Book Review: Body and Soul by Stacey Kade

Warning: This review will contain mild spoilers about the previous books in The Ghost and the Goth series. 

At First Sight: It has been almost a month since Alona Dare - former school princess and unconventional spirit guide extraordinaire - got trapped inside Lily Turner's body trying to save her and neither she nor Will - the ghost talker she's supposed to be 'guiding' - know how to reverse the process or what will it mean for both Alona's spirit and Lily's body. 

Besides, things are really complicated as they are with Alona trying to fit into Lily's old family and Will's confusion about seeing his ghostly-sort-of-girlfriend in the body of his former friend and Alona's belief that he cares more for Lily than for her. 

And with summer drawing to an end they are trying to find some answers following some clues Will's father might or might not have left for him. Which leads them to a medium called Malachi the Magnificent who's in a very unique ghostly situation. 

Second Glance: I honestly don't want to spoil too much about Body and Soul but I seriously loved the book. I had been putting it off because it was the last of the trilogy and I love the previous two books but it was a really good finale. 

I love seeing Alona and Will bicker with each other, in a way is their way to show that they care. And I liked that they really tackle the moral dilema of Alona being in Lily's body and what that means for everyone - Will and Alona and Lily's family who aren't aware that Lily's spirt is long gone - it didn't just skirt around the issue and made everything magically okay. 

Body and Soul is also very funny but it got me teary eyed a few time toward the end when you got to see that even if their relationship was very complicated, both Will and Alona were better off because of one another. 

As always, I love Alona Dare, I think she's the star of the series with her prickly personality and her tons of attitude hiding a very vulnerable heart, yet she never comes off as the victim, and that's pretty tricky to pull off. 

Bottom Line: Body and Soul was a great conclusion to a really awesome series and I can't wait to read Stacey Kade's next project, she's an author that combines humor and characters with surprising depth with great skill. I loved where Alona and Will ended up, the ending was satisfying but, at the same time, I wouldn't mind hearing from them again. 

1/2