(The Beautiful
Dead, #2)
Author: Daryl Banner
Release Date: November 6, 2014
Genre: Post - Post Apocalyptic Zombie
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No one said
being an Undead is easy.
Winter’s
Second Life became a lot more complicated when the Living moved into her
hometown of Trenton. Undead neighbors fight with their Breathing ones. Food is
sparse. And, worst of all, the season is taking a change for the colder.
A desperate
plea for help to a neighboring city turns deadly and soon Winter finds herself
facing an old friend from her past whose plot to annihilate all life on the
planet may have everything to do with her.
And what
about the man-with-the-heartbeat in her house? Is there even room for love in
such a ruined, unforgiving world?
New friends are made. Others are lost forever. In the
dead of winter, no one is safe.
◊PURCHASE
LINKS◊
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◊MY REVIEW◊
So when I
hopped on this Zombie trilogy train, I thought "Yes, this is going to be
something unique and different, something so worth reading" And I was
right! This series is so, so, so worth reading and The Beautiful Dead book 1,
completely blew my mind. What I didn't realize was how these books were going
to tear at my heart strings and make me feel this onslaught of emotions.
The Dead of Winter Book 2, in my mind surpassed the intensity and magnitude of book 1. It propelled this story into not just a book about survival but of love, hope, trust and strength. Banner takes all his characters and thrust them into these situations that could make or break them. You see how each of them react to the same situation, how they cope, how they thrive when the world they know is in ruins and the threat is constant.
Banner's writing is so fluid and descriptive that it surrounds the reader and makes you feel as if you are living through this Second Life alongside his characters. Banner's main protagonist Winter in this book is amazing. She is strong, determined, compassionate, fearful and compelling. Her emotions are captivating, her actions are admirable, and her love is immeasurable. We see her struggle with her first life and then we see her embrace it, as what I could only describe as probably the best scene in the story one that will make you tear up in relief, pain and love.
There is nothing like these books in this genre that I have read. Nothing as uniquely satisfying, dark and beautiful. Banner is a must read. His writing is impeccable and this story is simply breathtaking.
The Dead of Winter Book 2, in my mind surpassed the intensity and magnitude of book 1. It propelled this story into not just a book about survival but of love, hope, trust and strength. Banner takes all his characters and thrust them into these situations that could make or break them. You see how each of them react to the same situation, how they cope, how they thrive when the world they know is in ruins and the threat is constant.
Banner's writing is so fluid and descriptive that it surrounds the reader and makes you feel as if you are living through this Second Life alongside his characters. Banner's main protagonist Winter in this book is amazing. She is strong, determined, compassionate, fearful and compelling. Her emotions are captivating, her actions are admirable, and her love is immeasurable. We see her struggle with her first life and then we see her embrace it, as what I could only describe as probably the best scene in the story one that will make you tear up in relief, pain and love.
There is nothing like these books in this genre that I have read. Nothing as uniquely satisfying, dark and beautiful. Banner is a must read. His writing is impeccable and this story is simply breathtaking.
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Prologue
The world is a lot quieter than it used to be.
But
there is a sound in the desolate dark tonight; it is the sound of fire burning.
The tongue of this great fire stretches up high to lick the silver sky, and its
fingers, red with greed, are as long as a lifetime.
The
fire is as ugly and as beautiful as an ex-lover.
What
it feeds on isn’t the wood of the forest. They’re all dead anyway; the trees.
This is a fussy fire that only feeds on things you cannot see. It feeds on happiness. With its little yellow
teeth, it eats hope for a
midnight snack. It eats dreams and laughter and anything little or pretty.
Especially
tulips.
If
you squint, you realize it is not just a fire, but rather an army. Each flame
is made of a person, and you realize it is their hope that burns … it is their happiness, their
passion and despair and greed, burning, burning, burning.
A
man stands at the front of the fire—the leader—and he burns a different color
than the rest. He burns green.
Furious, jealous, hungry green.
He is not a proud creature, so the Green One stands with hunched shoulders and
he watches from the top of his head, and though his pale face was once
handsome, he can only form a permanent scowl now with his twisted, ruined lips.
With
this Third Life of his, he will never smile again.
Kneeling
before him, a man begs for his life. A Living man. He’s in tears about a girl
he loves and the son or daughter he wants to have someday, and the scowling
face we will cautiously refer to as the Green Fire holds him sweetly by the
neck, the way one might hold a lover, and he says: “I once loved a woman.”
The
Living man begs, imploring, and the Green Flame says: “She set me free, opened
my eye to the gift of death.”
The
Green Fury whispers: “My green
eye.”
But
the Living man won’t stop crying and begging, waving his hands everywhere, so
the Hungry Green shows him what he means by taking those healthy Living hands
and pulling them right off. Over the man’s screams, the Green Inferno says:
“These hands, they’ve reached and reached, all your long, tiresome life,
clinging to meaningless things. These hands that take so much, yet hold nothing
in the end. I free you from them.”
The
man’s voice breaks, his shrieks echoing off the bodies of dead trees, so the
Burning Green takes his throat too and grips gently, the way one might embrace
a friend. He brings his mouth close and says: “This Life, your permanent
solitude, the torture of being Human … you are so hungry for a meaning to it all. Let me feed you.”
Something
dark as a void passes between them. One might say it’s the man’s Life, or soul,
or something called his Anima. Whatever it is, it’s so quick it’s already gone.
What
remains is no longer alive, yet he is not dead. The man’s worries are
forgotten, his girl is forgotten, his future, his past, his dreams, all of it,
and his screaming is ceased. Handless, lifeless, deathless … he stares with
stony glass eyes into those of the Green Death.
The
Green Death, who says: “It is the dead of winter, and you will never hurt
again.
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◊THE
SERIES◊
Special Pricing Book 1 & 2 just 99 pennies
Special Pricing Book 1 & 2 just 99 pennies
The Beautiful Dead (The Beautiful
Dead, #1)
Available Now
She’s dead.
In fact,
the whole world’s dead. Every single person, apparently. Unburied and
reimagined into a beautiful living-dead woman called Winter, she is doomed to
spend the rest of eternity in a quaint, peaceful city with no hunger, no
sickness and no bills to pay. Her Second Life is perfect in every way possible.
So why is
she so bent on destroying it all?
After
angering the mayor, befriending rebel headless teenagers and igniting romance
with a dark and brooding neighbor, she finds herself wrestling madly with a
First Life she cannot remember and this Second Life she cannot accept. Not to
mention the maniacal army of rotting corpses who want her dead. Again.
But none of that matters in
comparison to an even worse problem. There’s a guest in her house. A rude,
good-looking man on the run ... a man with a heartbeat.
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Almost Alive (Beautiful Dead, #3)
Pre-Order Amazon- Coming April 24th
Twelve
years have passed since the devastation.
The world
is changed. What once was a planet struggling to survive is now a planet
bursting to life. The humans are thriving. Gardens are growing. Trees are
reaching up to the sky and the Undeadly clutch on the planet is slowly letting
go.
But what
does that mean for Winter and her friends?
In the wake
of spring, the last of the desperate Undead gather, fighting to maintain their
place in a world that no longer wants them. Mother Nature slowly but certainly
works to purge the planet of the Dead, just when Winter thought she had finally
embraced this Second Life.
Her new
friends are back and old nemeses return for the final chapter in Winter's
Undead journey.
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Daryl Banner is a writer and
composer who graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in Theatre
and Psychology. After writing several plays and a musical in college, he
started composing for short films and websites, one of which is the Vamplets
"Baby Vampyre Dolls" website: (www.vamplets.com)
Interesting tidbits: Daryl is also
an obsessive piano player, video game enthusiast, and occasional actor. He's
been remixing video game music for over fifteen years, and is a passionate
Final Fantasy fan. You can feed your ears with many of his remixes (as well as
his original music) on his YouTube page "www.youtube.com/DarylBanner". Also, he personally answers all emails he
receives, so if you have some strange desire to write him, he may enjoy it. He
currently resides in Texas.
◊CONNECT
WITH DARYL◊
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◊GIVEAWAY◊
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