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So, in Carrion Crown my Magus is likely soon to be insane (the GM is using some 3rd party insanity rules), and my most likely replacement character will be Kendra Lorrimor, who recently hitched up with the party (We're in Chapter 4, Wake of the Watcher)
Here's how she was provided by the GM... I'd like to come up with a plan to level her after this that will make her fun and awesome...
Her Divining makes her great out of combat but want ideas that will make her a contributor in and out of combat,... while also following the story. She respected/admired the my Magus, so following in his footsteps makes some sense... and he's obsessed originally with storm based and electrical magics, but because of the campaign is now obsessed with necromancy. I could see her continuing to focus on divining, or put some energy into necromancy because of the magus AND her father's research. The magus has been toying with animating dead.
Level 7 - Diviner
Opposing School: Illusion, Evocation
Arcane Bond: Amulet
STR: 8
Dex: 12
Con: 12
Int: 17
Wis: 13
Cha 15
Feats:
Diviners Delving
Greater Spell Focus: Divination
Iron Will
Improved Iron Will
Scribe Scroll
Craft Wand
Spell Focus Divination
Spells
1: Charm Person, Ears of the City, Feather Fall, Identify, Liberating Command, Mage Armor, Memory Lapse, Windy Escape, Detect Secret Doors, Heightened Awareness, Hold Portal, Ray of Enfeeblement
2: Command Undead, Commune With Birds, Create Treasure Map, Demand Offering, See Invisibility, Detect Thoughts, Glitterdust
3. Blood Biography, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Suggestion, Hold Person, summon Monster III, Seek Thoughts, Slow
4: Charm Monster, Scrying, Enervation, Greater Invisibility, Mneomonic Enhancer
Magic Items
Amulet of Spell Cunning, Cloak of the Bat, Lessor Extend Metamagic Rod, Peal of Power X 2, Ring of Counter Spells (Magic Missle), Ring of Protection +1, Rod of Flame Extinguishing, Wand of Chill Touch, Wand of Command Undead, Wand of Suggestion
Given the severe lack of downtime in Carrion Crown, retraining and crafting time are limited.
With limited downtime for retraining, evocation is straight out of contention. It's just a really feat-intensive school to focus in, and at very minimum you'd need to retrain your arcane school and pick up three feats: spell focus (evocation), spell specialization, and empower spell. And that's minimum, you'd need to be putting the rest of your feats for the rest of your career behind this to keep up.
The good news with respect to Animate Dead is that it doesn't require any feats. Just learn the Animate Dead spell and the Command Undead spell (actually, you already have the second one) and you're good to go. If you can somehow gain access to the Desecrate spell that's very helpful, but your only good option for that is UMD'ing scrolls (there is one sketchy magic item, but it's from the appendix of an adventure path and it's flagrantly underpriced for what it does). Generally fast zombies and bloody skeletons give the best value; a few strong minions are preferable to many weak ones.
Given how much utility she has, a good feat to pick up might be fast study. This lets you leave a spell slot unprepared at the start of the day, then spend 1 minute to prepare the spell from your spellbook later. This essentially gives you pseudo-spontaneous casting of utility spells, and is vastly superior to the Mnemonic Enhancer spell that she has.
In terms of spells, your top priority is to get some good general-purpose combat spells for your 4th and 3rd level slots. For 4th level there's always the classic Black Tentacles spell, and for 3rd level the Haste spell is a solid pick for buffing allies (plus you'll need haste anyways if you want to make fast zombies). Avoid spells that call for saving throws, as her intelligence score is a bit on the low side. Try and get a headband of intellect for better spells.
A Wizard should have no problem contributing to any party.
How best to contribute depends heavily on the rest of your party and what roles they take in the team. Losing a Magus likely means you are down a striker from where you were, and that is the hardest role to make a wizard effective at, especially if not built that way from the beginning.
If though you are missing either control or support in your party, the Wizard should be able to step in just fine and probably be more effective than your previous character was.
One side note, while it is great having your new character have a connection to your old character, I'd focus more on the new characters connection to the other characters in the group. It is those connections that will matter for the game. How your new character feels about your old character is really something that is only going to interest and effect you, the other characters (and players) are where the real interaction will be.