Review: Queen of the Dead by Stacey Kade

After being sent back from the light, Alona Dare - former homecoming queen, current Queen of the Dead - finds herself doing something she never expected: working. Instead of spending days perfecting her tan by the pool (her typical summer routine when she was, you know, alive), Alona must now cater to the needs of other lost spirits. By her side for all of this - ugh - "helping of others" is Will Killian: social outcast, seer of the dead, and someone Alona cares about more than she'd like.

Before Alona can make a final ruling on Will's "friend" or "more" status, though, she discovers trouble at home. Her mom is tossing out Alona's most valuable possessions, and her dad is expecting a new daughter with his wicked wife. Is it possible her family is already moving on? Hello! She's only been dead for two months! Thankfully, Alona knows just the guy who can put a stop to this mess.

Unfortunately for Alona, Will has other stuff on his mind, and Mina, a young (and beautiful) seer, is at the top of the list. She's the first ghost-talker Will's ever met-aside from his father-and she may hold answers to Will's troubled past. But can she be trusted? Alona immediately puts a check mark in the "clearly not" column. But Will is - ahem - willing to find out, even if it means leaving a hurt and angry Alona to her own devices, which is never a good idea.

Packed with romance, lovable characters, and a killer cliffhanger, Queen of the Dead is the out-of-this-world sequel to The Ghost and the Goth.

Will Killian and Alona Dare have a complicated relationship. He's alive and she's dead; she helps him manage all the other dead folks who want his help; and they're heading down a tricky road with their are we or aren't we romance. Alona has been dead for two months but hasn't changed much since then - she's still selfish and self-centered - and now things are taking a turn for the worse: her family is moving on without her and Will is starting to have doubts about her and their "purpose". When Will meets Mina, a girl who can also see (and catch) ghosts like Alona, things get even more complicated. Which will Will choose, to work for the living or the dead and will Alona still be there to help him?

Queen of the Dead is just as good (and maybe better) than The Ghost and the Goth. Kade's style and tone is pitch perfect for this YA treat of a book. There are some heavy topics addressed in QofD like mortality and morality; Will tries to figure out who is doing the right thing: is it their (his and Alona's) mission to help other ghosts resolve their issues so they can move on to who knows what or is it Mina's Order, a group of fanatical ghost-talkers who work to protect humans using methods that "kill" ghosts in ways that make him shudder when he considers what they would do to Alona. Will also learns about his father's past and abilities, something he has been desperate to know. However, Alona gets into some serious (and rather heinous) trouble on her part, leaving Will to reconcile what she's done and how he feels about her. I appreciated that there was some emotional growth for Alona here; being the center of her universe and demanding that everyone conform to her opinions and ideas was a bit trying. Even if you take into account the fact that she's really only a teenager who is a product of her environment, her attitude and outlook was pretty obnoxious. With Will on the other end of that personality spectrum, he and Alona balance each other very well and I can't wait to see what happens next. And even though it was 2 am and I couldn't for fear of waking the whole house, Queen of the Dead finished with an ending that made me want to jump up and yell "All right!"

Queen of the Dead will be released on May 31, 2011.

Review: Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair

The universe isn't what it used to be. With the new Alliance between the Triad and the United Coalition, Captain Tasha "Sass" Sebastian finds herself serving under her former nemesis, biocybe Admiral Branden Kel-Paten -- and doing her best to hide a deadly past. But when an injured mercenary winds up in their ship's sick bay -- and in the hands of her best friend, Dr. Eden Fynn -- Sass's efforts may be wasted.

Wanted rebel Jace Serafino has information that could expose all of Sass's secrets, tear the fragile Alliance apart -- and end Sass's career if Kel-Paten discovers them. But the biocybe has something to hide as well, something once thought impossible for his kind to possess: feelings . . . for Sass. Soon it's clear that their prisoner could bring down everything they once believed was worth dying for -- and everything they now have to live for.

I recently had my own fun little impromptu Linnea Sinclair marathon where I read five of her books over approximately a week's time. I started reading Gabriel's Ghost during the Super Bowl (the book was WAY more interesting), continued on with Shades of Dark, Hope's Folly, The Accidental Goddess, and finished with my favorite of the bunch, Games of Command.

I don't usually enjoy space fiction as much as the other genres. If I can't wrap my mind around what's going on, i.e. can't picture the scenery or what the people might look like, I can't get into it all that much, and I'm a Star Trek geek! (Star Trek beats Star Wars any day btw.) Sometimes I find that sci-fi novels are just way too out there for me. Fortunately for book lovers everywhere, Linnea Sinclair knows how to write sci-fi, she knows how to write a great romance, and she knows how to mix them together. Games of Command is really two romances in one but the focus is on Tasha and Branden, a pair who couldn't be more different: a woman who grew up outside of the law with people, and by extension her, that Branden, a stuffed shirt if there ever was one, considers to be contemptible. (He doesn't know who she really is.) He is her commanding officer who comes off as cold and unfeeling and while this might be true in many ways since he is a cybernetic man (think: Terminator), when it comes to Tasha he's as hot as a star going supernova.

Branden is an admiral and as competent as they come. He's a fascinating dichotomy; inside, he's a man with loving feelings toward a woman and an unshakable sense of duty but on the outside he's a machine who has data ports in his arms and eyes that glow machine-bright when he's jacked into his computer. He requests Tasha to be his ship's captain at his first opportunity in an officer swap program created by the Alliance between Branden's Triad and Tasha's United Coalition, a request that amuses and scares Tasha. She subsequently spends a lot of her time on their ship trying to get under his skin by wearing sarcastic t-shirts and being friendly with her crew. This type of antagonism is not out of character for the span of their relationship, from pages 6-7:

   She gives the techie the order to open the comm and-for what will be the first of many times to come-hears the voice of Captain Kel-Paten. The Kel-Paten. But only his voice. Visual's out. In order for short-range scan to function at all, it has to be.
   "Sarna Bogue, this Captain Kel-Paten of the Vaxxar. Cut your drives immediately or you will be fired upon. Prepare to be boarded."
   With a nod to the chief, she seats herself in the command sling, takes a deep breath, and activates the comm mike: " Vaxxar, this is the Sarna Bogue. F--k you and the equinnard you rode in on. Sebastian out."

The secondary romance between Eden and Jace was complimentary to Tasha and Branden but held less appeal for me. Eden is the Vaxxar's CMO and Tasha's best friend; Jace is a rogue smuggler who is being hunted by Kel-Paten. Eden and Jace communicate mostly by telepathy which is generally verboten by their governments. (Telepaths are generally eradicated or modified in this universe.)

Games of Command was touching and funny with an absorbing story. The plot got a little crazy involving alternate realities but hey, pretty much anything goes with science fiction. If you're like me and love sci-fi, give this romance novel (and writer) a try. You won't be disappointed.