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Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Copper Beach, Paranormal Romance by Jayne Krentz

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Jayne Krentz sets Copper Beach on one of the San Juan islands off the coast from Seattle, not on the alien planet Harmony; otherwise this novel follows the same path as her Harmony series written under the Jayne Castle name. Abby Radwell works as an online bookseller specializing in paranormal volumes. Per Abby this is a fairly decent size market with multiple dealers and buyers who range from evil nuts to nuts to paranoid to weird. Abby caters to the merely paranoid and weird.

Sam Coppersmith runs an R&D lab that works on crystals with paranormal properties. His dad, along with 2 partners, mined for minerals in Nevada and found some very unusual geodes with crystals full of psi energy. One of the partners kept a lab notebook which disappeared in an explosion 40 years ago but now is rumored to have surfaced. The lab notebook is psi coded, meaning only certain sensitives can read it. Abby is one of these sensitives.

The story proceeds with a few side twists that add energy and interest as Sam and Abby try to identify who is trying to blackmail her into finding the notebook and to secure the book in Coppersmith’s vault.

As with all Jayne Krentz books, the love story rides along with the action-filled plot, with several bedroom detours. Even though we know everything will end up just fine, the story moves and we go with it. The sex scenes are explicit but short. There is very little vulgarity or blasphemy.

Krentz’ biggest gift is her ability to create vivid characters and plots to match. The suspense and romance feel real and we urge the characters along as they fall in love, as they fight bad guys in parking garages, as they confront killers.

I enjoyed the story although the ending seems a bit too pat, too neatly wrapped up and tied with a bow. I’m not aware of a sequel although this set of characters seems natural for ongoing adventures.

4 Stars

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After Glow – Paranormal Romance from Jayne Castle aka Jayne Krentz

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Jayne Castle wrote After Glow as an immediate sequel to After Dark, both taking place on the planet Harmony in the alien cities that overflow with psi and para energy. After Dark can stand alone although it’s best to read After Glow second to understand the back story and setting.

Once again Lydia Smith finds a dead body, this time Professor Maltby a washed up para archaeologist turned drug addict. Professor Maltby told Lydia he had information about her lost weekend, but the only clue Lydia and her lover Emmett London could find is an old article about a student who also got lost in the catacombs.

There are several sex scenes, about 2-3 pages long, no blasphemy and virtually no vulgarity. Overall I recommend this if you enjoy romance/suspense set in unique worlds.

There are two main plots, Lydia digging into whatever Maltby wanted her to know, and Lydia intervening to keep Emmett from being challenged to a ghost hunter duel. Just as I found with After Dark, the plots and characters in After Glow and the other Harmony novels tend to blur together. The books are entertaining because Castle did a wonderful job building her world of Harmony.

4 Stars

After Dark – Paranormal Suspense by Jayne Castle aka Jayne Krentz

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Jayne Krentz creates an entire world, Harmony, in the novels she writes as Jayne Castle. Harmony is a different planet, one that has been cut off from Earth for 200 years, and one that is full of psi-drenched alien artifacts.

Lydia Smith is a para-archaeologist who was forced from her university position after having spent a weekend lost underground in the disorienting and terrifying alien catacombs. She isn’t crazy or unstable although most people who get lost in the catacombs that never recover. Lydia now works as the curator at a 3rd rate museum, Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors. After Dark begins when Lydia finds a semi-friendly rival Chester Brady dead in an alien sarcophagus while meeting her new client, Emmett London.

The novel has many twists and turns with an intricate plot and subplots, and engaging characters. I find I can’t recall the plot after a few weeks and the characters tend to merge into Krentz/Castle’s generic para-powerful romance leads. The real winner is Harmony; we can almost see and feel the green glowing dead cities above and below ground.

Lydia and Emmett both distrust the other. Lydia distrusts Guild ghost hunters and Emmett thinks Lydia may be involved in his nephew’s disappearance. They must work together to stay alive, to find his nephew and to find who killed Chester and why. After Dark explores how each responds to the other, first with almost overwhelming sexual attraction, then with respect and liking and trust.

After Dark has some semi-explicit sex scenes, almost no vulgarity and no blasphemy. Each sex scene lasts about 3 pages so readers can skip through if they so choose.

I read After Dark about every 3 years or so. The plot tends to slip out of my mind rather quickly as do the individual characters. But I always remember the alien city. Harmony is fascinating.

4 Stars

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