The Queen of Zombie Hearts by Gena Showalter

Third book in the White Rabbit Chronicles I do have book one and book two reviewed, feel free to check them out if you want. Showalter was originally going to end the chronicles with The Queen of Zombie Hearts but things have changed and there will be another book. The next book will be called A Mad Zombie Party and as of now it is set to be released later this year. I don't think I will be reading that one as soon as it comes out, I will probably wait a while before I do. There is another book out that fits between book one and book two called Cole...Meet Ali. If you want to read that just click and it will take you to Showalter's site where you can read it.

The worst is behind the slayers, or so they think. Ali is ready to go a step further with her boyfriend Cole Holland. Who also happens to be the leader of the zombie slayers. Everything was going good until Anima Industries lands a sneak attack. They are the ones controlling the zombies, and they are the reason why four of Ali's friends get killed. Ali realizes that people can be the most dangerous things, sometimes worse than monsters themselves. What's even worse is that this is only the beginning. Trying to overcome what just happened the remaining slayers gear up for war, and Ali finds that she can control the zombies too. She learns that she isn't who she thinks she is, along with so much more. She's connected to the woman who killed, and turned Cole's mother. More and more secrets come out into the open, and a relationship can only endure so much. Ali will find that taking down Anima is going to be harder than she thought and she just might have to sacrifice herself to do it.

I didn't have too many likes this time around. Zombie Hearts was an okay book, but I really had more problems with it. What I did like however was the action that was all throughout the book. There where down moments, but they were not down for very long. Things got going almost right away, and it just kept going from there. I laughed almost the whole way through the book, between Ali, Kat, Gavin, and everyone else there was an abundance of sass everywhere. The fact that Showalter kept me laughing is about the only reason why I didn't put this book down and not finish. *SEMI-SPOILER-ALERT* I will commend Showalter, she knows that her fan base is mainly younger readers. Things get heated with Cole and Ali, and Showalter promoted safe sex. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Safe sex needs to be promoted, because teens are going to be teens (not saying all teens will be teens but you get it).*SEMI-SPOILER-ENDED*

I'm on the fence about this next point, if you are sensitive and have not a clue about what happens in this book skip this little blurb and go to my dislikes (the very next paragraph). As soon as I read that four people where going to die, I knew exactly who they where. Along with the other. It wasn't really a big surprise to me, the four weren't huge characters. I did feel a touch of heartache, but it was because I was hoping to get a little more from them.

I had a lot of annoyances with this book, but I will cut them down to the ones that bugged me the most. The first one was the hints throughout the book specifically the ones on page 63 and 76. *SPOILER-ALERT* I knew that Ali was adopted before anything happened because of these two hints. I do think there was hints in the first two books but I don't quite remember them being so prominent. I also knew that Kat was going to die, just not the way that she did.*SPOILER-ENDED* The next one that bugged me was Ali's constant "OMG Cole is so hot, OMG Cole is the best, OMG Cole this, OMG Cole that" on just about every other page. I literally felt like Ali was 12 with her first crush and not a young adult. If I could have reached into the book and shaken her I would have. I liked Cole before, but not anymore. After commending Showalter, I do have to say that personally I do not think it is okay to tattoo your boyfriend/girlfriends name on you. Especially at a very young age, things happen and people change. I have seen more often than not that after getting a persons name tattooed on them, they split. Now they have a constant reminder of the other person until they get enough money to cover it up. Tattoo's are permanent unless you want to shell out a lot of money. Lastly, if the slayers knew that Anima was planning something (but not necessarily when per say) I would have never gotten as relaxed as they did. That's a big no-no, you do not get all relaxed when you know the enemy is still very much alive and kicking.

If I wasn't kept laughing from the sassiness I would have not finished The Queen of Zombie Hearts. I really was disappointed with this book. I kept hoping that things would turn around but they didn't. I didn't even list everything that I had a problem with because no one would have bothered to read a huge whining post. I know my opinion is one of the less popular ones, but this is what I think nonetheless. I hope that I like the next book more. I do recommend this book, only because I know there are people out there who are going to love the book and that's great.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Page Count: 459 pages (hardcover)

Price: $18.99

Next Book: Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead

Thanks for reading!
~Jade

Note: I would still like to say that I am busy in college, this term is really packed with work to do. I don't have too much time to read, but I still do when I can. If reviews are further apart I'm sorry but you gotta do what you gotta do to live. If something happens and I cannot get reviews up for a while I will make a separate post saying so. Once again, thank you!

Through the Zombie Glass by Gena Showalter

Now I know in my last review I said I was going to be reviewing Days of Blood & Starlight next but, my library got Through the Zombie Glass borrowed from a fellow library and I had to read it. I will be doing the next review on Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor for sure. I do have the first book in this trilogy reviewed, feel free to check it out.

In the second book in the White Rabbit Chronicles Alice Bell has not a dull moment. She thinks that she has lost everything that she can. She finds out that she is wrong. A zombie attack goes awry and things start to go down hill from there. Mirrors come to life, and whispers of the undead come to Ali. But there is more. Darkness takes root in Ali and makes her want to do terrible things. In this time, Ali needs her slayer family more then ever. Her boyfriend, and the leader of the slayers, the hunk Cole Holland basically drops everyone, including Ali. Thankfully her best friend Kat sticks by her side while Ali must kill zombies, find out Cole's secret, and figure out how to fight the darkness within her. If anything goes wrong, they're all screwed.

I couldn't put this book down. If I had time I was reading, and nothing else. I didn't want to sleep, I just wanted to devour this book. On top of being very interesting and not losing your attention there was a good amount of calmer times and action times in the book. The calm times weren't so calm that I wanted to stop reading and I lost interest, they had some action but nothing that I felt deterred from the plot. Ali, Cole, and Kat are my favorite characters still, though I do take issue with Cole in this book. Kat is still that best friend that everyone should have even when everything seems hopeless she's that person you would turn to to make you smile. I love that Ali gains a whole new family even though they aren't blood related. I love that there are still problems with the Anima, but there are new problems as well to keep the book that much more balanced. I laughed quite a number of things from Ali, Kat, Cole, Frosty, and Gavin (new character!).

As always I also have some things to say that I didn't like. Now I normally don't do this but, I have quite a few things that I didn't like, but (for me) they didn't take away too much from me actually wanting to finish this book obviously. And as a note these things that I didn't like could just simply be because this book is for Young Adults, I have a higher reading level and am considered an "adult". For starters, there were quite a few times when I knew exactly what was going to happen, when, how, and with who. That doesn't happen often. Now if this was intentional on Showalter's part then I salute her, she did it perfectly. One of these things that I saw coming is a trend that comes from a lot of series. And that trend is the main characters who are in a relationship in the first book, end up breaking up in the second or third book. Obviously from either reading the summary I provided or finding the actual one you can tell that they break up. I was disappointed that this trend was followed. Then the other things that I found predictable is how Ali is cured, what happens with Kat, Frosty, Cole and a few others, why Cole, and Ethan are doing the things they are doing, and how things are going to end. A good portion of this book was predictable for me but I loved it nonetheless.

I loved this second book in the White Rabbit Chronicles. From the way Showalter ends it, there could be a third book, but if following in Lewis Carol's fashion this could quite possibly be the last book. I do want to own these two books one day. I do see myself rereading these. Showalter is an excellent young adult novelist, along with adult novelist. I completely recommend these books to anyone and everyone, fully knowing that someone else may not like them like I do. Other then the predictability I still very much loved this book, as I have said a number of times now.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Page Count: 476 pages (hardcover).

Price: $18.99.

Next Book: Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor.

Thank you so much for reading!
~Jade

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

This book is the first book in what Showalter calls The White Rabbit Chronicles. The second book is set to come out in October of 2013, so just a few months away. Oh and I  <3 Zombies :D

Obviously this is a spin off from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Alice Bell, who likes to be called Ali, gets her whole life turned upside down. Not to mention she starts to fight zombies not soon after that. Things never seemed so messed up for her.

I really liked what Showalter did with this book. I honestly am looking forward to reading the next book. With that being said, this is almost nothing like Lewis Carroll's book. It is set in present day and there is no "rabbit hole". If one reads carefully they can make all the connections from Showalter's book to Carroll's book. I also liked the characters in the book, I fell in love will almost all of them. I loved that this was not a book that had the minimal changes to it so it wouldn't be flagged as plagiarism. I loved the new spin on zombies *SPOILER-ALERT* only special people can see them and only those special people could fight them. It was all on the spiritual realm so they fought with their spirits. Loved this.*SPOILER-ENDED* The while rabbit is incorporated in the book but the reader has to guess what is meant by it.

What I didn't like was that it was sad in the beginning. I did not like the sadness. *SPOILER-ALERT* Alice's immediate family dies and the dad ends up as a zombie, but a good one he tries to save her and not eat her.*SPOILER-ENDED* I did and did not like the new spin on zombies. I didn't like that they could only come out in the night, but it made sense after I finished the book.

Over all I really liked this book, and would definitely would recommend it. It was a bittersweet read, but ended on a nice soothing note. Would I buy this book if I saw it on the shelf? Yes, yes I would. I plan on it actually once I get some money.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Page Count: 404 pages

Price: $18.99 (hardcover)

Next Book: Eternal A collection of 6 short stories about vampires. (This should be fun to review)

Thanks for reading!
~Jade