Katherine Gilbert’s Protecting the Dead features main character Lydia, a young woman who escaped a horrific childhood and just wants a normal life. She reinvents herself as Linda and finds herself a job at a care home that turns out to be anything but normal. Her boss is a total hunk (and magical). Her residents all are very strange and come in all shapes and sizes. Even her apartment is odd with a loud noisy closet that apologizes to her when she tells it to stop making noise in desperation for sleep. When she meets her first long-term resident, Glory, Lydia-now-Linda swears she hears Glory’s cats speak.

When reality crashes in on her and she realizes that she is surrounded by magical creatures and an evil demon and his overlord are out to get her, Linda must accept that she just isn’t normal. She accepts she will never escape her supernatural world and accepts her real identity as Lydia again. As she struggles with her romantic feelings for her boss who is more than he seems, she must also find the strength to face off against the darkest evils from her past to save the care home residents and the world.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone who enjoys the paranormal romance genres. The main character is interesting, the progression of events is suspenseful, and the writing is solid. There is a wide range of supernatural characters and species to fall in love with for the speculative fiction aficionado.
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This was actually one of the best books I've read recently. It had a storyline I've never seen before. Most of the characters were a bit shallow, but they played bit parts. You learned just as much as you needed to know about them to see where they fit into the story. Even the characters who played a bit larger part were still fleshed out just as much as they needed to be without becoming TMI. The main character was completely fleshed out and you knew every single bit about her - or so you thought until the very end. Her "love interest" was kept just mysterious enough with bits and pieces added throughout the story until you had the complete picture at the end.

While it had the basic tenet of good versus evil, it was a playful take on that eternal conflict. While there were somewhat darker parts, nothing in it was so dark as to be utterly disturbing. The characters themselves were surprising and delightful; not at all what you would imagine them to be.

*******SPOILER ALERT*******
I've read the other reviews and really don't understand some of the comments/conclusions they came to. The age difference one spoke about makes perfect sense since Geoffrey was created specifically for Lydia. Lydia chose to be reincarnated for a divine purpose and Geoffrey has been waiting thousands of years for her return. While Lydia's human body may be young, her essence and her soul are older than Geoffrey. As for the power difference, Geoffrey was the keeper of Lydia's true knowledge and couldn't just dump it on her. It had to be portioned out so she could grasp it, which she did very nicely at the end.

As for this being an overly religious book...I really didn't get that impression at all. Vampires, werewolves, succubus, ghosts, cat people, and more fantasy characters filled the pages of this book. Yes, there were angels, demons, and the devil himself at the end (portrayed as a whiny little brat), as well as God in a female personification, but I wouldn't call it religious. The only name that adhered to religion was Lucifer, but I guess it's kind of hard to change the devil's name and make it work. Additionally, the two main characters are angels that want to jump each other's bones (and eventually do). The fantasy creatures ran the gamut of sexual preference from gay werewolves to lesbian ghosts, with at least one cross-species affair thrown in.
*******END SPOILER*******

All in all, I thought this was an absolutely delightful book that moved steadily along until a climactic ending where all was revealed and good conquered evil, at least this time. I would definitely recommend this book if you want a fun, lighthearted read with bits of darkness here and there just to spice it up.

As a side note, another absolute plus for me is that I found only one error in the book. That thrilled me. Kudos to whoever edited it for a job superbly done. ( )

I had to struggle to finish this book. The lead character spent so much time in angst that it seemed most of the book was about her inner monologue. There were interesting characters introduced, but they were quickly moved to the side. The story didn't pull me in. The ending came quickly after slogging through pages and pages but wasn't resolved in a very satisfying way. ( )

Lydia is a young woman yearning for a simple, boring life She is trying to run away from her terrifying past. She applies to be a live-in manager of an apartment complex but soon finds that things are anything but boring. Her boss, the angelically handsome Geoffrey, leaves her breathless. The tenants are a motley collection of supernatural beings who need a counsellor more than an apartment manager. When a demon from her past returns to claim her she needs to learn to fight for herself as well as her new friends.

I enjoyed Lydia’s voice. She is a funny and surprisingly strong character. She spends the beginning of the book in determined denial which was both funny and a clever way for the author to introduce the reader to the supernatural world she has created. Lydia becomes a stronger character as the book progressed and I appreciated that, since I dislike a wimpy female main character. Many of the smaller characters were quite entertaining, especially the cats.

I was uncomfortable with the (apparent) age and power difference between Lydia and Geoffrey and wished that the author had made Lydia a bit older. I found the ending of the book quite rushed and ultimately unsatisfying. The plot doesn’t quite hold together and isn’t entirely logical. I think the author has promise and an entertaining voice. This is a first novel that doesn’t quite succeed but shows promise. One small note: the title isn’t terribly representative of what the book is about. ( )

Protecting the Dead by Katherine Gilbert was a bit boring. The pacing did speed up in the end and become somewhat more enjoyable. I'm just tired of the heroine mooning over the "extremely handsome" male. The story had potential, but the initial slowness and then speed up the end didn't do it any favors. ( )