through the Zombie Glass:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

Find Alice in Zombieland:

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • IndieBound • Book Depository

• • • • • • • • • • • 

GENA SHOWALTER

GENA SHOWALTER is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of the Intertwined novels and several other popular YA and adult series. Her stories have been featured on MTV and in Seventeen magazine and have been praised as unputdownable.” Growing up, she always had her nose buried in a book. When it came time to buckle down and get a job, she knew writing was it for her. Gena lives in Oklahoma with her family and three slobbery bulldogs. Become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @GenaShowalter and visit her at genashowalter.com/young-adult/ and at HarlequinTEEN.com.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Harlequin Website

• • • • • • • • • • •

LOOK FOR THE WHITE RABBIT CONTEST

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the white rabbit will appear on a different blog and stay there for 48hrs. Once you have found the rabbit, click on it and you will be directed to a Rafflecopter entry form for the Grand Prize Giveaway! To enter, you must answer the daily question found at the tour stop (see below)!!!

Where could the rabbit appear? On all book blogger tour hosts and The Harlequin Paranormal Blog, so go now and hunt the rabbit. Will you find it?

And what do you win if you track this bad boy down you ask? A prize package of AWESOME:

One lucky grand prize winner will receive a $100 gift card and a complete set of the White Rabbit Chronicles. To enter for the grand prize, you MUST follow the tour each day, hunt down the white rabbit, and answer the daily question.

Want to win? Then find that rabbit!

TODAY'S QUESTION: If you could ask River one question, what would it be?

• • • • • • • • • • •

DAILY GIVEAWAY

In addition to the fabulous grand prize giveaway featured above for the White Rabbit Contest, I also have a copy of either Alice in Zombieland, Through the Zombie Glass OR The Queen of Zombie Hearts (winner's choice) to give away on the blog today! To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form, and don't forget to check out all the participating blogs below for more unique content, interviews and chances to win!

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Monday, September 8th – Two Chicks on Books & Harlequin Paranormal Blog 
Wednesday, September 10th – The Book Swarm
Friday, September 12th – Supernatural Snark 

Monday, September 15th – Such a Novel Idea
Wednesday, September 17th – Bewitched Bookworms
Friday, September 19th – Katie’s Book Blog

Monday, September 22nd – The Y.A. Bookworm Blogger
Wednesday, September 24th – Adventures of a Book Junkie
Friday, September 26th – Book Rock Betty

Waiting on Wednesday: The Queen of Zombie Hearts

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking The Spine and is a fun way to see what books other bloggers just can't wait to get their hands on!

THE QUEEN OF ZOMBIE HEARTS

White Rabbit Chronicles #3

Gena Showalter

Releases September 30th from HarlequinTEEN

From Goodreads:

I have a plan.

We'll either destroy them for good, or they'll destroy us.

Either way, only one of us is walking away.
 
Alice 'Ali' Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers; until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters; and the worst has only begun.

As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies and she isn't the girl she thought she was. She's connected to the woman responsible for killing–and turning– Cole's mother. How can their relationship endure? As secrets come to light, and more slayers are taken or killed, Ali will fight harder than ever to bring down Anima–even sacrificing her own life for those she loves.

Ummmmm Cole. That's really the only word that makes it out of my mouth when I think about series because, bless her, Gena Showalter knows how to write some very sexy men. Even when they're YA men. (But in my head Cole is at least 28 so I don't feel so creepy.) I've loved both books in this series, so I have some very high hopes going into this final installment. As long as Cole and Ali don't die (which seems to be an unfortunate trend of late and I admit to being slightly nervous thanks to the last line of the synopsis), I have no doubt I'll be in love with this one as well. Plus, Cole. That is all.

A Darkness Strange and Lovely Blog Tour: Character Interview with Daniel + A Giveaway

I'm thrilled today to welcome to the blog Daniel; Spirit Hunter, inventor extraordinaire, and love interest for Eleanor in Susan Dennard's newest release, A Darkness Strange and Lovely. I absolutely adored the first book in the series, Something Strange and Deadly, despite my fierce aversion to all things zombie, and I may have fallen a little in love with Eleanor and Daniel both individually and as a couple. Daniel was nice enough to take time out of his busy schedule fighting the Dead to answer a few questions for me, and be sure and check the bottom of the post for all the details on a fantastic giveaway!

Take us back to the first time you ran afoul of a zombie. What was your reaction and what object or person do you most wish you had with you when you came face to face with one?

The first time I ran afoul of the Dead, I was just a kid. My ma worked for a rich family outside of Chicago, and their estate was deep in the forest. There was this terrifying spirit that haunted those those woods—you could hear it hiss at night. *shudder* I wish I’d had Joseph with me then. He’d have known what to do—even if he would’ve only been a boy like myself, I bet he could’ve handled it. *grin*

If, in a separate interview, Eleanor was asked to describe you, how different do you think her answer would be from the way you would describe yourself?

Aw, she’d probably say I’m ornery. And rude. And I’ve heard her call me a scalawag more times than I can count now, so I reckon that’d be on her list too. But I’ll be honest, I’m not as grouchy as she might think—I just don’t like people touchin’ my inventions. What’s so hard to understand about that? And while I’ll admit I haven’t got my manners all tidied up like Joseph or Eleanor,  I wouldn’t call myself rude. I can be nice…when I want to be.

The scalawag thing, though…She’s probably right about that. *wink*

If zombies and spirits were suddenly a non-issue and your days no longer revolved around them, what would you most enjoy focusing on instead?

I reckon I’d go to school. Why hell, I might even start a school. I could teach kids like me—orphans and guttersnipes. I’ve been real blessed since my time in pris…well, you know where. Ever since I escaped that hell, though, I’ve been real blessed, and it only seems right to pass that luck on.

Let’s say you’re teaching a multi-week class specifically geared toward fighting the dangerous Dead. What would the class be called and what would the first item on the syllabus be?

Honestly, I’d leave that kind of class to Joseph or Jie. They’re the real Dead-fighers in the group. But I can already tell you what item Jie would want on the syllabus first…

Aim for the Knees: how to incapacitate a corpse when you’ve got no weapons or magic

If you had ample time to show Eleanor around your lab, which of your many inventions do you think she would be most fascinated by?

Now that’s a secret. One I don’t want her findin’ out. I reckon you’ll just have to read A Darkness Strange and Lovely to see for yourself. *sly smile*

While Eleanor doesn’t have your same experience with zombies, she is a quick learner and determined to be of assistance to you and the other Spirit Hunters. What quality of hers do you admire most?

I respect a woman—or any person, really—who doesn’t back down just ‘cause things get hard. As long as my fingers can curl into fists and breath still burns in my chest, I won’t stop—and neither will Eleanor.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s mighty fine to look at either.

• • • • • • • • • • 

A DARKNESS STRANGE AND LOVELY

Following an all-out battle with the walking Dead, the Spirit Hunters have fled Philadelphia, leaving Eleanor alone to cope with the devastating aftermath. But there’s more trouble ahead—the evil necromancer Marcus has returned, and his diabolical advances have Eleanor escaping to Paris to seek the help of Joseph, Jie, and the infuriatingly handsome Daniel once again. When she arrives, however, she finds a whole new darkness lurking in this City of Light. As harrowing events unfold, Eleanor is forced to make a deadly decision that will mean life or death for everyone.

Goodreads • Amazon • B&N • The Book Depository

• • • • • • • • • • 

SUSAN DENNARD

Susan Dennard is a writer, reader, lover of animals, and eater of cookies. She used to be a marine biologist, but now she writes novels. And not novels about fish either, but novels about kick-butt heroines and swoon-worthy rogues (she really likes swoon-worthy rogues).

She lives in the Midwest with her French husband and Irish setter, and her debut, SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY, is now available from HarperTeen.

Website • Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

• • • • • • • • • •

GIVEAWAY

There will be 10 winners total and the prizes are…..

•      5 Winners will receive a hardcover copy of A DARKNESS STRANGE AND LOVELY and a paperback of SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY, along with signed swag - US ONLY.

•      5 winners will receive an e-novella of A DAWN MOST WICKED and signed swag - INTERNATIONAL.

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Don't forget to check out the rest of the stops on this tour, put together by the amazing team at Rockstar Book Tours!

WEEK ONE
7/15/2013 - Bookcase to Heaven - Interview
7/16/2013 - Magical Urban Fantasy Reads - Guest Post
7/17/2013 - Tynga's Reviews - Review
7/18/2013 - Supernatural Snark - Interview
7/19/2013 - The Book Cellar - Guest Post

WEEK TWO
7/22/2013 - Read-A-holicZ - Review
7/23/2013 - IceyBooks - Interview
7/24/2013 - Working for the Mandroid - Review
7/25/2013 - The Reader's Antidote - Review
7/26/2013 - Two Chicks on Books - Guest Post

Review + Giveaway: The Scourge

THE SCOURGE
The Scourge #1
A.G. Henley
Paranormal Young Adult/Dystopian-ish
242 pages
Self-published
Available now
Received courtesy of Kismet Book Touring for review

THE STORY (From Goodreads)
Seventeen-year-old Groundling, Fennel, is Sightless. She's never been able to see her lush forest home, but she knows its secrets. She knows how the shadows shift when she passes under a canopy of trees. She knows how to hide in the cool, damp caves when the Scourge comes. She knows how devious and arrogant the Groundlings' tree-dwelling neighbors, the Lofties, can be.

And she's always known this day would come—the day she faces the Scourge alone.

The Sightless, like Fenn, are mysteriously protected from the Scourge, the gruesome creatures roaming the forests, reeking of festering flesh and consuming anything—and anyone—living. A Sightless Groundling must brave the Scourge and bring fresh water to the people of the forest. Today, that task becomes Fenn's.

Fenn will have a Lofty Keeper, Peree, as her companion. Everyone knows the Lofties wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an arrow through the back of an unsuspecting Groundling like Fenn, but Peree seems different. A boy with warm, rough hands who smells like summer, he is surprisingly kind and thoughtful. Although Fenn knows his people are treacherous, she finds herself wanting to trust him.

As their forest community teeters on the brink of war, Fenn and Peree must learn to work together to survive the Scourge and ensure their people’s survival. But when Fenn uncovers a secret that shatters her truths, she’s forced to decide who and what to protect—her people, her growing love for Peree, or the elusive dream of lasting peace in the forest.

MY THOUGHTS
A book without much hype to prepare us in terms of expectations, The Scourge surprises us as we turn the first page of what is essentially a blank canvas, our opinion completely uncolored by outside influence and our minds wide open as we wonder just what's in store for us. What we find waiting is a hugely engaging story with a fascinating world and well-developed characters, the type who are an extraordinary balance of strength and vulnerability, fighting conflicts both internal and external and encouraging us to pick up their war cry and battle right beside them. Before we even realize it, the hands of the nearest clock are suddenly in a drastically different place than when last we checked them, and we can only shake our heads in delighted shock at how quickly time has passed since everything The Scourge has to offer utterly consumed us.

Fennel is an exceptional young woman, completely sightless in a dangerous world, but yet she, of all the people in their village, is the most equipped for survival. It seems the Scourge–zombie-like creatures who roam the woods around her home and are known to brutally attack and devour whatever’s in their path–don’t harm those who can’t see them, allowing Fennel to venture out for water while the rest of her village retreats to the safety of caves until the Scourge leaves the area once again. Her fear when she’s faced with the putrid smell and terrifying moans escaping the rotting corpses who shuffle along beside her as she gets water is palpable, but she never lets it overwhelm her, finding strength with the assistance of Peree to single-handedly ensure the survival of everyone in the village.

The romance between Fennel and Peree is beautifully executed, the inherent distrust between Fennel’s people, the Groundlings, and Peree’s people, the Lofties, something that takes a while for our two young protagonists to wade through, and we as readers are beyond grateful for the slow progression. Each small step forward in their relationship is a subtle change we’re given time to fully absorb and appreciate, their forced partnership slowly evolving into desired companionship, tentative attraction, and then finally admitted affection, a step that sets the butterflies in our bellies to fluttering at an unprecedented speed.

The only minor complaint with this story is a lack of clarity at times in terms of the world building. We’re not given much information as to how this post-apocalyptic world came to be, or how the Scourge themselves became sick initially, but luckily for us, the journey Peree and Fennel embark on so thoroughly captivates and entertains us with what we do know that it’s difficult to fixate on what we don’t. This first installment concludes nicely, leaving us at a logical stopping place even though all of our questions are far from answered, and we put it down infinitely satisfied despite some of our lingering curiosities with regard to world and its parameters.

Rating: 4/5 

GIVEAWAY

A huge thank you to Kismet Book Touring and A.G. Henley for offering up the absolutely fantastic giveaway going on throughout this tour! To enter, please just fill out the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck everyone!

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Review: Alice in Zombieland

ALICE IN ZOMBIELAND
(White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
Gena Showalter
Paranormal Young Adult
404 pages
Harlequin Teen
Available September 25th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

MY THOUGHTS
As she does so effortlessly with her adult Lords of the Underworld series, Ms. Showalter impeccably combines darkness and humor in her newest young adult series; crafting a world that becomes all the more terrifying the more we learn about it, but also filling it with individuals from whom charm and wit wafts in delightful waves. Her protagonists are fierce and determined, tragedy marking each and every one of them with permanent physical and emotional scars, but instead of succumbing to their pain they instead forcefully remove themselves from Death’s loving embrace, shoving his arms away and continuing on with life despite his constant presence by their sides. Making the battle to remain free of Death’s clutches difficult is Ms. Showalter’s take on zombies, a fascinatingly horrifying version of the living dead who wage their war on the spiritual plane rather than the physical one, and we’re easily swept away in their macabre tide.

Alice is a standout heroine, bolstered after the death of her family by an equally standout character in best friend Kat, the two of them causing many an unladylike snort to escape our lips as the banter between them flies back and forth at records speeds. Despite the pain of learning her father’s rantings were not those of man losing his grip on reality, but rather those of a man of sound mind and body fighting to protect his family, she never crumbles or despairs of her past mistakes, instead she vows to join the fight as a way of honoring his memory. Though Cole is intimidating and has the type of personality that easily swallows people whole, she never once backs down from him, seeing his demands and orders and raising him a constant barrage of questions about her newly discovered supernatural world.

Cole is cause for a bit of concern initially, his bad-boy status and Ali’s intense draw to him instantly setting off warning bells in our heads that suggest he might be the type of brooding love interest we’ve seen again and again. Our unease continues with some soulful glances across a crowded cafeteria and some stalker-like tendencies, but once he and Ali clear the air between them on the zombie front, he morphs into a character all his own, shedding the initial clichés and leaving them in a rumpled pile at his feet. Ms. Showalter has a gift for creating extraordinarily sexy male characters–men who practically singe the pages with the heat they throw off– and Cole is certainly no exception. His more intimate moments with Ali are enough to have us getting up to drop the air conditioning down a few degrees before continuing, but with the sensual side of him also comes the emotional side, combining to ensure we never have cause to doubt he’s anything other than genuine in his pursuit of Ali.

Though we’re definitely left with a few general questions as to how the zombies in this world function and what role our villains so desperately want them to play, they’re questions we expect to have left at the end of a first installment, and we’re content when we reach the final page to wait and see what Ms. Showalter will bring to the table moving forward. A monstrously entertaining beginning, Alice in Zombieland has readily claimed a spot on my shelf of favorites.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Outpost

OUTPOST (Razorland #2)
Ann Aguirre
Young Adult/Dystopian
336 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available Now
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Deuce’s whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she’s a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn’t fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.

To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.

Deuce signs up to serve in the summer patrols—those who make sure the planters can work the fields without danger. It should be routine, but things have been changing on the surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks have grown smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide.

MY THOUGHTS
Picking up several weeks after the abrupt conclusion of Enclave, Outpost eases us back into a dark and gritty post-apocalyptic world as Deuce struggles to find a place among people so different from those she’s lived with her entire life, surprising and intriguing us yet again with the depiction of a society both so distinct from our own as well as from what we saw in book one. While Enclave introduced us to a group of individuals with a completely new and utterly foreign governing structure and way of survival, Outpost gives us something a bit more familiar in terms of how people live, but we view that which is familiar through Deuce’s eyes, thus casting it in an extraordinarily unique light that has us smiling and sympathizing with her daily plight to belong.

Deuce is a breath of fresh air as a young adult heroine, possessing a captivating combination of strength and innocence as she stumbles across new terrain. She’s unbelievably skilled in hand to hand combat and blade work, but in the town of Salvation she finds herself an outcast, unfamiliar with their rules and their views on a woman’s role in society, so while we’re gleefully aware she could protect herself physically from anyone seeking to do her harm, we can't help but feel a desperate need to fortify the walls of her heart so as to prevent a well aimed verbal barb from piercing true. She’s a young woman who’s utterly guileless; unprepared for some of the judgment, prejudice, and cruel machinations of the citizens of Salvation given her nature – she is who she is and knows exactly what job she’d like to perform, with no interest in much beyond protecting those she cares for from the Freaks.

Her wide-eyed innocence when it comes to human interaction Topside extends into her romantic relationship with Fade, something we find endearing even as we wish she would break her silence and finally ask the questions she most wants answered. Any miscommunications with Fade are the result of naivety and inexperience rather than a desire to play games or create drama, and we read on knowing that any hurt she causes him is never deliberate in nature, thus providing us a layer of comfort we don’t always find in the angst-filled worlds of young adult literature. Their connection progresses slowly but beautifully as the story continues, their friendship and commitment to protecting one another with their very lives evolving into something deeper, stronger and more nuanced as Deuce begins to shed the cooler, harder façade of a huntress and embrace some of the warmth and softness of a young woman. She manages to juggle both sides of herself adeptly, and to our delight Fade never once asks more of one side than she’s willing to give, instead accepting her as a whole he loves entirely rather than individual parts he can list in order of preference.

As with Enclave, the journey we’re on with Deuce and Fade is abruptly truncated, leaving us a bit shocked when we turn the last page and find ourselves face to face with the acknowledgements instead of a new chapter. We’re forced to leave our protagonists in not only a dire physical situation, but an emotionally tense one as well, the challenges for Deuce and Fade as a couple after certain events rattle the foundation they've built proving to be larger in number than we might have thought possible midway through this second installment, and we can only hope that Deuce’s strength and determination to love Fade will prove a life boat for them both in the middle of a sea of Freaks.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: Something Strange and Deadly

SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY

(Something Strange and Deadly #1)
Susan Dennard
Paranormal Young Adult
400 pages
HarperTeen
Available July 24th
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

MY THOUGHTS

Something Strange and Deadly is a grimly beautiful story, a myriad of different elements making for colorful cogs in a fascinating machine, but as we read we see that the gears driving this steampunk zombie tale are not shiny and new, but rather are twisted and rusted, covered in a grime that adds a delicious edge to this debut. Ms. Dennard ensures that all the pieces of her puzzle are visible from three hundred and sixty degrees, each page we flip like the revolution of a gear that propels us forward so that we can see a new side of the characters or events, and we remain on our toes throughout wondering if what will be revealed will be dark or light in nature, or perhaps more interestingly, something in between.

Eleanor is a strong and willful heroine, stuck in a time of chaperones and marriages of financial necessity when she clearly has the mind and sensibilities of a much more modern time period. She is extraordinarily loyal, loving her brother more than life itself as she throws herself into increasingly dangerous situations in order to uncover what’s happened to him and save him from a gruesome fate at the hands of the dead. For all that she wades into the middle of deadly encounters with spirits and zombies alike, she never truly comes across as irritatingly reckless, rather her desire to be of assistance when everyone around her seeks to shield her is something we can’t help but admire. She learns quickly and applies that knowledge as she goes along, proving herself to be an asset to the Spirit Hunters rather than a hindrance, and it’s easy to smile even as untold horrors are taking place because Eleanor proves again and again that her value is not defined strictly by high society’s standards.

Ms. Dennard does a brilliant job of creating a cast of secondary characters who straddle the line between good and bad, covering each of them in a fine layer of dirt—the smudges thick in some places while other areas remain pristine to give us individuals with flaws of varying severity who keep us guessing throughout. Even the villainous necromancer, for all the devastation he/she unleashes, earns our momentary flashes of sympathy, and each chapter either adds a new layer of grit to the characters or washes a layer away, ensuring that we are never bored while in their presence. The romance with Daniel is an atypical one in young adult fiction, the only familiar element being Daniel’s sometimes brooding nature, but there’s nary an instant electric connection or all consuming love in sight, and in fact we are left with nothing more than a promise – a whisper of a relationship still so fragile merely thinking of their potential together could shatter it.

While the identity of the necromancer is fairly easy to guess early on, it doesn’t detract from the other pieces of the Something Strange and Deadly mystery, things coming together in the end to paint a full picture we only could make out a single corner of previously. Ms. Dennard impresses with her characters and world in this first installment, and the days until the release of the second book cannot pass by quickly enough.

Rating: 4/5