"Thrilling sci fi adventure"

Fans of stories about otherworld adventures and travels across space will love Gabriel's Ghost by Linnea Sinclair.

Chasidah "Chaz" Bergren is imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Stripped of her command in the Imperial Sixth Fleet and sent off to the prison planet of Moabar, she is just trying to survive in the harsh climate. Escape is not an option until the day she murders a guard in self- defense and comes face to face with a ghost from her past.

Gabriel "Sully" Sullivan is a legendary smuggler and mercenary, thought to be dead by the government, and Chaz as well. Here he is, alive and well... and determined to rescue her? He needs her help, for someone has initiated a program for breeding jukors, one of the most vicious, deadly creatures of their time. Chaz knows the Imperial command inside and out and is Sully's only hope.

Now these two are barreling across space, with only two missions in mind... to find and destroy all data and labs involved in the breeding program of the deadly monsters and to clear Chaz's name. Old feelings come swimming back to the surface between Chaz and Sully that they are unable to fight any longer. However, Sully has some deep dark secrets of his own that could make her turn from him in disgust. Can she see past what he is to the man in his heart?

Gabriel's Ghost is one nonstop adventure ride. The action starts immediately from the first paragraph, ebbing and flowing through to the last line. This reader loves how the book starts and ends with the same line, signifying that the story has come full circle. Though there are some slower moments during the space journey in the middle of the book, the plot continuously grows and changes with the characters, satisfying the readers. The secondary story lines add depth to the tale, providing plenty of mystery and twists to keep one guessing as to what will happen next.

Chaz is a strong woman, having been forced to grow up at a young age by the very nature of her family's lifestyle. Sully is all alpha male, powerful, brave, forceful in his intentions, protecting those in his care no matter what the cost. Yet he is also a tortured man, keeping secret the true nature of his person that would make him hated and feared for all the wrong reasons if anyone were to discover him. These two need each other; each is strong where the other is weak, perfectly melding their personalities to make them an unbreakable, united force.

Religion plays a strong role in the book, with the ways of the Englarians affecting everything that happens and coloring the ways of the people. It is fascinating to see how Ms. Sinclair weaves the beliefs of the monks into the characters' actions. Prejudice also plays a big role in the story, especially in regards to one character, the Stolorth Ren. One sees through his first hand experiences how misinformation, or even just a lack of knowledge, can be misused and misdirected, hurting those who do not deserve it. If these two concepts -- religion and racial intolerance -- were eliminated from the book, then the story would read completely different and possibly not have as much of an impact on its readers.

Gabriel's Ghost will appeal to fans of traditional science fiction, with the strongly developed technology and worlds. Yet there is a strong romantic storyline with the beautifully developed characters that is bound to charm fans of that genre as well.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, September 2005. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by Kelley Hartsell
Courtesy Love Romances
Posted October 18, 2005

Revised and Rereleased with new publisher

~ Previous editions no longer available

Summary

After a decade of cruising 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. For Chaz, it's a matter of survival. For Sully it means facing the truth about who-and what-he really is. The mission means putting their lives on the line-but the tensions that heat up between them may be the riskiest part of all. For both of them, it's a life- and-death battle where giving up the ghost just took on a whole new meaning..