After Glow

Author: Jayne Castle
Published: February 24, 2004 (Jove)
Category: Paranormal Romance
Rating: 9/10

Don't you just love it when you start reading a new book and it's unexpectedly awesome? I'm talking about that degree of awesomeness where you want to read every book by the author, especially those in the same setting. Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Jayne Castle, has created an easy-to-read blend of romance and science fiction. It's classified as paranormal romance, but I don't quite think it fits there. Then again, there's no scifi romance genre.

The story is set on the planet of Harmony, colonized by humans and abandoned by an ancient alien race that left behind fantastic cities and catacombs made of a glowing green quartz-like material. When the humans colonized, they realized that latent psychic powers surfaced easily on Harmony, and two very important types of psychics came about. One is the ghost hunter, a psychic who can dispel floating balls of alien energy that are usually found in the catacombs. The other is the tangler, a psychic with the ability to unravel psychic traps left behind by aliens in the catacombs. Para-archaelogists excavate in the catacombs and a well-organized dig will not be without good tanglers and ghost hunters.

Our heroine, Lydia Smith, is an ostracized tangler and para-archaelogist. Six months before the events of the book, she was lost in the catacombs for 48 hours and should have stayed lost, but thanks to her dust bunny named Fuzz, she found her way out, but had no memories of the events that occurred. She blames her ordeal on the two ghost hunters on her dig, and those ghost hunters blame Lydia for what happened. Because of that, she has a severe bias against hunters and the Guild that governs them.

There's a serious cute factor in this book in Fuzz the dust bunny. He looks like a bundle of dust that you'd find under your bed, has six legs, and two sets of eyes (one set used just for hunting at night). It should sound disgusting, but he's so endearing in the way he perches on Lydia's shoulder munching on pretzels (his favorite snack), and he's described so charmingly that I want a dust bunny now! He's very protective of Lydia, and you'd think "What can a little ball of fluff do to me?" They mention this quote in the book, that if you can see a dust bunny's teeth, it's too late.

Lydia's dating Emmett London, former Guild boss in Resonance City. He's in Lydia's home town as a favor to his father, Mercer Wyatt, the Guild Boss in Cadence. He's the typical Krentz/Quick hero, the hunter with quiet strength, is very protective of those close to him, and very much believes in thinking before acting. Despite being the strong, almost-silent type, Emmett is a romantic and is more open to moving his and Lydia's relationship forward.

The background story involves Lydia unraveling the mystery of her "lost weekend" in the catacombs. At the same time, Emmett has to stand in for his father as Cadence Guild boss, which brings in all sorts of tension (Lydia dislikes the Guild because of how they handled the two hunters who abandoned her; Wyatt's wife is Emmett's ex-fiancée, etc.), and there are various murders going on that may be related to both Lydia and Emmett.

So while we have a really interesting world and Guild politics to read about, the romance is fantastic and passionate, and I LOVED the characters. I'm very excited to read any new Jayne Castle books, because it appears that her recent publications are set on Harmony. Emmett and Lydia actually started their relationship in After Dark, so it helps After Glow move faster, as we don't waste time with relationship exposition. I was sad to see it end.