"After Dark" - Review

Being sick does wonders for my reading list, here's another mom recommended read. "After Dark" by Jayne Castle is a paranormal romance mystery and I highly recommend it, I just loved it. Happy reading!

Mysterious and riveting, captivating to its core!

| Amazon | B&N | Preview |

4 Stars!

Series: Harmony 1, Ghost-Hunter 1, Curtain 2
Characters: Lydia & Emmett
Setting: Alien planet, Old Cadence
Mature Themes: Sex

Recommendation:  Light romance, heavy paranormal/sci-fi, and a great mystery as well.  If any of those topics are typically in your genre of choice, I recommend you give this book a read.  It's the beginning of a bunch of series and if any are as fulfilling as this one, you should be rewarded with a significant amount of enjoyment before you.

Lydia is an experienced para-archaeologist, down on her luck after a bad underground accident, and looking for the client to put her back in the game and help to prove herself to her former colleagues and herself.  When Emmett London hires her to find his missing family heirloom they are both set on path filled with murder, hidden agendas, and just a touch of romance.

A the story progresses the narration flips between Lydia (the majority) and Emmett.  Emmett's perspective was a refreshing look into the male protagonist's perspective, both in regard to the main story elements, his own para abilities and the romance fighting within him. Emmett is the first of the two to recognize the love that is growing between the two of them, however, unlike a typical romance novel this love seemed to take its time.  Through the frustration of secret keeping, Emmett's attempts at keeping Lydia safe, and Lydia trying to prove she's not broken, both of them slowly fall into a loving relationship and as the reader we drift lazily along with them.

The world of Harmony and of Old Cadence is fresh and new.  The science fiction aspect of the setting lends blends well with the modern archaeology aspects and it's easy as the reader to become immersed in the story and keep reading.  The alien elements bring the story to a far off world and the characters have enough human left in them to bring us back to earth.

My appreciation doesn't end there.  In fact, my appreciation is found most easily, at the end of the book.  The wrap up and post-mystery solved section of the story was just what I always crave and am rarely given in a romance novel.  The character's relationship was resolved and it was open-ended and yet still obvious where it would lead.  The mystery was solved, the culprit dealt with and questions you thought you'd forgotten about were answered.  The best part, it was done in more than a page of flash back dialogue.  As a reader, I felt like the author genuinely wanted me to feel satisfied and to feel the bond with her writing to pick up another one of their books.  So thank you, I will be reading another of your stories and I thank you for treating me, the reader, the way I enjoy being treated.