I have a new favorite YA dark romance, and a new favorite monster-hero: Dearly, Departed, and its noble zombie, Bram.  The author's website describes the book best: "A cyber-Victorian/steampunk romance -- with zombies."

What I loved about this book was the completely different take on zombies than the usual, brainless diseased monsters thing.  Instead, in Lia Habel's New Victoria, zombies that reanimate quickly enough that their brains haven't begun to die are therefore still themselves, albeit dead.  They can make the decision not to try to eat people, and they can fight the crazy zombies, the ones that do attack people and try to eat them.

The other thing I loved about the book was its hero.  I *heart* Bram!  Despite lacking the sizzling sexual tension found in other YA dark romances lately (*cough cough* Twilight *cough cough*), Bram totally had me rooting for him.  As he said, for certain things "you need a heartbeat," so there was a good reason for the lack of hanky panky.  Not that the reader noticed much, though -- I found that I was just as enthralled by Bram as I would have been had he and Nora been fooling around.

What was it that made Bram so appealing?  His behavior was certainly part of it -- he was noble, he adored Nora, and he was amazingly good to her.  Part of it was also, I think, the fact that the first person narration often switched to his point of view.  Skipping back and forth between his and Nora's points of view allowed the author to reveal his thoughts and feelings more intimately than she could have otherwise, given the lack of physical, er, evidence.

I shall be eagerly awaiting the book's sequel... and hoping for a "cure" for Bram so that he and Nora can crank up the heat!