April 21, 2015

≈≈•≈BLOG TOUR & REVIEW ≈≈•≈Almost Alive (The Beautiful Dead #3) by Daryl Banner

Title : Almost Alive
(The Beautiful Dead, #3)
Author: Daryl Banner
Release Date: April 24, 2015
Genre: Post - Post Apocalyptic Zombie
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  BLURB
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.
PRE-ORDER LINKS
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MY REVIEW


As I stare at this computer screen I'm still reeling from this book and the end of this stunning trilogy. It took me several hours to finally compose myself enough to write this review, simply because at times I was at a loss for words.

As a reader, there are so many stories that you come across that make you laugh, stories that make you cry, and some that even make you cringe in fear or clench your fists in anger. There are some stories that leave you thinking about them for days with the dreaded book hangover. But then there are those stories that reach deep down into your heart and leave an imprint on your soul. Almost Alive and this entire Trilogy is one of those stories. This final installment of the Beautiful Dead Trilogy, this last chapter of Winter's story is one that will leave you both heart-broken and enraptured.

What I've learned from Banner's writing is that every detail, every simple act, every action in his story-telling, in his writing serves a bigger purpose. Nothing is meaningless and in time it all comes full circle. Banner wrote a story about living, about life by telling it through the eyes of a character who had lost theirs but was given a chance for another of a different kind. It's by far one of the most brilliant stories I have had the joy of reading.

Banner does not disappoint with this last book and despite my desire to summarize all the challenges, the discoveries, the revelations, the heartache, the forgiveness and the love experienced in this last book; I won't. I won't because this Undead Almost Alive journey, Winter's journey is one that you, the reader, need to experience in all its wonder, all its pain, all its compassion and all its tenderness.

If you take the plunge and find yourself on this journey with Winter; I hope that in the end you find yourself as enamored as I was. I hope Winter, John and the rest of the characters in this book leave their little mark on your heart, and I hope that Banner's writing opens your eyes to the beauty that is everything around you.

Sad to see this story end, but elated in knowing that it's ending was simply perfect. <3
 
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QUOTES

His eyes smolder me and he runs a rough, weatherworn hand through my hair. It’s so strange, to look into his eyes and, in all honesty, not be able to tell alive from dead, dead from alive … I’ve been in this changed world so long, it makes so little difference anymore.
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“Hold your tongue,” I warn him coolly, “or I’ll cut it out of your mouth and hold it for you.”
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"Time is what we all want, and it's what we all waste."
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"This is so dumb, all of this. Why are we suffering?" He gets to his feet, pulls me up onto mine. "Come."
"Where are we going?" I ask.
 "Who cares," he says, a smile playing on his face. "Wherever it is, I'll race you there."
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“Everything is a … a balance of good and bad,” I start saying from memory, still scrolling. “Our lives are … are infinite. Our efforts, infinite. We are a series of little efforts toward a greater whole, from this life to the next.” I give up, staring at the room full of shadowed heads and say, “What the author says is, no matter if you’re the one who nudges the tower or topples it, you are as vital.”
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“Side effect,” I jest.
“Being alive is so inconvenient.”
“So very.”
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 THE SERIES
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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Dead of Winter (Beautiful Dead, #2) 
Available Now

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.

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 AUTHOR BIO
 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.
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