In sensuous prose, Helen, who has been dead for 130 years, describes what it's like to live as Light, clinging to a human host, then reentering an empty human body and becoming physically and emotionally attuned to the world. Helen is startled when she realizes that a student in her host's English class can see her. James, too, is Light, but he has taken over the body of Billy, who almost overdosed on drugs. Their joy at finding one another turns quickly to love, and James helps Helen locate an empty body that she can inhabit. Fellow student Jennifer seems the perfect choice, but the unhappiness in her fundamentalist family, as well as the chaos of Billy's household, mix uneasily with the pleasures the spirits are rekindling. Whitcomb writes beautifully, especially when she is describing the physical delights of sexual love and the horror the spirits endure as they fight through their personal hells to reach the other side. Unfortunately, her stereotypical portrayal of a Christian family is so unnuanced that it jars when juxtaposed with the rest of the writing. Still, in many ways this will be irresistible to teens. Watch for more from Whitcomb.

Offering biographies of several real-life princesses, including England's Victoria, Hawaii's Ka'iulani, and India's Gayatri "Ayesha" Devi, this book aims to describe what childhood was like for various royalty. Enthusiastic readers will be disappointed at the brief treatment each subject receives. Time lines, portrait-like paintings, and archival photos illuminate the biographies. Bib., glos., ind.

What should be a sure-fire ghost story/romance fails to ignite a spark. Helen is a spirit that cleaves to hosts, unsure of why she's bound to earth. She picks very literary hosts (including Emily Dickinson), such as her current high-school English teacher. It is at school that Helen is "seen" for the first time, by teenager Billy Blake. Turns out Billy is actually "James"—another spirit who's figured out how to inhabit a body. He and Helen fall in love, and he convinces her to find a body so that they can have sex (semi-graphically depicted, and somehow also coldly so). Their hosts both have troubled homes (one drugs, the other religion, both with messed-up parents), leading to a predictable close. Unsurprising plot, under-developed characters and adequate prose doom this first novel. The love story, and the device of a spirit gaining flesh, should be emotionally rich fodder, yet Whitcomb takes these nowhere. Young women will be drawn to this book, and will probably finish it, but unless the collection needs another forgettable easy-sell, skip it. (Fiction. YA)

First-time author Whitcomb infuses Gothic romance with modern-day drama to create a highly sensual, supernatural story of two spirits caught in purgatory. The body of Helen perished 130 years ago, but her soul still roams the Earth, cleaving to humans who share her love of literature. In all those years, Helen has never seen anyone else who is "Light," until she meets James, who has possessed the body of an 11th grade student. Knowing at once that they are meant to be together, Helen allows James to teach her how to enter the body of an "empty" teenager, not knowing what complications lie ahead. Posing as Jennifer Ann, the daughter of fundamentalist Christians, Helen finds herself trapped in a sterile household void of art and literature with little chance to visit James, who lives in a run-down house with a violent older brother. Meticulously wrought descriptions of the ghosts' feelings and actions allow readers to experience the physical sensations of Helen and James as they rediscover the pleasures of taste and touch and re-experience the suffering that is part of every human experience. Sexually explicit scenes and not-so-gentle jabs at hypocritical Christians may raise some eyebrows, but the author's poetic prose, capturing the spirit and sorrow of the two unearthly protagonists, will likely have a mesmerizing effect on readers. Ages 14-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)

Gr 9 Up-Helen died 130 years ago as a young woman. Unable to enter heaven because of a sense of guilt she carried at death, she has been silent and invisible but conscious and sociable across the generations. Her spirit has been sustained by its attachment to one living human host after another, including a poet and, most recently, a high-school English teacher. While she sits through his class one day, she becomes aware of James and heunlike the mortals all around themis aware of her as well. James, who also died years earlier, inhabits the body of a contemporary teen, Billy. James and Helen fall in love, he shows her how to inhabit the body of a person whose spirit has died but who still lives and breathes, and the two begin to unfold the mysteries of their own pasts and those of their adolescent hosts. Jenny, whose body Helen now uses, is the only child of strict religious parents who controlled her beyond what her spirit could endure. Billy's spirit left his body after a string of tragedies resulting from drug abuse and domestic violence. James and Helen court in both modern and old-fashioned ways; here is a novel in which explicit sex is far from gratuitous or formulaic. Whitcomb writes with a grace that befits Helen's more modulated world while depicting contemporary society with sharp insight. In the subgenre of dead-narrator tales, this book shows the engaging possibilities of immortalitycomplete with a twist at the end that wholly satisfies. Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

For 130 years, Helen haunted a series of hosts. Helen reached for the first and "dragged [herself], hand over hand, out of the earth and quaked at her feet, clutching her skirts, weeping muddy tears." As each of her hosts died, she found another to cling to, until she haunted Mr. Brown in his classroom where James first saw her. James is a soldier who died years before, inhabiting Billy, a teen whose spirit has given up his body after a drug overdose. The connection between Helen and James is immediate and overwhelming. James and Helen search for a body for her to inhabit so that the lovers can touch physically. Together they explore their powerful attraction, combining adolescent yearning with mature desire. Jenny, the girl that Helen has possessed, is from a strict religious family that has suffocated her spirit. Billy has a history of drug abuse and family violence. The two ghosts must learn to live in these contemporary families with no prior knowledge of the students' lives. This compelling, supernatural love story explores the meaning of life, the afterlife, forgiveness, and religion. Helen and James come to terms with their earlier lives and help the teens they inhabit before they find full redemption. The reader has sympathy for the complex characters, even those whose actions one hates. The writing is almost poetic in the description of Helen's sensations as she explores the world in a physical body. Whitcomb is a new author to watch.-Deborah L. Dubois.