Recent Read

Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair

Hotness Level: Toasty warm

Amazon blurb: After a decade of piloting interstellar patrol ships, former captain Chasidah Bergren, onetime pride of the Sixth Fleet, finds herself court-martialed for a crime she didn’t commit–and shipped off to a remote prison planet from which no one ever escapes. But when she kills a brutal guard in an act of self-defense, someone even more dangerous emerges from the shadows.

Gabriel Sullivan–alpha mercenary, smuggler, and rogue–is supposed to be dead. Yet now this seductive ghost from Chaz’s past is offering her a ticket to freedom–for a price. Someone in the Empire is secretly breeding jukors: vicious and uncontrollable killing machines that have long been outlawed. Gabriel needs Chaz to help him stop the practice before it decimates Imperial space. The mission means putting their lives on the line–but the tensions that heat up between them may be the riskiest part of all.

Why this one: I was blown away by Games of Command. I already have Finder’s Keepers and Accidental Goddess, but I heard that Gabriel’s Ghost was just as good or even better than Games of Command – so me being me and I’m sure I’m not the only one who does this, I skipped over the other two that I do have and ordered GG.

My Thoughts: I loved this one almost as much or just as much – hard to say – as Games of Command. I was a bit surprised when I saw it was written in the first person, but Stephanie Plum and Blair (nee Mallory) Bloodsworth have gotten me past my first person prejudice. I think Jennie and I were reading this one at the same time although she got her review up first. I got distracted dog sitting.
Sully made a very delicious hero!!! While a few of the things that didn’t work for Jennie, they worked very well for me. He had decided a long time ago that Chaz was his mate and he would do anything to get her. The book opens when he is rescuing her from a prison planet she had been sent too after being set up for a crime she didn’t commit. At first Chaz is very wary of Sully. They had known and been attracted to each other for years, but he was a pirate who had been reported dead. He is so protective of her and he seems to be a very touchy feely guy. I really liked that about him.
Now Sully has many secrets and he keeps these from Chaz throughout most of the book. Normally I would have been very irked by this, but the author writes so believably that I had no problem buying into why he felt he couldn’t confide things to Chaz.
I had the same – I wouldn’t call it a problem, more of an issue really, in that we just didn’t seem to get enough background into the characters. Again, this is a rather lengthy book at 447 pages. Regretfully I think the author had to make cuts even to get it to this size and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the background information was what was cut.
Chaz too is a wonderfully strong heroine, more than able to hold her own against such a strong personality as Sully. She was the captain of her own ship and acted like it. She was a heroine to admire.
I am so impressed with these two books and so glad I have at least two more to read.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

'til later