Monday, April 6, 2015

✯Blog tour✯ Dead of Winter by Daryl Banner

DEAD OF WINTER BANNER
Title: Dead of Winter (The Beautiful Dead, #2)
Author: Daryl Banner
Release Date: November 6, 2014
Genre: Post - Post Apocalyptic Zombie
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Blurb
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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Excerpt
I get up from the table, deciding to go to the sink. I can wash my hands six or seven more times, they won’t feel any more clean, not after what I’ve done. “Winter.” I stop halfway past the kitchenette, turn to look back at him. He’s still watching me. His brown eyes show fiercely, even from across the room. After a very long pause, I respond. “Yes, John?” “I’m alive because of you.” I press my lips together. I’m not sure what his angle is, what he’s getting at. Even the way he says it, it sounds half an accusation. As though my helping him to survive were yet another bad thing I’ve done. Shame on me. “Okay,” I say back curtly, needing to hear where he’s going with this. He looks away. I can tell he’s troubled, but I can’t stand waiting for him to speak. “Is there … something I’m supposed to be saying?” His face is pale and stern, his eyes not able to rest on anything in the room. “There are demons in me, Winter. Demons. Bad, bad demons that I can’t get rid of.” He crosses the room, which is startling because he’s suddenly very close to me. Next to the table now, he starts picking at the wood, pensive, staring down at it. “They don’t let me sleep. They’ve made me … awful.” Is this an apology? “We all have demons.” “But yours are a lifetime ago. Literally.” He chuckles without a smile, empty and feeble. “Winter, what I’m trying to say is …” He looks up finally. The effect his eyes have when they burrow into mine is staggering. Those Living earthen orbs of light in his face, they smolder. John and his wet, totally-alive, tear-capable eyes. “Yeah?” I encourage him. He takes another step closer to me. I resist an urge to back away, resist another urge to press into his solid, inviting body. “Please don’t mistake my demons for hate. Winter, you’ve shown me so much care … You’ve given me a home … You risked everything. I’ll never be able to repay you, ever. In ten lifetimes. I don’t hate you.” So many words are caught in my throat suddenly. The only one that escapes is: “Okay.”    

6 Billion jaw dropping stars!!!!!Holy crap!!!!! I am at a complete loss for words right now. I did not think there was any possible way for this book to be better than book 1, but it was!!!! Daryl Banner really out did himself with this one. He is so unbelievably creative with the world he creates in these stories, and is unlike anything I have ever read. Words cannot even begin to express how much I love the Beautiful Dead series.

The story of Winter…the undead girl continues from shortly after book 1 left off. The city of Trenton has opened itself up and now has humans living amongst the undead. But, they are not living harmoniously as many of the humans are skeptical and untrusting of the undead. When a exchange with the neighboring town does not go as expected, a whole new world of chaos erupts. Although the deathless army had been conquered and killed off, that does not mean that all the threats to humans, and undead alike, are gone. On the contrary, in Dead of Winter, there are so many more demons and enemies to face. The enormity of the situations which occur weigh heavily on everyones shoulders, and no one is safe. I wish I could go into detail about all the events of the book, as I could go on for hours and still not even break the ice- but then I would be giving away everything. This world Daryl has created is so intricate and vivid, the pictures which were painted in my mind have lasted long past my reading the final page. I still find myself lost in this story days later and I am tempted to just start reading it all over again.

Dead of Winter was one of the most unpredictable stories I have ever encountered, and you never knew which direction it was going to head next. It was action packed and left me breathless on many occasions. A true page turner which will leave you unable to put the book down. This story was so full of emotions. I never expected to bawl like a baby in a zombie-ish book, but there I was tears flowing and nose running, and I could not keep the tissues coming fast enough. 

The ONLY thing I can complain about…if you can even call it a complaint… is the end. And I am not talking about a strong book with a mediocre ending… oh no. I am talking about an exceptionally strong book with an even stronger ending that left me screaming "WHAT THE HELL?!?!" The way the book concluded was pure genius, with a bit of evil twisted in there because now I am DYING to know what happens next. Yes Daryl, you are quite the evil one with leaving things off like that, and I may spend the rest of the days until book 3 comes out sitting in a little white padded room rocking back and forth pulling my hair out.

If you have yet to be introduced to the brilliant writing of Daryl Banner, I HIGHLY suggest you pickup this series now. This is the most unique twist on the whole Zombie idea I have ever encountered and I promise you will not be disappointed.




The Beautiful Dead (The Beautiful Dead, #1) On Sale Now for 99¢! Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N 
TheBeautifulDead1_TheBeautifulDead_HQ-Cover
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.   

Almost Alive (Beautiful Dead, #3) Coming April 24th Pre Order on Amazon TheBeautifulDead3_AlmostAlive_HQ-Cover 
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.    

About the Author
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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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