Setting: Cadence – her apartment at Dead City View Apartments, his condo – closer to the ruins and it’s resonance power, Hunter Headquarters, Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors, Restoration Ball; Dead City of Old Cadence – green glowing passageways, underground offices and holding cells, one with complicated psi-trap to prevent from going further;Theme: Love and commitment – waiting for the other, as hinting for it – both her and him; responsibility; what happened on Lydia’s Lost Weekend, and why is it coming up again?; Characters:Lydia Smith: para-psychology; tangler; deep desire to understand the Ancients; works for Shrimpton’s House (museum); begun her own private consulting, working with Hepscott who is developing an amusement house recreation of the underground tunnels and wants her to ‘furnish’ it with genuine artifacts; dreams of and gaining pieces of memory of her Lost Weekend; realizes she loves Emmett, but thinks it is too early to tell him – does not want to scare him away;Fuzz:Kinda like a dust bunny, but with a predator with teeth (“by the time you see its teeth, its too late”); psy connection to Lydia; likes pretzels; accepts Elmmett into their lives; locates Lydia when kidnapped and held in tunnels;Zane Hoyt: Lydia’s neighbor; being raised by aunt; part of the Hunter Scouts that went camping with Emmett; when hears Lydia and Emmett married, he shows up on their door step to verify it;Emmett London: Hunter; can disperse dissonance energy ie ghosts; when ‘melts amber’ (great psy energy to create ghost to destroy another’s ghost), his sex drive is high, and then he crashes; before he can implement his plans to sweep Lydia off of her feet, Wyatt is hurt, and he asks Emmett to step in as boss temporarily; Emmett does so, seeing it as the safest way to keep control of the Hunters until Wyatt can step back in; Mercer Wyatt / Tamara: Mercer – head of the Hunters (and his wife Tamara – Emmett’s ex fiancé); he had an affair with Emmett’s mother (who was in an marriage of convenience) but he was in a covenant marriage so could not marry her; he acted as Emmett’s godfather, helping him into Hunter politics; after Mercer gets a call from an ex-girlfriend (after wife died, and before married Tamara), Mercer is shot with a rez gun, tells Emmett it was personal, and asks Emmett to step in; ex-girlfriend later found dead, with a suicide note… and then we find out that ex-girl friend one of the students thought dead, and who is part of the group who are trying to resurrect Vance’s rebellion; Tamara, his wife, is at his side, trying to protect his position, giving Lydia and Emmett guidance;Verwood: Emmett’s body guard; optimistic – sees the glass half full, which Emmett cautions may not be the most useful attitude when a Hunter;Melanie: works at Shrimpton’s; Lydia’s friend; likes to date Hunters; counsels Lydia that she needs sex; gives Lydia support and help when dress shopping; often a sounding board for Lydia;Vincent Lee Vance / Helen Chandler: 100 years ago led a revolution, and were stopped by the Hunters joining ranks; they disappeared; Troy Burgis aka Gannon Hepscott: university student, fascinated with Vance & Chandler, and liked exploring the caves; finds Vance’s journals and a map, and orchestrates for him and 3 others to appear dead… after hunting / living in caves for 5 years, tony goes topside to raise money – becoming a real estate tycoon; funds and uses the Greenies; 8 months earlier, after his tanglers cannot unlock the trap that he believes will lead him to Vance’s secrets, he orchestrates the taking of Lydia – drugging her, but when she wakes before they realize it, and she escapes, and makes a small ‘door’ through the trap – and wakes up on the otherside, psi burned (faced a ‘ghost’), and found by Fuzz; now, when he is aware that her psi power is at full strength, he is trying to get another shot at her… Herbert Slatery: channels Amathia; Troy’s partner (student with him, etc); he is the leader of the Greenies (and has gone over the top), they believe he is channeling an ancient leader, Amathia; he tries to sweettalk Lydia into helping them… but her back behind bars (with the expectation she will escape), and again to follow her to the trap – does not expect Emmett to find her so quickly;Greenies: followers Amatheon; give up their wordly goods, and follow Herbert’s words as faithful followers.Dr. Lawrence Maltby: one of Troy’s professors; but in last 15 years lost his position as he gave in to his addiction to Chartreuse; had his own hidden entrance to the passages, and recognizes Troy – calls Lydia, asking her to come see him as he had information about her Lost Weekend, but Troy’s men kill him – forcing him to OD - before she gets there… but they left him alone, and he wrote the name of the dairy company on a slip of paper before he died; in his fridge, in the empty milk carton, behind a trap, is a 15 year old newspaper article about a missing Troy; (Lydia insists they go back to find clues, against Emmett’s counsel, and find someone had tossed the place);Detective Alice Martinez: working hard to react to the deaths… and gets the promotion when all of the pieces fall into place;Foster Dorring: planted by Hepscott to take over the Hunters when he kills Wyatt; Summary:Though Emmett and Lydia are not big on sharing their feelings, they are moving into a closer, loving relationship; a case where actions speak louder than words; So Emmett figures things out, when his inquiry into the current status of the Hunters that accompanied her on her Lost Weekend are not to be found, and are having their pensions deposited to the Greenies… and when he finds out she is guiding a Greenie group after hours at the museum, he shows up, and figures out she is taken… he and his guard pick up Fuzz (he found her before), get to the catacombs, and locate Lydia… as the Greenies block their exits, they end up in the corridor with the complicated trap (Lydia is remembering her Lost Weekend bit by bit)… he puts up a ghost to give her time to untangle the trap… she opens up just enough to get through… more, different traps – the walls are squeezing in on them… but they get through… they pass Vance and Helen (oops – their backup plan failed), get into a room with shelving… and she finds one book (something never found before of the Ancients)… and the ghost that psi-fried her 8 months earlier, is zapped by Emmett…And we think all is done… they think Herbert is Troy, and he is found dead – suicide; but in fact Gannon Hepscott is Troy… and he (as her client) asks her to his house, where he plans to interrogate her to find out how she figured things out, and then to kill her… but Emmett (in dialogue with Wyatt) figures out that his ex-mistress was one of Troy’s gang, and when he finds out Lydia went to hepscott’s house, they descend on him… Wyatt and Tamara go knocking on his door as neighbors… tell him they see smoke and have called the fire department… and just as Lydia is about to unleash a trap (which would hurt her as well as Hepscott), Emmett rushes in and takes him down … and Emmett thanks his dad (calling him dad for the first time);Memorable scenes:Hunter (that Melanie is dating) tells her that Hunter bosses’ wives have rights – one being to prevent any challenge to husband’s position (why Mercer Wyatt married most of 30 years he is boss); When Emmett temporarily steps in to be Cadence Hunter Boss, and expects a challenge, she announces to press (who are a bit judgmental at her girl friend status) that they are to be married that afternoon (marriage of convenience, commitment for one year)… her primary motivation to keep him safe – but she likes the idea of marrying him. From Emmett’s point of view, he loves her, doesn’t want to move too fast – and was looking forward to romancing her… when steps into boss role, he knows he will not have a lot of time for her – and asks for an exclusive relationship (she was holding her breath that he was breaking up with her)… and he is happy they are married, figuring ways to turn it into a covenant marriage (forever) – but angry and worried when he learns that she did it to ‘save’ him… Lydia accidently finds out that the Hunter council was voting on his appointment, and that Wyatt would probably challenge him – so she arrives in headquarters, walks into the conference room, and sits with Tamara, declaring she was there to assert her wifely rights… which allowed the vote to proceed without a challenge. (which is when Emmett figures out she married him to protect him). In the end, he tells her that he wants a covenant marriage with her (again, she was afraid he was done with her, and happy when he tells her he loves her)… but this time he was arranging it… he wants the big church, beautiful dress, flowers, and big reception, and doesn’t trust her not to cut corners;On their marriage of convenience wedding night, Emmett has plans to make it very romantic... but a ghost on the balcony demands his attention, and he burns amber in defeating it... leading to strong libido - something he has disciplined himself not to give into... when Lydia figures out she is fighting it, she assures him that he can take whatever he dishes out... and me oh my... he overwhelms her with his passion, but it's great... then he falls asleep, barely making it into the bed.Have their first drag out fight over this (though still, neither of them out right share their loving feelings)… she storms out, and goes to her apartment… when he gets to his house, and she’s not there, he calls her up and makes it clear they are married, and he wants her with him… just what she wanted him to admit to… Lydia sees herself – that she cleans up okay… needs a dress for the Ball, taking Melanie with her – and Melanie takes her to the most expensive/exclusive shop… they look at different dresses, and Lydia likes a shiny one… but Melanie (and the shop owner) make it clear she couldn’t pull off the dress – she’d just look like an expensive hooker… then the owner brings in a silky, midnight blue number by one of her new designers… and she looks gorgeous in it… at the Ball, when the Hunter’s wives start to get catty, suggesting she bought it at a knockoff place, she drops the owner’s name, and that it was designed by one of her apprentices… giving the apprentice quite a boost (he sends her big flowers – making Emmett jealous);the book she found in the Ancient library (only book left) has pictures of animals native to this planet, and words - a children's reading book... the Rosetta stone of this culture... and they display it at Shrimptons, until the university figures out its value and insist on getting it;
This one was a clear improvement on the first. I think Castle has a better idea of where she's going with the books and it made a difference in the setting, particularly the side characters. Lydia and Emmet were both better, too, and their relationship was as or more fun. So yeah, a clear step up.As with most series, I'd definitely read the first one before this one; you really need the details of their relationship and Lydia's professional life. That this book is better is something to look forward to.Not that this book is a clear win. The beginning has long expository pieces that felt awkward, at best. The information was needed for the story, but the clumping was noticeable. Oh, and the mystery was the weakest element again, though stronger as well.I really enjoyed the continuance of the romance from the first, and that surprised me a little. Their relationship is pretty strong right from the beginning and while they make some amateur (for the characters, not the author) mistakes, they're honest mistakes and they recover gracefully enough. Starting that strong didn't give the relationship that much room to grow, though, which is why it surprised me I was as interested as I was. I mean, each individually knows they're in love with the other (at least, internally) almost from the beginning. From there, all that's left is making things explicit. That I enjoyed that journey speaks for how much I connect with Castle's style, I suppose.I'm a little torn on the final rating. The book is a solid 3.5 for me, but I'm reluctant to round up. It's better than a three, but not quite a full-on four. I think I'll round to four, though, if only because I liked Fuzz so much and loved the role he played.A note about Steamy: Middle of my range, but on the low side. There are three explicit scenes, but the last one is uber short and the other two aren't that long, either. The middle one after Emmet defuses a large ghost was rather fun, though... :)
What do You think about After Glow (2004)?
I often have difficulty rating books written by Castle(Krentz). I really liked the way she built the world of Harmony - the Dead City and its catacombs, dissonance energy ghosts, hunters and tanglers, etc. I especially enjoyed the personality of the dust bunny Fuzz. The pacing was good, the plot was interesting, and the writing style let the story flow. However, I never became emotionally invested in the characters. It may have been made more difficult in this book because Lydia and Emmett first met in the previous book "After Dark", which I haven't read, and continue their relationship in this book. It wasn't that I didn't like them, it's just that I didn't really care about them. As a side note, I never experience this problem when I'm reading the novels of Quick(Krentz). Because of this issue, I can only give this book a rating of three stars - a good but not a great read.
—Donna
** "After Glow" follows "After Dark", among other (better?) similar-plot fantasy explicit romances by Jayne Castle aka Krentz, set in futuristic planet Harmony. A 'hunter' can tune thought waves through amber to gather or disperse 'ghost' energy radiating from crystal. The series suffers from excess amber and jargon such as 'rez' for power. If her heroines believe hunter Guilds are criminal mobs, why do they date 'thug' bosses and manipulate marriages? Action seems jerky, fits and starts, such as two pages dress payment argument, instead of building and exploding tension. In chapter one, curator Lydia, finds a body, and boyfriend newly promoted Guild chief Emmett finds them. In two, we meet her savior after the amnesiac hours, adorable pet dust-bunny Fuzz, and hot human tongues tangle. In three, boring made-up details remind us the author has a history degree. Finding the villain behind Lydia's weekend of amnesia, lost underground, involves the Greenie cult, guarded caverns, multiple disappearances, and dangerous confrontations. Overall, I like Krentz and her series, they are reliable for what they deliver, but can become tiresome.
—An Odd1
"Derring do" and "bill and coo."I never put spoilers in my reviews.Ms. Krentz is my favorite 3 headed author: Amanda Quick (past,) Jayne Ann Krentz (present,) Jayne Castle (future.) Her world building is unique in that she builds a believable world that coexists with our "normal" one seamlessly for her past and present books which leads to the believable future world.All the books I have read, and liked, that she's written have mystery, action and romance all in one. As far as I can see, all the Castle books have these elements along with sci fi/fantasy in her future world.Well worth reading with strong, unique heroines, animated dust bunnies and a former alien race who left behind a fascinating puzzle for the transplanted human occupants to try to solve keep you guessing and turning the page.
—Katy M
