Silver Master

Author: Jayne Castle
Published: August 28, 2007
Category: Paranormal Romance
Series: Harmony
Rating: 9/10

Oof, yet again, a shirtless man on the front cover. Seriously, I can't remember Castle writing about how ghost hunters like to wear leather vests sans shirt. Anyone who knows me knows about my obsession with good epilogues to see how my beloved characters are doing. Castle, in her post Lydia-Emmett novels has brought past characters into her new novels, includying Lydia, Emmett, Mercer, and Tamara. In this, we get this, plus Cooper and Elly's wedding (they were from the previous book, Ghost Hunter).

Cadence City matchmaker and para-resonator Celinda Ingram meets her match in security specialist Davis Oakes. On the hunt for the powerful relic that Celinda supposedly bought as a toy for her pet dust bunny, Davis must use all of his unique psychic abilities to try and wrest the ruby red object from the suspicious duo, keep his desire for Celinda in check and keep them all safe from those who will do anything to possess the relic.

I love dust bunnies and they are probably the top reason I read Castle's (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) Harmony novels. Silver Master ups the dust bunny entertainment by providing hero and heroine each with a dust bunny, of course Davis has a boy bunny named Max and Celinda has a girl bunny named Araminta. Max is totally adorable with the way he sleeps on his back with all six paws in the air and a penchant for over-imbibing alcoholic beverages. And Celinda has to deal with Araminta in heat or whatever you call dust bunny mating season.

Celinda has a rare psi talent of being able to read people's psi patterns, and she's extremely, off-the-charts powerful in it. She uses her talent to match people perfectly, but keeps the nature of her talent secret, as she's also able to manipulate people's emotions slightly (if she so chooses). Aside from this secret, she has a scandalous past involving a Guild boss candidate from her old home town, where she was painted as his mistress, and ruined her reputation.

Davis Oakes, investigating the missing ruby artifact for Mercer Wyatt (Guild boss of Cadence City), also has an off-the-charts talent that he keeps secret. He's able to manipulate silver light and can eliminate ghosts with it, as well as turn invisible. As society tends to be afraid of unique talents, and labels them freaks, he tells as few people as possible. Unfortunately, his former fiancee couldn't handle his freak talent and backed out of their covenant marriage.

How fortunate that Celinda, upon first meeting Davis, realizes that his psi pattern is so compelling that he must be perfect for her. But she quickly downgrades him to almost perfect when he reveals his stance on marriage consultants (worthless), is a Guild man even though he isn't a ghost hunter, and Araminta runs off with the relic that belongs to the Candence City Guild. However, Davis is rather determined to know Celinda better and explore the sparks of attraction between them. The heat that Castle wrote for them was fantastic and there was a great sense of humor too. It was also refreshing for the hero and heroine to COMMUNICATE with each other. There are far too many romances out there where the conflict exists only because the couple doesn't know how to communicate.

I was sad when the book had to come to an end. The action was well written (dust bunnies get into the fight!) and the bad guys were entertaining. Plus I like how Castle is expanding the world of Harmony more with each book. I can't wait for the next Harmony book!