This month's Oldie but Goodie is 'After Glow' by Jayne Castle.
(First released March 2004)
Welcome to Harmony.
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Humans had started to colonize this planet as an archaeological outpost of sorts when alien ruins had been discovered there. But about 200 years after the mysterious energy curtain that had appeared out of nowhere that allowed humans to travel to and fro between Earth and Harmony - the curtain failed, leaving the residents of Harmony stranded, separated from Earth and their loved ones left on their home planet.
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Funny thing about Harmony, though. The alien ruins were more than they first appeared. The ruins held an energy that allowed the humans' latent psychic abilities to manifest themselves in different ways - for within the ruins were 'ghosts' - the leftover energy signature of the very beings that had inhabited the planet eons ago.
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Enter Lydia Smith. She is currently employed by Shrimpton's House of Ancient Horrors - a museum that claims to house all kinds of scary alien artifacts. Lydia is a para-archaeologist trying to restore what is left of her career after an unfortunate incident in one of the ruins' many underground passageways. Lydia is dating a macho-type ghost hunter and loyal Guild man Emmett London. He is trying to find a way to convince Lydia to tie the knot in a formal, Covenant wedding, but with her aversion to ghost hunters, he figures he has a long road ahead of him.
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Lydia also has a knack for finding trouble. Just when she thinks her life has finally calmed down and she has a chance for salvaging her ruined career, she finds a dead body. And not just any dead body. The deceased in question is one Professor Lawrence Maltby, the very man who had sent Lydia a note asking her to come to his home because of some information he had concerning the very incident down in the catacombs that has cost her her career and almost cost her her life.
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As events unfold with both Lydia and Emmett, an unknown person or persons seems to have made it their mission to silence Lydia about what really happened in the ruins, and Emmett has his own worries as well, since the current Guild boss was almost assassinated and has asked Emmett to lead in his stead until he recovers.
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Jayne Castle is a pseudonym for well-known author Jayne Ann Krentz. She is very skilled at world-building in her series of Harmony stories, all of which take place in or around the city of Cadence and the ruins of the Dead City. She has created a wonderful cast of characters as well, some of which show up in various novels along the way, which I personally enjoy. The novel moves along at a nice pace,and I had a very hard time putting it down the first (and second, and third) time I read it. The heat level in this novel is sensual, but in no way detracts from the story.
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You can find out more about this and Ms. Castle's other novels on her website - http://www.krentz-quick.com/
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Happy Reading!
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4 comments:
Ooooh, very cool, Lady B! Great review.
;)
I LOVE Jayne's futuristic books. They share some characteristics with her Arcane Society novels under Jayne Ann Krentz. I like how she's able to build a world that is similar to ours, just a little bit futuristic, but with the psychic evolution. All the cool alien stuff without the unpronounceable names!
I don't know when I'll get around to reading this, but it's been in my radar for a while now. This review just made me want to read it right now, gosh darn it!
I really love this series of novels ~ and I am with Robyn ~ all the cool alien stuff and you can pronounce everything!
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