Half Past Dead [Paperback]

Zoe Archer (Author), Bianca D'Arc (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

The Undying Heart by Zoe Archer - Samuel Reed had no idea magic existed, until it almost destroyed him. Thirsting for vengeance against the enemy who made him something less than human, Sam returns to England and crosses paths with Cassandra Fielding. His best friend's little sister has become a fearless woman on a dangerous mission of her own. And against all odds, she sees past what he's become, and stirs a desire he thought he'd lost forever...Simon Says by Bianca D'Arc - Special Forces soldier Simon Blackwell ended his affair with Mariana Daniels three years ago, but he hasn't stopped protecting her. Mariana has no knowledge of the dark, deadly creatures that lurk in the forest surrounding her clinic, or of the mysterious powers that make Simon the only one who can defeat them. But soon he'll have no choice but to reveal the truth, and urge her to trust in an explosive passion that never faded.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two very different novellas combine themes of love and zombies. Vintage horror, high adventure, and soul-aching romance blend in Archer's compelling The Undying Heart, prequel to the upcoming Blades of the Rose trilogy. Cassandra Fielding, a young pistol-in-the-skirts hunter of magical artifacts, renews her childhood infatuation with Sam Reed, even though he's been turned into a cold, fierce, disillusioned, but still handsome zombie by his unscrupulous Crimean War commander. In D'Arc's more modern Simon Says, a prequel to Once Bitten, Twice Dead, special ops agent Simon Blackwell chases contagious zombie Marines in the woods by night and dallies with military nurse Mariana Daniels by day, but both pursuits come off as lukewarm and somewhat routine. Readers who love Archer's powerful, polished tale may be disappointed to find that D'Arc's doesn't measure up. (Jan.)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 150 pages
• Publisher: Brava; Original edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0758246978
• ISBN-13: 978-0758246974
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #845,863 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit too much sex, November 4, 2010

By 

MissGnomer - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Half Past Dead (Kindle Edition)

I really liked the story line and thought the Cassie and Sam had great chemistry. But I couldn't get passed the excessive sexual descriptions. I just wanted to warn others out there who aren't into detailed sex-scenes that this book is a bit over the top.

I didn't finish it, but if you don't mind that sort of thing you'll probably really enjoy the book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Want to Buy: Editing for this erotic zombie story, January 24, 2011

By 

SandyLu562 "SandyLu562" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Half Past Dead (Kindle Edition)

Archer disappoints in the prequel to her four books in the Blade of the Rose series; the writing was either repetitive or failed to explain scenes adequately. This historical erotic romance starring a handsome zombie and a high society society assassin failed utterly to arouse my interest in reading the series. The flow was choppy, descriptive words indicated the indiscriminate use of a thesaurus (try to find a word that ENHANCES the sentence, rather than with a "just-off" meaning), and the least important descriptions were repeated at least twice within a few paragraphs.

The interesting premise made the uneven writing really annoying; it's always fun to read about a heroine stepping outside historical societal constraints and the love interest had appeal even if he was recently one of the undead dead, at least he only had one unhealed wound and immediately healed all but the wound which made him a zombie. Sounds like a vampire, right? well the whole premise was just too confusing to easily grasp and I still have no idea of the "rules" of this world. Save your $[..] (Kindle edition) for something else!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy Zombies--You KNEW It Had to Happen!, April 12, 2010

By 

A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Half Past Dead (Paperback)

If blood-sucking undead vampires could be hot romance material, then it was only a matter of time before zombies were so re-imagined (hey, if Orlando Bloom's character in the last POTC film could still get Kiera Knightly's character to wait ten years at the end--or more importantly, after a long list of credits!--why couldn't other hunky guys without hearts beating in their bodies?). Anyway, here are two novellas featuring zombies:

"The Undying Heart"-- is a historical paranormal taking place in Yorkshire in 1858. Cassandra is a new agent with the Blades of the Rose, an organization that hunts for dangerous magical artifacts. She is trailing such an artifact when she encounters her brother's best friend and a man she always loved, Sam Reed, whom she thought had died with her brother two years before in the Crimean. Sam did die. He and countless others. In the chaos of battle he was shot through the heart by his commanding officer, Colonel Broadwell, who has an artifact that creates and controls zombies. Broadwell killed his own men and commanded all of them to do his will, but somehow Sam was able to break free and has been after the Colonel ever since, determined to kill him. This tale was definitely heart-wrenching and bitter-sweet. I loved it.

"Simon Says"-- is a modern romance. Simon Blackwell is a special forces soldier who was called away from a possible relationship with Mariana Daniels, a doctor. He found himself fighting zombies (the icky kind) and was bitten and infected, but wasn't turned into one--although that may happen at any moment--no one is certain about these zombie things! Mariana only knows that Simon never returned to her, so when he appears at the military base facility where she is working, wounded, she's not sure how she should react. Apparently, there are still zombies out in the woods, unknown to anyone, and Simon needs to take them out since he seems to be the only one who has survived their infection so far. This tale had a decent set-up and characters, but not quite the emotional impact of the first story.