Today, I'm a host on the Novel Publicity Book Tour for The Girl's Guide to Dating Zombies. My thoughts on the book, and other fun stuff are below...
STORYLINE:
It’s 2020 and a virus has all but wiped out the human male. His replacement
is the zombie. Hattie Cross writes a book The
Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies, which catches the attention of the CEO of the
largest supplier of ‘zombie-behavioral-modification’ drugs in the world. Hattie
is invited to do a feature on the company, meets that rarest of creatures – a
real, live man – and gets up to her neck in a conspiracy theory. If her
suspicions are correct, the course of history will change, assuming she can survive
long enough to share her discovery.
PLAYERS: Hattie
Cross is an ambitious tabloid reporter who wants to write more meaningful articles
than the trashy stuff she writes every day. She innovative and resourceful and
proves this through her book that opens her woman-based society to the
possibilities of human/zombie
relationships.
Jake
Maddox
is a scientist, Hattie’s love interest, and part of the remaining 0.00001 percent of men who aren’t
zombies. At first introduction, I wasn’t sure what to make of him, but he turns
out to be an all right guy.
I LIKED:
Hattie’s voice and her approach to the world that is her reality. Yes,
dating zombies has many drawbacks, including them losing digits, and their disturbing
feeding habits, but Hattie manages to make the ‘eeewww factors’ sound
not-so-nasty. Even though I was grossed out, the writer made the book fun to
read by running Hattie’s story parallel with chapters from The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies.
Hattie shows her creativity
at the end of the novel by writing another ‘how-to’ book that helps sisters
navigate the new dating possibilities that opened up thanks to the main
storyline.
I COULD
HAVE LIVED WITHOUT: the writer’s description of all the zombie stuff – the physical
descriptions, their habits and levels of putrefaction. She painted too-vivid
pictures which I’m still seeing and smelling – ugh!
OVERALL COMMENTS: This
is my first full zombie read and Ms. Messina made it a fun experience. The story
starts off at a sedate pace and then moves up to a sustained gallop at just
past the half-way mark. The light-hearted tone works well for the story, despite
the nefarious activities that go on. I’m a fan of writers that can make me
laugh and would definitely read other books by this writer.
COVER NOTE: I’m not a fan of graphic covers, but this one does capture the essence
of the book. The trailer is funny and complements the book perfectly.
SOURCE: I received an advance review copy through Novel
Publicity.
Novel Publicity Blog Tour Notes:
Get The Girls’ Guide to Dating Zombies on Amazon or Barnes & Noble – you know you want to!
And please vote for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll for this tour. The blogger with the most votes wins a free promotional twitterview and a special winner’s badge. I want that to be me! You can vote in the poll by visiting the official Girls’ Guide to Dating Zombies blog tour page and scrolling all the way to the bottom.
Be sure to enter for your chance to win an autographed copy of The Girls’ Guide to Dating Zombies : ENTER HERE.
Check out this amazing book trailer!
Lynn Messina is the author of six novels, including Little Vampire Women andFashionistas, which has been translated into 15 languages and is in development as a feature film. She attended Washington University in St. Louis where she studied English Literature. Her writing has also appeared in Self and Modern Bride, among other publications. She lives in New York City with her husband and sons. Connect with Lynn on her website, blog, Twitter or GoodReads.
Join us for a live twitterview with the author on Saturday, March 10th at 4 PM EST. Search #emlyn on Twitter, and bring your questions for this lively chat.
My comment system has hitches from time to time and unfortunately,
Ms. Messina, author of the book reviewed below, has not been able to comment.
She sent me the following:
I feel like I should apologize for the too-vivid descriptions but I'm actually relieved. I was afraid they weren't vivid enough, since I was writing a funny book with some zombies rather than a zombie book with some funny. Maybe try imagining the zombies as regular folks with oatmeal on their faces like in the Night of the Living Dead. I found that really helps, especially when you're writing a love scene.Thank you, everyone, for all the lovely comments. I hope you check out the book. You can read a sample on Amazon.And thanks to J.L. for the great review and for hosting Girls' Guide.
