Showing posts with label Jane Ann Krentz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jane Ann Krentz. Show all posts

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Review: In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz (Looking Glass #1, Arcane #10)


*******Adult Book*******

Title: In Too Deep by Jayne Ann Krentz
Published: December 28th, 2010 by Putnam Adult
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Challenge(s):
Grade rate: B

Jayne Ann Krentz follows up her highly successful Dreamlight Trilogy- written in collaboration with her two alter egos, Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle-with a brand-new story arc that begins in a secluded coastal town in northern California.

Scargill Cove is the perfect place for Fallon Jones, confirmed recluse and investigator of the paranormal. It's a hot spot, a convergence point for unusually strong currents of energy, which might explain why the town attracts misfits and drifters like moths to a flame. Now someone else has been drawn to the Cove-Isabella Valdez, on the run from some very dangerous men.

When she starts work as Fallon's assistant, Isabella impresses him by organizing his pathologically chaotic office-and doesn't bat an eye at the psychic aspect of his job. She's a kindred spirit, a sanctuary from a world that considers his talents a form of madness. But after a routine case unearths an antique clock infused with dark energy, Fallon and Isabella are dragged into the secret history of Scargill Cove and forced to fight for their lives, as they unravel a cutthroat conspiracy with roots in the Jones family business . . . and Isabella's family tree.

My Review

I liked this book much better than Fired Up.  I’ve always had a soft spot for Fallon Jones and I’m happy to read his story.

If you’ve read any of the books from the Arcane society, you know they all have a similar pattern to them.   What I liked most about In Too Deep was the characters and the setting.  Fallon is the head of the Arcane Society’s investigation agency Jones & Jones (J&J) and we’ve seen him before in many of the other books, in person or by phone as he communicates with his many relatives, friends and agents. Fallon is not the easiest person to get along with, his ‘talent’ is to find patterns in seemingly unrelated pieces of information, and family legends indicate that people with that type of talent eventually go mad.  All in all, Fallon is handsome, loyal, smart, and brave.

Isabella is, of course, the perfect match for Fallon.  She is (ironically) a conspiracy theorist and comes from a line of some pretty paranoid group of people.   The important thing is that she trusts Fallon and is very loyal to him and to the agency.  Isabella is a very friendly, organized, no-nonsense kind of woman and she’s fiercely loyal too.   Her talent is to find things and she is also able to temporarily control people’s actions.

One of things that I loved about this In Too Deep is that there are different ‘mysteries’ or conspiracies (as Fallon and Isabella would say) running throughout the story.  Scargill Cove is a very interesting place.  It is a very small community that was originally founded as a misguided commune, and then bonded together with a common goal of protecting a few very peculiar artifacts that they found.  The community has already accepted Fallon as one of them and they immediately take a liking to Isabella (as most people and animals seem to do). 

All in all, a very good installment of the Arcane Society novels.  I wonder if we will ever see the end of Nightshade?



Thursday, July 12, 2012

Review: Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz (Dreamlight Trilogy #1, Arcane #7)


Title: Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz
Published: December 29th by Putnam Adult
Source: Purchased
Format: Hardcover
Challenge(s): TBR Challenge
Grade rate: C+

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsessionfueled competition with alchemist and Arcane Society founder Sylvester Jones. Driven to control their psychic abilities, each man?s decision has reverberated throughout the family line, rewarding some with powers beyond their wildest dreams, and cursing others to a life filled with madness and hallucinations.

Jack Winters, descendant of Nicholas, has been experiencing nightmares and blackouts?just the beginning, he believes?of the manifestation of the Winters family curse. The legend says that he must find the Burning Lamp or risk turning into a monster. But he can?t do it alone; he needs the help of a woman with the gift to read the lamp?s dreamlight.

Jack is convinced that private investigator Chloe Harper is that woman. Her talents for finding objects and accessing dream energy are what will save him, but their sudden and powerful sexual pull threatens to overwhelm them both. Danger surrounds them, and it doesn?t take long for Chloe to pick up the trail of the missing lamp. And as they draw closer to the lamp, the raw power that dwells within it threatens to sweep them into a hurricane of psychic force.

My Review

It’s been a while since I’ve read an adult romance and I have read all the books in the Arcane series (up to this one), so I decided to pick Fired Up, which I had bought a few years back. 

I’m going to do a short review on this book.  If you’ve read Jayne Ann Krentz before you know that her stories are very similar, I enjoy it more when she writes under Amanda Quick, her historical romance pseudonym.  There is usually a misunderstood and very strong willed man and an equally strong woman with an ‘issue’ that only this particular man can understand/overcome.  In that respect, Fired Up follows the same pattern.

If you haven’t read any of the Arcane books before, they are about a paranormal society that has its roots around the 1800s.  They catalogue different paranormal abilities and also have a private investigation office (Jones & Jones) that appears in many of the books.   Fired Up has some dealings with J&J, but mostly involves a separate side story about the descendant of Nicholas Winters.  I really enjoyed that we got to see how Luther and Grace (from Running Hot) are doing and also we get to ‘visit’ with Fallon Jones, one of the most fascinating characters of the society.

Overall, the story was somewhat familiar, but to me, it’s like putting on an old PJ – comforting and soft.




Saturday, June 16, 2012

Stacking The Shelves #6



Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga's Reviews in which we feature all the book goodness that we received, borrowed or purchased during the previous week. All links are to Goodreads.

Hi gorgeous people!  This week I don't have a many books since I had a huge haul last week after BEA (see it here!) So here's what I've got:


Kindle 

I can't remember, but I think these were either free or .99 cents!  Found these from other blogs or in Goodreads.

Oceans Between Us by Helen Scott Taylor

Sundial by C.F. Fruzetti and M.I. Pearsal

What a Boy Wants by Nyrae Dawn




Library

Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John - I've heard wonderful things about this book and I finally found in at the library!

The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting - This is the third book in the Body Finder series which I adore.  Cannot wait to read it :)

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Hand - I've got this audio book yesterday and I'm already on disc two. So far, so good...

Fired Up by Jane Ann Krentz - Also and audio book, this is the start of the Dreamlight trilogy. 

That's it for me!  What is stacking your shelves this week?




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