Collections
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. Suspense. HTML:Welcome to Harmony�where the rules are a little different. Life is tough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed para-archaeologist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged to work part-time in Shrimpton�s House of Ancient Horrors, a very low-budget museum. She has a plan to get her career back on track, but it isn�t going well. Stuff keeps happening. Take the dead body that she discovered in one of the sarcophagus exhibits. Who needed that? Finding out that her new client, Emmett London, is one of the most dangerous men in the city isn�t helping matters either. And that�s just today�s list of setbacks. Here in the shadows of the Dead City of Old Cadence, things don�t really heat up until After Dark. Includes a preview of Jayne Castle�s Rainshadow Novel DECEPTION COVE.… (more)
Language
Original language
English
User reviews
LibraryThing member kmartin802
Para-archaeologist Lydia Smith has had nothing but bad days lately. After losing 48 hours and her memory in an alien tomb, she's lost her university job and is working at Shrimpton's House of Ancient Horrors while trying to start her consulting business.
Her first client is Emmett London who is
Emmett is keeping a number of secrets about his quest and about himself which are slowly revealed through the story. He's really looking for his nephew who made off with the chest and then disappeared. The nephew isn't the only unexplained disappearance either.
Chester knew something about the disappearances and about a discovery of very rare artifacts and those who are trying to keep their crimes secret believe that he told Lydia. This puts Lydia in lots of danger and causes Emmett to move in with her to protect her.
Fuzz is the dust-bunny in this story. He's Lydia's companion and the one who rescued her when she was trapped in the alien ruins. He is very protective of Lydia even though he most often looks like dryer lint and is small enough to ride on her shoulder. He is a big fan of pretzels.
This is definitely science-fiction-lite but an entertaining paranormal romance. I liked the worldbuilding and the paranormal talents the residents of Harmony are developing.
Her first client is Emmett London who is
Show More
looking for an ancient Earth artifact called the chest of curiosities. Lydia has her doubts about the provenance of the chest and also about Emmett but a job's a job. Only she doesn't make a good impression on Emmett when the two discover the body of one of Lydia's acquaintances near her office at the museum. Chester Brady had the same psychic talent as Lydia but didn't have the advantage of her education. He was quite a shady character. Emmett is keeping a number of secrets about his quest and about himself which are slowly revealed through the story. He's really looking for his nephew who made off with the chest and then disappeared. The nephew isn't the only unexplained disappearance either.
Chester knew something about the disappearances and about a discovery of very rare artifacts and those who are trying to keep their crimes secret believe that he told Lydia. This puts Lydia in lots of danger and causes Emmett to move in with her to protect her.
Fuzz is the dust-bunny in this story. He's Lydia's companion and the one who rescued her when she was trapped in the alien ruins. He is very protective of Lydia even though he most often looks like dryer lint and is small enough to ride on her shoulder. He is a big fan of pretzels.
This is definitely science-fiction-lite but an entertaining paranormal romance. I liked the worldbuilding and the paranormal talents the residents of Harmony are developing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Jenson_AKA_DL
After Dark is a solid sci-fi/supernatural mystery/thriller which rather downplayed the romance for the plot. Not that this is a bad thing, I thought it made the few bedroom scenes more interesting rather than redundant, as they can sometimes get.
In this story Lydia, a psy-rez tangler (you'll have
I really enjoyed the interaction between Lydia and Emmet, although I rather enjoyed Emmet's personality a bit more than Lydia's. She tended to seem a little pious and biased about issues in the story (particularly about Emmet's background.) I do understand that this was intentional on the part of the author, but it didn't make me feel any kinder toward her. I absolutely loved Fuzz, he is one of the best pet/sidekick creatures I've read about. Certainly a unique little guy! The made-up science of the plot line was very cool as well. Reading about Lydia and Emmet and how they do what they do sort of reminded me of the bio-feedback techniques I learned about in psychology class, just with a more physical application.
I'd certainly recommend this one to people who enjoy sci-fi/mystery stories with a bit of romance, which seems like it is a relatively small genre. I've certainly not read many that fit into that description.
I'm pretty certain there is a sequel to this story involving these same characters and I am absolutely going to have to find and read it.
In this story Lydia, a psy-rez tangler (you'll have
Show More
to read the book for a full definition!) has discovered her quasi friend/rival murdered in the curio museum she works at. What is worse is that she is not only considered a suspect, but that she is being questioned in front of the first client she'd had want to hire her for her para-archeology experience. Said client, businessman Emmet London has an agenda of his own. Never expecting to get caught up with Lydia, her pet dust bunny or her teen next-door neighbor, he finds himself irrevocably wrapped up in a mystery that could lead both him and Lydia to the greatest find in para-archeological history.I really enjoyed the interaction between Lydia and Emmet, although I rather enjoyed Emmet's personality a bit more than Lydia's. She tended to seem a little pious and biased about issues in the story (particularly about Emmet's background.) I do understand that this was intentional on the part of the author, but it didn't make me feel any kinder toward her. I absolutely loved Fuzz, he is one of the best pet/sidekick creatures I've read about. Certainly a unique little guy! The made-up science of the plot line was very cool as well. Reading about Lydia and Emmet and how they do what they do sort of reminded me of the bio-feedback techniques I learned about in psychology class, just with a more physical application.
I'd certainly recommend this one to people who enjoy sci-fi/mystery stories with a bit of romance, which seems like it is a relatively small genre. I've certainly not read many that fit into that description.
I'm pretty certain there is a sequel to this story involving these same characters and I am absolutely going to have to find and read it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
As Cosmo said "good fun", not the worlds best novel a romance novel thinly disguised as Science Fiction, about a transparent as a window with plot, but readable. It’s the kind of book I read to remind me how good some other authors are. I have a soft spot for Ms Krentz as her stuff is readable
Show More
pap but good when I’m not in the mood for anything vaguely challenging! Show Less
LibraryThing member SunnySD
On Harmony, a future Earth colony once inhabited by a paranormal alien race, almost everyone has evolved some sort of psychic talent. For most, the talents are minor, but certain stronger talents can be focused via chunks of polished amber. The aliens left behind artifacts and ruins which are
Show More
guarded by psychic traps and "ghosts" which can only be evaded or disarmed by those talented in detangling or in manipulation of the ghosts' psychic energy. Lydia Smith is a discredited detangler. Emmett London is a ghost hunter in need of her services. A missing artifact, murder, intrigue, and of course romance: if the conclusion is forgone, the trip there is a worthwhile ride. And who could not love Fuzz -- all hail the dust bunnies! Show Less
LibraryThing member NemesisClaws
Didn't realize when I checked this out from my library that it was a sci-fi romance story. The sci-fi was a pretty good plot, but the romance was a bit lacking. Definitely not what I'm used to from this author, but I'm intrigued enough to check out the rest on this series.
LibraryThing member EmScape
Another futuristic romance set beyond the Curtain, this time on Harmony. The residents of harmony have different psychic gifts than those of St. Helens. They are able to use amber and psi energy to power everything from cars to televisions. Some are more gifted in that they can manipulate 'ghosts'
I enjoyed this story. The world of ghost hunters and tanglers is intriguing. The mystery was complicated and well-written, even though it was a bit predictable. I never thought I'd be attracted to a hero named "Emmett" though!
Show More
and untangle 'traps' left in the old cities built by the former residents of the planet. These people are para-archaeologists and ghost hunters. Lydia and Emmett are just such a team, trying to find Emmett's nephew and a family heirloom he stole, they uncover something much more valuable, and dangerous.I enjoyed this story. The world of ghost hunters and tanglers is intriguing. The mystery was complicated and well-written, even though it was a bit predictable. I never thought I'd be attracted to a hero named "Emmett" though!
Show Less
LibraryThing member readinggeek451
The first in Castle's Ghost Hunters series, set on the planet Harmony, where the colonists use psi technology to power their cars and toasters, and where "hunters" and "tanglers" are necessary to explore the alien ruins underground. This is a little rough around the edges compared to later volumes
A disgraced para-archaeologist joins forces with an ex-Guild boss to track down his missing nephew, solve a murder, and catch some artifact thieves. As usual, the dust-bunny steals the show.
Castle is one of the few authors of 'paranormal romances' who actually gets the fantastic elements right.
Show More
in the series, but worth a read.A disgraced para-archaeologist joins forces with an ex-Guild boss to track down his missing nephew, solve a murder, and catch some artifact thieves. As usual, the dust-bunny steals the show.
Castle is one of the few authors of 'paranormal romances' who actually gets the fantastic elements right.
Show Less
LibraryThing member krissa
I liked it. I did spend the first few chapters struggling to reconcile this book with the other 2 from the series I have read (one before, one after). They are set in the same world, but not necessarily the same characters. Once I realized that, it was easier to let it go, and enjoy the story. I
Show More
enjoy (and admire) the author’s ability to create the world so similar, and so different, but has the ability to suck you in completely. Within that she weaves together and intricate mystery, with the appropriate, surprising bomb drops. Then to be able to weave in sometimes subtle, yet appropriate romance… I think that is a big part of what keeps me coming back to these novels. And Emmett London… I just want to melt into his arms… *swoon*… The one drawback (which reflects on me, not the author) is I had to put it down for about a month and a half, due to ‘obligation reads’. So I sort of lost the train of the story, and it took me a while to pick it up again. I am really looking forward to the next one in this series, as I believe the same characters are back. Show Less
LibraryThing member juniperSun
I'm reading 2 books now that have female archaeologists in some future time dealing with discoveries of alien cultures. This is definitely a more enjoyable read. Although the usual formulaic attraction/repulsion with a male is involved, in general I feel Castle had fun writing this book and the
This is as more a mystery/who-done-it than a typical scifi, as Lydia, former archaeologist disbarred from research who is starting a business as consultant for hire, tries to find who murdered Chester Brady, why his body was left where she would find it, who is trying to scare her off the case, and how this ties in to her first client's request.
Set in a time/place where people have developed psychic abilities which use amber to tap in to an alien power source which is still poorly understood.
Show More
hot-and-heavy is partly tongue in cheek.This is as more a mystery/who-done-it than a typical scifi, as Lydia, former archaeologist disbarred from research who is starting a business as consultant for hire, tries to find who murdered Chester Brady, why his body was left where she would find it, who is trying to scare her off the case, and how this ties in to her first client's request.
Set in a time/place where people have developed psychic abilities which use amber to tap in to an alien power source which is still poorly understood.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kristiem75
How did it take me so long to find this book?! Paranormal/sci-fi/murder mystery/romance - it has it all. Loved it!
LibraryThing member Stewartry
What a mixed bag these books are. I came across free secondhand audiobook versions of them, so I figured why not. Although I had a vague association of the author with mediocre romance/PNR, I didn't worry too much about it. Free, after all.
I enjoyed some things. I didn’t mind the characters
The author relies heavily on cliché. If there's a well-worn overused phrase to insert into a given situation, she uses it. Otherwise the writing is tolerable, so once I'd adjusted to rolling my eyes every now and then as she blows the dust off yet another hairy old saying, it was quite readable (listen-to-able). Except for the fact that characters have an obnoxious habit of asking questions that were answered about a minute ago … This is another example of an author who either doesn't trust her own ability or doesn't trust her readers' reading comprehension skills, because it's yet another example of a book in which an occurrence is described, and then a short time later one of the participants talks about it in detail to someone who wasn't there – and then, on really special occasions, it all gets repeated a third time for some insufficient reason – no new information, no new take on the situation, just sheer grinding repetition. I don't understand how such things get past professional editors.
And on the subject of aggravating repetition, if I hear the phrase "lost weekend" one more time there may be consequences. I began to wish I had a digital copy of the book so I could do a count on how often the term is (over)used. And while I'm picking nits, Jayne Castle is also one of those writers who far too often has her characters doing something for "a long moment". It happens a lot, to a lot of writers, to the point that I noticed it when I was about eighteen years old and swore never, ever, ever to use "a long moment" in any form in anything I ever wrote. (Except book reviews.) It's even dustier and more annoying than the rest of the clichés in here.
Regarding the narration: Joyce Bean did a perfectly adequate job … she didn't become a favorite narrator, but she didn't irritate me. However, I don't really understand why Lydia's coworker Melanie has a Southern accent. If this is another planet, colonized by Earth humans long enough ago that their psi abilities have been affected by the environment and they can look back centuries to this huge war of theirs, then … how does someone have an accent from the U.S. 21st century South? Oh – wait. Maybe it's a very, very subtle reference to Doctor Who.
Speaking of that dust bunny, "Fuzz" (which I did a little while ago) … why do people like him? Because from what I've seen in other reviews and from the notes at the beginning of the second book, people do. It puzzles me; the thing has next to no personality. It's something that literally looks like a dust bunny, yet is a predator, yet is content to hang out as a pet; something which spends 90% of the book begging for or eating pretzels (another word I'd like to do a count for – those damn pretzels get more coverage than some characters in the book) and the other ten percent opening its second set of eyes or doing something else to underline the fact that it's not Terran. So … um … where is the entire rest of the animal kingdom of this planet? Does everything have four eyes and six legs? Do people have moronic names like "dust bunny" for everything? Is in fact "dust bunny" the official name for the things, or just a cutesy-ism? There is never to my knowledge a single reference to another native species except the extinct people who left behind the nifty tunnels and whatnot.
Really, I don't quite understand why the author felt the need to place the book, or rather the series, so entirely elsewhere, when so little was done to create this new world. The thing with the "ghosts" was explored a bit, eventually, but otherwise, with a search/replace for all those "rezzes" or whatever it is, it might as well have taken place in Milwaukee.
It's not the worst thing I've ever read or listened to. But, though I also listened to the second book, for the Everest-esque reason that "it was there", it doesn't inspire me to ever read anything else by Castle.
I enjoyed some things. I didn’t mind the characters
Show More
(except when I did); in some ways the story was pretty well told; I have to say the setting is fairly thorough and deep and well drawn… in places. It's an interesting idea, once exposition is provided. But it doesn't altogether make sense, and information is doled out in dribs and drabs and piecemeal, and a few explanations don't come until late in this first book or even the second. For example, it takes quite a while for the oddities in the story – a pet dust bunny with six legs? Ghosts which aren't really ghosts? – to become clearer: aha. The books aren't contemporary paranormal romance/urban fantasy, they're futuristic (I assume) science fictional urban fantasy/PNR, taking place on another planet which has influenced the genetics of humanity to the point that everyone's a little bit psychic. The author relies heavily on cliché. If there's a well-worn overused phrase to insert into a given situation, she uses it. Otherwise the writing is tolerable, so once I'd adjusted to rolling my eyes every now and then as she blows the dust off yet another hairy old saying, it was quite readable (listen-to-able). Except for the fact that characters have an obnoxious habit of asking questions that were answered about a minute ago … This is another example of an author who either doesn't trust her own ability or doesn't trust her readers' reading comprehension skills, because it's yet another example of a book in which an occurrence is described, and then a short time later one of the participants talks about it in detail to someone who wasn't there – and then, on really special occasions, it all gets repeated a third time for some insufficient reason – no new information, no new take on the situation, just sheer grinding repetition. I don't understand how such things get past professional editors.
And on the subject of aggravating repetition, if I hear the phrase "lost weekend" one more time there may be consequences. I began to wish I had a digital copy of the book so I could do a count on how often the term is (over)used. And while I'm picking nits, Jayne Castle is also one of those writers who far too often has her characters doing something for "a long moment". It happens a lot, to a lot of writers, to the point that I noticed it when I was about eighteen years old and swore never, ever, ever to use "a long moment" in any form in anything I ever wrote. (Except book reviews.) It's even dustier and more annoying than the rest of the clichés in here.
Regarding the narration: Joyce Bean did a perfectly adequate job … she didn't become a favorite narrator, but she didn't irritate me. However, I don't really understand why Lydia's coworker Melanie has a Southern accent. If this is another planet, colonized by Earth humans long enough ago that their psi abilities have been affected by the environment and they can look back centuries to this huge war of theirs, then … how does someone have an accent from the U.S. 21st century South? Oh – wait. Maybe it's a very, very subtle reference to Doctor Who.
Speaking of that dust bunny, "Fuzz" (which I did a little while ago) … why do people like him? Because from what I've seen in other reviews and from the notes at the beginning of the second book, people do. It puzzles me; the thing has next to no personality. It's something that literally looks like a dust bunny, yet is a predator, yet is content to hang out as a pet; something which spends 90% of the book begging for or eating pretzels (another word I'd like to do a count for – those damn pretzels get more coverage than some characters in the book) and the other ten percent opening its second set of eyes or doing something else to underline the fact that it's not Terran. So … um … where is the entire rest of the animal kingdom of this planet? Does everything have four eyes and six legs? Do people have moronic names like "dust bunny" for everything? Is in fact "dust bunny" the official name for the things, or just a cutesy-ism? There is never to my knowledge a single reference to another native species except the extinct people who left behind the nifty tunnels and whatnot.
Really, I don't quite understand why the author felt the need to place the book, or rather the series, so entirely elsewhere, when so little was done to create this new world. The thing with the "ghosts" was explored a bit, eventually, but otherwise, with a search/replace for all those "rezzes" or whatever it is, it might as well have taken place in Milwaukee.
It's not the worst thing I've ever read or listened to. But, though I also listened to the second book, for the Everest-esque reason that "it was there", it doesn't inspire me to ever read anything else by Castle.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Lauren2013
After Dark
3 Stars
Welcome to Harmony - a world colonized by humans centuries ago and then suddenly cut off from Earth leaving its inhabitants to fend for themselves. Set against the backdrop of a lost ancient civilization, Lydia Smith is a parapsychologist working in an off the grid museum following
While this is the first book set on Harmony, it is the third that I've read. The first two as part of Krentz's Arcane series, and as such, the setting and world-building were more or less familiar.
Despite the originality of the concept (humans colonizing a planet that was once inhabited by a mysterious alien race), the romantic suspense plot could have been set anywhere. The murder mystery is pretty straightforward and very similar in nature to most of Krentz's books.
Likewise, the romance is reminiscent of Krentz's works both historical and contemporary. Both Lydia and Emmett are likable and engaging as individuals and as a couple. They have good chemistry and the next book in the series continues their story, so readers will be able to see them take their relationship to the next level.
Overall, readers who enjoy Jayne Ann Krentz's writing will enjoy this as well.
3 Stars
Welcome to Harmony - a world colonized by humans centuries ago and then suddenly cut off from Earth leaving its inhabitants to fend for themselves. Set against the backdrop of a lost ancient civilization, Lydia Smith is a parapsychologist working in an off the grid museum following
Show More
a traumatic incident in an alien tomb. Unfortunately, Lydia's plans to work as a freelancer go awry when she and her potential new client, the enigmatic Emmett London, stumble upon a corpse in a sarcophagus. While this is the first book set on Harmony, it is the third that I've read. The first two as part of Krentz's Arcane series, and as such, the setting and world-building were more or less familiar.
Despite the originality of the concept (humans colonizing a planet that was once inhabited by a mysterious alien race), the romantic suspense plot could have been set anywhere. The murder mystery is pretty straightforward and very similar in nature to most of Krentz's books.
Likewise, the romance is reminiscent of Krentz's works both historical and contemporary. Both Lydia and Emmett are likable and engaging as individuals and as a couple. They have good chemistry and the next book in the series continues their story, so readers will be able to see them take their relationship to the next level.
Overall, readers who enjoy Jayne Ann Krentz's writing will enjoy this as well.
Show Less