"The Queen of Zombie Hearts" by Gena Showalter

Series: White Rabbit Chronicles #3
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
Format: Kindle
Publication: September 30, 2014 by Harlequin Teen
Cover Rating: 3/5 Stars
Links: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depo, B&N, White Rabbit Chronicles Website

From Goodreads: I have a plan. 

We'll either destroy them for good, or they'll destroy us. 

Either way, only one of us is walking away. 

In the stunning conclusion to the wildly popular White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice "Ali" Bell thinks the worst is behind her. She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, the leader of the zombie slayers…until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends. It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters…and the worst has only begun. 

As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies…and she isn't the girl she thought she was. She's connected to the woman responsible for killing—and turning—Cole's mother. How can their relationship endure? As secrets come to light, and more slayers are taken or killed, Ali will fight harder than ever to bring down Anima—even sacrificing her own life for those she loves.

My Thoughts: Loved, loved, loved it!!! Such a great ending to a fantastic series! Just like her main-character Ali Bell, Gena Showalter is not afraid to take risks, and it totally pays off!

In this final installment of The White Rabbit Chronicles everything comes together with Anima, the zombies/slayers, and the Cole/Ali relationship. We also get some plot curve balls as Ali's past history comes back in a big way and leaves us reeling. Oh, and we get introduced to a whole new group of slayers, that just happen to be led by Cole's "rival", River (awesome name if I do say so myself). Ali comes into herself and becomes a complete bad-ass who doesn't take crap from anyone- including Hot Book Boyfriend Cole- moving up as one of my new favorite heroines. But as with all great endings, we do get some major loss! Not everyone gets a happily ever after and there will be tears and anguish. But you can't have a fantastic series without a little bit of sadness thrown in. The good thing is though, that Ali's story does get wrapped up. There's no loose ends with her, and I was very satisfied with the ending. However, I would absolutely love it if Showalter created another series with some of the other slayers!

Bottom Line: I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who loves good YA paranormal romance, zombies, or retelling of fairy-tales!

My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Extras:

"Alice in Zombieland" by Gena Showalter

Series: White Rabbit Chronicles #1
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance / Zombies
Format: Kindle
Publication: September 25, 2012 by Harlequin Teen
Cover Rating: 5/5 Stars


From Goodreads: She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no.
I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish


My Thoughts: OMG. I loved, LOVED, this book! I couldn't put it down! Literally. I stayed up until 6:00 am finishing it.

First off, let me just begin by saying how EPIC Ali is! Because she totally is. I loved everything about her character. Beside all of her awesome zombie fighting skills, her "voice",along with every other character in the book, was just so distinct and fun. She packs a heck of a punch and I found myself laughing along with her and her best friend, Kat.

Then, we have the story itself: ZOMBIESSS! I mean, anything with zombies in it is almost guaranteed to be awesome sauce. BUT Showalter does one better and pulls out a very cool, original, spin on them. Put that together with her loveable characters and you get one amazing read.

As if all of that wasn't enough to win me over to Team Showalter, there ends up being more. However, this is a SMALL spoiler (ish), so I want to warn everyone in advance. If you don't want to know anything beyond the blurb, stop reading right now!

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Okay. So, here's what really intrigued me about Alice in Zombieland- the author is obviously spiritual and the story is layered with Biblical undertones! I consider myself a Christian (for the most part, I'm a little more "liberal" in my views then most of today's Christian churches). I'm also from the South (specifically the same place this story takes place!), so that means I pretty much grew up in a Baptist church. That being said though, I never (and I do mean almost never) read/ watch/ listen to anything that strictly focuses on religion as the main center of the story. I never shop in the "Christian Fiction" section of a bookstore. Mainly because I usually find these stories too cheesy and I feel like they tend to lean towards the unbelievable side (the character gets to be too perfect, the story loses it's focus, the plot unravels- whatever). That's just me though. So when I picked up Alice in Zombieland and read the dedication, I was a little weary. But I decided to give it a chance because my friends had just raved about this book. And I'm SO so glad I did! I could tell the author's faith played a lot in the writing, but it was just such an honest story and it fit so well with the characters that I loved it Alice was a "normal" girl (minus Zombie slaying powers). She wasn't some hardcore zealot, but her faith had to play a role in her skills. PLUS, the author totally did NOT shy away from the romance. Which I enjoyed immensely as Cole is now my new #1 book boyfriend. I just loved it. I loved the spin she gave on good vs. evil and I know her story had Biblical undertones (the zombies are similar-ish to the dead rising in the book of Revelation) which I found surprisingly refreshing. Basically, it was awesome and extremely well written. I definitely recommend this one to everyone of all ages, because it has earned it's spot as one of my favorites!

My Rating: