{ARC Review} Zombie Island (Shakespeare Undead #2) by Lori Handeland
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- Title: Zombie Island (Shakespeare Undead, #2)
- Author: Lori Handeland
- ISBN-13: 9780312623067
- Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
- Publication date: 5/22/2012
- Pages: 272
- Review Source:Publisher for Honest Review
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Overview:
In the follow-up to Shakespeare Undead, vampire William Shakespeare and his Dark Lady are stranded on a mystical island where zombies are plentiful and one man will stop at nothing to become all-powerful.
Fresh from a triumphant battle over the zombie horde that invaded London, vampire William Shakespeare concocts a plot to rid the love of his life from the encumbrance of her husband. Will plans to give his ”dark lady,” Katherine Dymond, a potion that will make her sleep the sleep of the dead. Once she is entombed, Will can sneak in, wait for her to awaken, then spirit her away. After her husband returns to his plantation in America, Kate can return to London under a different name and assume a new identity. No one will believe that the dead Katherine and the live Kate are the same woman.
Of course, as is often the case with true love, all does not go as smoothly as planned. When the two of them are shipwrecked on an island ruled by a wizard and a nymph, as well as infested by zombies, Will and Kate must stop an even larger plot afoot—one that leads all the way to the royal palaces of Queen Elizabeth.
My Thoughts on Zombie Island:
I was sooo excited when I opened my mail and found this one!! What can I say I have a zombie problem. While I did have some issues with certain things, I did enjoy the story a lot overall.
I found Kate and William both highly entertaining. I laughed out loud at quite a few parts. I liked how the author worked in famous quotes. Plus I really enjoyed the different story ideas that would pop into Shakespeare’s head, especially when the ideas were for more modern stories. Then there was Ariel. I liked watching how she tried to figure out exactly what love was and seeing how she and Caliban worked out.
I loved the little quotes from The Tempest at the beginning of each chapter, and how Handeland made each chapter relate to its quote. I also liked the author’s style. Between her descriptions and her characters she really drew me into the story and I couldn’t wait to see where she would go.
The issues I had with the story…
My biggest problem was the timing of the story. One minute it would be nighttime, or have to be night since Shakespeare was awake, and the next minute it would be daytime. I got frustrated because I kept rereading parts of the story thinking I had missed something. I found that as long as I just ignored whether it was day or night I really enjoyed the story.
My second concern was the ending itself. It just seemed rather abrupt. Don’t get me wrong, it made sense, but there was all this excitement and rushing to save the world from the zombie menace, and then poof, it was just over. Maybe I didn’t like it because I was enjoying the book so much I didn’t want it to end. *Shrug* I just know that while the ending was logical, it just wasn’t very satisfying.
Because of the issues I had with the novel, it’s very hard for me to rate the finished product.
Zombie Island was funny; I think I laughed on almost every page. The novel enticed me to want to read the first book in the series, Shakespeare Undead. It also makes me want to read any other sequels the author might come up with. However between the concerns I had with the story seeming to jump between day and night and the way it just ended, I feel bad giving it 5 stars.
Would I read it again? Yep! Would I read more of the author’s work? Definitely! Would I recommend this book? Of course!
With that being said, I had I have to give it 3 1/2 out of 5 controllers. Yes I loved the book, but the issues were rather important ones and affected my overall enjoyment of the story, however I would still recommend reading Zombie Island if you get a chance.
My Rating
3.5 out of 5 Controllers
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