Voyagers by K.L. Nappier (Good)

*Note: This book was given to me by the author for the purpose of reviewing*

I didn't a strong idea of what Voyagers would be about until I started reading it.  It wasn't really what I expected but not in a bad way.  It was simply different than the usual book.  I would probably classify it as something of a Historical Paranormal Mystery.  It worked well in distinguishing its storyline from other books in that way.
Without further ado, the cover:

The cover shows the Passage (a "road" to the afterlife) and a figure who I believe is Aridite, the angel sent to guide Aaron and Greta.

Summary:

Greta, a scandalous, beautiful woman who forcibly lives with her cousin, is murdered.  Aaron, a newly appointed priest, witnesses her murder and is murdered, himself, as a result.  But they do not simply pass on.  Instead, an angel named Aridite comes to them and sets them a task so that they can pass into the afterlife: solve their own murders.  However that plan proves to be more complicated than it seems when Aaron and Greta discover how much they don't know and attempt to uncover a conspiracy that threatens everyone they cared for when they were alive.

While Voyagers started out nicely and finished nicely, a part of the middle did not satisfy me.  There was a sequence of about 4 chapters that was simply a large flashback.  I'm typically not a fan of flashbacks, so while important information to the story was told, I found myself wishing for a small summary instead of chapters of details surrounding the past events.  

This is not to say that I did not enjoy the book.  I did.  In fact, the second half had me absolutely riveted while the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.  

I was happy to find that the characters were not one dimensional, but had a few layers of conflicting thoughts and emotions that gave them some nice depth.  

The novel gave me a nice sense of closure once i was done, which was nice.  There were very few loose strings which failed to be gathered up again by the end.

I also liked the shifting emotions between Greta and Aaron as the book progressed.  They added an element of interest to the story.  I could never tell how they would react to each other.  Whether they hated or loved one another.  It added some drama to this ghost tale.  

The whole book was set in a time era before present day, which changed many of the events occurring in the story and showed a nice representation of what living in that era could be like, especially for women.  

All in all, Voyagers was a good book that had a few slow moments, but many redeeming qualities and a great ending.  

Phrase: That could cause you to move towards Ghost hood.