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After Dark

After Dark

List Price: $6.99
Your Price: $6.29
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great story!!
Review: Of all Jayne Castle's books, I love this the most. Oh, her other books (Zinnia, Orchid, Amaryllis) are okay, but somehow they sound the same once you read all three of them. 'After Dark' is rather different.

The first time I read this book, I was kinda frustrated with the fact that so many 'jargons' are introduced, that made the first few pages rather confusing and 'messy'. But when you go deeper into the book, you will be amazed at how the story unfolds - the ghost hunters, the ghosts, ghost duels, the illusion traps - very, very creative story-telling here.

Oh, and I especially love Lydia's pet dust bunny, Fuzz. Very cute, with his 'daylight eyes' and 'hunting eyes' and the fact that it is addicted to, of all things, pretzels.

Very good story telling here, believe me.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointed!
Review: I usually enjoy Jayne Castle books (Amanda Quick and JAK as well) but this one was boring! I could not get into the characters. I ended up skiming through just to get it done. A waste of money.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: a big disappointment, maybe wait for the sequel.
Review: I have read many many books by Jayne Caste/ Jayne Ann Krentz/ Amanda Quick, and usually enjoy them. This book was a huge disappointment. The theme of lost colonies behind the "Curtain" is getting a bit old, and this latest version of the powers of the colonists does not work as well as in some others. The concepts are a bit abstract, not well explained, and pretty cumbersome in their description (a dissonace-para-rez-what?). In addition, the "end" of the book made me wonder if my copy was missing pages - so many loose ends remained. In JAK' Gift of Fire and Gift of Gold books the reader was not as aware at the end of the first book that the story was incomplete. I was delighted and surprised to see the characters show up again. After this book, however, I felt cheated, as if the writer threw in too many teasers to ensure that you have to buy the next book to get the whole story. If you haven't bought this book but plan to do so, wait until the sequel is out and hope that you can get all the answers a reader deserves.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Loveless
Review: Not once in did Lydia and Emmett say "I love you" to each other. I think that is a very important part of any romance novel. There was no talk of love or marriage. Only a date. This is not her best work. Personally, I like that sweet feeling a good romance novel leaves you with once you hit that last page. I usually smile. Try reading another JC book first. She has some really great ones out.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not up to her usual standards¿
Review: Not up to her usual standards...

I usually like Jayne Castle (in any of her pseudonyms, JAK or Amanda Quick) even though her stories tend to be very similar. They usually mean a fun, light, quick read. After Dark had many elements of her previous books, but falls short on the "good read" factor. Emmett and Lydia are good characters, well written and Ms. Castle's typical yin-yang, ego-id couple. They have some great verbal sallies, but that is about the only thing that kept this book together.

There are so many loose ends; I don't know where to start. Ms. Castle would lead up to some interesting points, and then lose that thread in the story. What was Emmett's background? We got some teasers but no answers. Lydia loses 48 hours of her life, and throughout the whole story, I was waiting for this to tie back into the plot. Not only did it not tie back into it, we never learned what those 48 hours were about, just that she "lost" them. An old antique curio cabinet brings Emmett to Lydia in the first place, what happens to it, what's in it, etc? Lydia has some pretty deep-set prejudices against "ghost hunters" and guild bosses in the story (both of which Emmett happens to be). For a smart lady, these prejudices make her seem pretty small minded and unintelligent.

As can be seen here on the various reviews, there is some confusion about the location of this story too. Yes, this is a planet that was inhabited by humans when the "curtain" was up, like the one in Zinnia, Orchid and Amaryllis, but this planet (Harmony) is not the same planet. Similar paranormal traits are transferred onto these colonists, but they are not the same. Because it is the same "curtain" as the previous books, it would be easy to assume that this is the same planet and same powers as her previous books. This is not the case and leads the reader to some confusion. Amber is the key to their "channeling" as opposed to another human like her "Flower" series or her Gifts of Gold/Gifts of Fire books. Overall, development was absent. There was not enough background building, or world building for this to be a good sci fi, and the romance is strangely lacking in this story. Not one her best efforts and I sincerely hope there will be a sequel to answer some of these questions...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: AMBER STONE POWER IN SCIENCE FICTION
Review: This book gives a futuristic look into a parallel universe where antique hunting is a major revenue, causing the usual problems that inevitably occur when big money in involved. It's a universe where humans with well-developed psychic powers can summon ghosts for protection and destruction. In this universe, there are also other humans with intensive ghost-fighting powers. The story starts with the discovery of a dead body and no suspects. Then it continues until the killers and the reason are found. Amber stones worn by everyone and the color green play important roles also. Behind the mystery and the powers, there's a small love story brewing. AFTER DARK is a science fiction story where a highly vivid imagination is mandatory.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good story weak on romance!
Review: This is the fourth book by Jayne Castle I've read and enjoyed. Futuristic romances are fluff reading for me and I don't usually retain them very well. When I read "After Dark," I didn't recall that Harmony was also the locale in her other three books, "Amaryllis," "Orchid," and "Zinnia." Perhaps if the heroine Lydia Smith was named Petunia or Rose it might have clicked for me. This did not distract or hinder my enjoyment of this book. Ms. Castle is indeed proficient at writing a good mystery, spiced with a little romance. In this book, however, "little romance" is the key. The story line was a good read, but if you're looking for steamy romance, don't expect to work up a sweat.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: ok book
Review: I've liked Jane Castle since her first book Amaryllis and all the other ones since unfortunately I found this one lacking in the usual scene grabber. The book dragged on and did not show to much on the love interest and the plot was not so good. Dont get me wrong I love Janes books but this one was not up to snuff the cliffhanger ending was not so detailed. The climax came to fast and the supposed "action" scene was not exciting. I think if she would have focused on emmett and lydia it would have worked more.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: I'm a big Jayne fan and look forward to all of her books, though my personal preference is for the Amanda Quick period pieces. After her three former futuristic novels about Harmony, all of which were excellent, After Dark was a bit of a letdown. The characters and the plot just weren't as solid as her previous efforts, and I found myself wanting more details of both than she supplied and wished she'd tied up all the loose ends. Exploration and resolution of her experieces during the Lost Weekend would have made this a much better book than it was. I would agree with other reviewers that the novel is richer if you've read the three preceeding ones. With those disclaimers, however, this is still worth reading, because even less-than-the-best Jayne is better than most other romance writers, and she creates a nicely imaginative world for the reader. I particularly liked the Fuzz creature. All in all, not her best work, but certainly a decent effort.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ugh!!!
Review: Don't waste your time (not to mention money) on this one. This book is SAD!!! I have enjoyed many of Jayne Anne Krentz's novels especially the futuristic ones written as Jayne Castle (Crystal Frame, Shield's Lady, etc..) but this one is just awful!!! Poor (tripe) writing, terrible plot (did I say plot was there one???), tried one-dimensional herorine, weak hero,etc... I could go on and on but you get the point. Don't get me wrong, Jayne Ann Krentz is still one of my favorite authors, but this last one is pretty bad. Maybe she should concentrate more on quality instead of quantity. I will continue to read her (she hasn't burnt me out yet) with the hope that the next futuristic is significantly better than this one.


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