Book Review: Evangeline's Ghost by C.A. Pack

*This book was given free in exchange for honest review*

Title: EVANGELINE'S GHOST (Vol.1)
Author: C.A. Pack
Publisher: Artiqua Press
Published: October 2013
Format: Paperback
Page: 253
ISBN: 978-098-357-236-7
Price: $7.99 plus shipping & handling
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Victoria Melies is one of the most beautiful Englishwomen in postwar Paris. She lives a life of privilege, and few people suspect that she is working as a spy for MI6 under the code name: Evangeline. On her way to the Nuremburg Trials, an assassin's bullet finds her before she can testify. She is immediately transported to the Pearly Gates where she's assigned to an eternity in Purgatory, but that just won't do for the elegant operative who insists on avenging her untimely death.

Evangeline soon finds herself in New York City, where she is incensed to see her old nemesis, Bunny, alive and kicking, and masquerading as a British peer. The spectral spy believes Bunny is involved in a plot to assassinate President Harry S. Truman and tries to protect the President, but being a ghost has its limitations. Evangeline learns there's a handbook for everlasting life that must be adhered to, and quickly realizes her afterlife may be downgraded from Purgatory to much warmer environs if she doesn't follow the rules.

My opinion:

If you think this is a horror book, well, this is not. It's true that Evangeline is a ghost, but she's not a scary-kind-of-ghost. I would call this book as a mystery/thriller book. In this book, Evangeline has missions, which are saving the president's life and finding her murderer--as a ghost. She gets help from another ghost, Nigel, someone who apparently still loves her sincerely. The way the author describes their love story is a little weird. I don't know how to explain it. It feels like Evangeline and Nigel's relationship is getting to that romance thing, but it never gets there. Do you understand what I mean? I hope you do.

Another thing that bothered me is how hard I understood the words. I read a lot of English books, but most of them are YA, which are using not-formal words--I think. So maybe this is because C.A. Pack is a journalist, and I am a journalist too, so I understand that the writing style between news and fiction is different. Maybe I'm just not used to US news' writing style. This disturbance made me missed many details.

Thankfully, I understand the plot. The story is written from third person's point of view. You will be brought to one character to another so you won't be wondering ;) The story is actually pretty simple because Evangeline's adventure is not stopping here, there is still the next book. For the story, I'd like to give 3.5 stars, but because of those missing details that I had, I give this book 2.5 starts.

About the Author:

C.A. Pack is an award-winning journalist, and former assignment manager/anchor at LI News Tonight in New York. She has worked as a news writer at WNBC-TV, and Cablevision's News 12 Long Island. She also created/produced a pilot for a proposed special-interest television series called The Wedding Show for the PAX network. Now, Carol has switched her focus from fact to fiction.

She is currently at work on her fourth novel featuring Evangeline, and she is also busy writing the next exciting segment of the Library Illumination series, which will soon be published as The First Chronicles of Illumination, a YA fantasy.

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