On Vox: Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair
Gabriel's Ghost
Linnea Sinclair
Oh my, look at this cover. Racy! I have another cover but vox gives me an error if I try to get it.
Since I'm on the space opera kick and my Borders is closing and there are sales, I went and bought about $50 worth of books there. My TBR is 129-ish. Don't judge me, I am weak. I will make it go below 100 some day. I say this and then I laugh a little.
Also - man I am depressed that this Borders is closing. I've been going there for 9 years. It's in walking distance. :( There's a Barnes and Noble that's a couple of blocks closer, but I still like the Borders better. If you live in Westchester, New York, the White Plains Borders has a 40% off sale now until it closes on Saturday (tomorrow). I could cry.
I picked this one up because I knew it was standalone plus I'd just read Finders Keepers by the same author. I guess this cover to the left conveys that this is both romance and science fiction with spaceships and stuff. Which it is - Chasidah Bergren was a Fleet Captain when she was courtmartialed for a crime she didn't commit, and sentenced to the prison planet Moabar, where life expectancy is very low. After two weeks, Gabriel Sullivan, a mercenary she's spent time trying to capture in the past, finds her and offers to help her escape the planet. Of course there are things she doesn't know, like why he tracked her down of all people, and what is he doing alive, because he was supposed to have died years ago. Larger things are happening and she is part of it. Much fun space opera action ensues.
When I read Gabriel's Ghost I was mentally comparing it with Finders Keepers, and it feels like it's a later novel. I just checked and that's true. I didn't see the repetition in phrases I was seeing in Finders Keepers, so that habit is gone. Also the romance is more complicated in this book, less predictable. Despite that, although the writing still pulled me in, I liked Gabriel's Ghost less than Finders Keepers. The first part of the book was very interesting, but then about halfway through, the story started to lag. I felt like the relationship should be all resolved by then and I' dlike to see it build from there, but it was just being dragged backward and having wrenches thrown in because Chaz Doesn't Really Know the Truth About Gabriel. She would find out something, freak out a bit, then got over it and become reasonable. But this keeps happening because Gabriel gave her the facts in little crumbs. I think the book could have been better if this didn't go on as long as it did. Plus, to add to this - the hints about Gabriel were all over the place. There were a couple of things I didn't guess that were minor, but if Chaz had figured the obvious this book would have been shorter in a good way because the story picks up towards the end and then - it ends! A couple of major parts were resolved, but.. certain other very large questions are not. IS there is another book? If there is, I would feel happier. They never really completely fix the issue that they are trying to fix. This book ends one battle but more are forthcoming. There are also major prejudice in certain characters which our heroes have to confront soon. I wondered how that was going to go. Plus, in the end, I wasn't completely convinced that there was proof Chaz wasn't being manipulated. I felt like that wasn't resolved as well as it could have been. More could have been said! So not a bad read but for me it was cut short.
Originally posted on janicu.vox.com