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A review by katyanaish
Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair
4.0
I liked it!
It reminded me a huge lot of the Jax series (though I know this came first)... I'm not going to go into all that in the review though, except to just note that the similarities are boggling.
Though I think I liked Chaz better than I like Jax. Don't get me wrong, it is fun to watch Jax learn and grow, but there were many-a-time that I wanted to slap some sense into her. Chaz, though, is much more sensible, mature, she has a sense of responsibility and loyalty that I admire, and she's quick-witted. Chaz puts together the pieces of the plot as quickly as the reader does, and I found that gratifying.
My criticisms, though:
Chaz was a bit too forgiving.
She's pretty much the living embodiment of "turn the other cheek". She doesn't get pissed at anyone for more than a moment, and there were at least a handful of times when I felt that not only was serious anger justified, it was necessary. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to see permanent friction between Chaz and Sully, but there were a couple of points where that man needed a good punch to the junk. This was aggravated by the fact that the "oh, and here's another secret he's been keeping from you, but it's the last one, promise!" was repeated about 185 times too many in this book (it was like a constant repeating plot point... so I started to feel like the entire book was just waiting for the next shoe to drop, and yet at the same time, I felt that Sully's big secret was so damn obvious that it was agitating to not just come out with already). Every time, she'd be pissed for about 30 seconds, shrug it off, and go comfort him for making him feel bad when she found out he'd been lying to her. Backbone, please. PLEASE.
Sully was a bit too angsty.
I like that he was emotional. I like that he was clearly impacted by events, and I like that he's basically be pining for her for eons. It was sweet. But I disliked the perpetual victimhood. Sully was making choices to do things that were - imo - wrong (let's be clear, this all related to not being honest with people he expected to blindly trust him and ask no questions ever of him). It wasn't fair. And when the shit comes out - and it always does - he was never really held accountable because Chaz's anger was so upsetting to him that she felt bad and ended up comforting him. WTF? Put on your big boy pants, Sully. You weren't truthful, and now you get to be held accountable. The irritating thing is Chaz was generally less upset with what was revealed than she was upset with the fact that he was - yet again - not honest with her / didn't trust her. And, Sully damn well knows that. But he'd still take it as a personal rejection of him, and become The Amazing Emo-Man.
Regardless, I still had a ton of fun with it, and already picked up the next one for my kindle. Definitely will be reading it.
Also: Ren... yum.
That is all.
It reminded me a huge lot of the Jax series (though I know this came first)... I'm not going to go into all that in the review though, except to just note that the similarities are boggling.
Though I think I liked Chaz better than I like Jax. Don't get me wrong, it is fun to watch Jax learn and grow, but there were many-a-time that I wanted to slap some sense into her. Chaz, though, is much more sensible, mature, she has a sense of responsibility and loyalty that I admire, and she's quick-witted. Chaz puts together the pieces of the plot as quickly as the reader does, and I found that gratifying.
My criticisms, though:
Chaz was a bit too forgiving.
She's pretty much the living embodiment of "turn the other cheek". She doesn't get pissed at anyone for more than a moment, and there were at least a handful of times when I felt that not only was serious anger justified, it was necessary. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to see permanent friction between Chaz and Sully, but there were a couple of points where that man needed a good punch to the junk. This was aggravated by the fact that the "oh, and here's another secret he's been keeping from you, but it's the last one, promise!" was repeated about 185 times too many in this book (it was like a constant repeating plot point... so I started to feel like the entire book was just waiting for the next shoe to drop, and yet at the same time, I felt that Sully's big secret was so damn obvious that it was agitating to not just come out with already). Every time, she'd be pissed for about 30 seconds, shrug it off, and go comfort him for making him feel bad when she found out he'd been lying to her. Backbone, please. PLEASE.
Sully was a bit too angsty.
I like that he was emotional. I like that he was clearly impacted by events, and I like that he's basically be pining for her for eons. It was sweet. But I disliked the perpetual victimhood. Sully was making choices to do things that were - imo - wrong (let's be clear, this all related to not being honest with people he expected to blindly trust him and ask no questions ever of him). It wasn't fair. And when the shit comes out - and it always does - he was never really held accountable because Chaz's anger was so upsetting to him that she felt bad and ended up comforting him. WTF? Put on your big boy pants, Sully. You weren't truthful, and now you get to be held accountable. The irritating thing is Chaz was generally less upset with what was revealed than she was upset with the fact that he was - yet again - not honest with her / didn't trust her. And
Spoiler
being a mind-readerRegardless, I still had a ton of fun with it, and already picked up the next one for my kindle. Definitely will be reading it.
Also: Ren... yum.
That is all.