Review: Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher

Pabkin’s One Liner: An alien / human romance that many a romance fan would love.

Psychologist Elizabeth Cole prepared for the worst when she accepted a job on a newly discovered world—a world where every colonist is tethered to an alien who manifests in the form of a dead loved one. But she never expected she’d struggle with the requirement to shun these “ghosts.” She never expected to be so attracted to the charming Irishman assigned as her supervisor. And she certainly never expected to discover she died in a transport crash en route to the planet.

As a ghost, Elizabeth is symbiotically linked to her supervisor, Murphy—creator of the Ghost Protocol, which forbids him to acknowledge or interact with her. Confused and alone—oppressed by her ghost status and tormented by forbidden love—Elizabeth works to unlock the secrets of her own existence.

But her quest for answers lands her in a tug-of-war between powerful interests, and she soon finds herself a pawn in the struggle for control of the planet…a struggle that could separate her forever from the man that she loves.

Ghost Planet has an awesome take on alien planet and life. This particular planet somehow made itself very similar to Earth, minus the pollution within 3 years after the first researchers arrived. Exactly what humanity needed to escape our own dying planet. But it seems things are too good to be true, because shortly after colonization each colonists ends up tied to an alien that manifests themselves as a dead person from that human’s past. They don’t just look like that dead person they pretty much are that person, their memories, mannerisms, they don’t even know they aren’t human.

I have a few logic fail thoughts that run around in my head with that plot point…because if the planet recreates someone that died on earth how could it possibly get all of that person’s memories? Regardless, I still enjoyed the idea so I rolled with it and it really didn’t bother me. Sometimes an air of mysticism is good.

Of course having a dead loved one essentially come back to life might traumatize anyone. And oh boy does it definitely cause some problems with the colonization efforts. The solution – colonists must completely ignore their ghosts. They term it The Ghost Protocol. Now I just absolutely love that phrase, it sounds so cool doesn’t it?

The tale is told completely from the point of view of one of the “aliens.” I think that is what made it work for me. Because Elizabeth was trying just as hard to understand what she was and how she was going to live and what her existence meant in regards to get planet.

The romance and feelings between her and Murphy moves along at typical romance novel pace, but they have some unorthodox obstacles to overcome which made things more interesting for me. I normally don’t like romance books but because this one was so different I really enjoyed it.

Elizabeth’s plight was real, I couldn’t think of her as an alien even though I know she was. The villains were perfect in that there were several and each well placed to put pressure on Elizabeth’s and Murphy’s relationship. I would definitely recommend Ghost Planet to any romance reader who wanted to also give science fiction a try.

Tabitha the Pabkins

Ghost Planet

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• This book was provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. Please note that this post also contains affiliate links. To view our full Blog Policy, click here.