Light In Shadow

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not great
Review: "Light in Shadow," is a good story but I thought it was a little too busy. Maybe it's me, I don't know but I had trouble staying focused at times. Still a very good book!

Rating:
Summary: I liked it but ...
Review: I love Jayne Ann Krentz's books, own virtually all of them (under all her names), and reread them regularly, like visiting favorite old friends. That said, I found this one just a tad disappointing. Her characters are always likeable, but I found Ethan somewhat less compelling than some of her other male protagonists, his character not so clearly written. Don't get me wrong, I want to think he's wonderful, it just didn't come across to me as clearly as some of her other characters. I wanted him to leap off the page. I was also disappointed that the relationship between Ethan and Zoe was left hanging, as it was with Lavinia and Tobias in the two Lake-March Amanda Quick books. I assume Ethan and Zoe will be back for further adventures (since this is called a Whispering Springs story, implying there will be others), so perhaps Krentz doesn't want to remove dramatic tension by solidifying their relationship too quickly, but if J.D. Robb can do it with Eve Dallas and Rourke, why can't Krentz do it with her main characters? After all, one of the elements of fantasy in the romance genre is the satisfying feeling you get when two characters you like figure out that they are essential to one another and no one else will do. When the commitment is lukewarm (even though that happens in real life), some of the air goes out of the balloon. There are plenty of contemporary novels out there with imperfect and uncertain relationships; that's not what I read romance for.

I also thought the solution(s) to the murders came out of nowhere. I would have liked there to be a few more hints so that I could really go along for the ride.

Even a disappointing work by Krentz is better than most of the other romances or romantic suspense out there, so don't hesitate to read this one. But I will continue to look for a little more in the next book.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Krentz worthy of her reputation!
Review: I loved it. I must admit, I'm a Krentz, Quick, Castle fan from the beginning and so I buy everything she writes. However, lately it's just been obligatory--gaining me a couple nights read with little else. This book broke the mold back to her very best. I started this book in the late evening and read it through until 3 in the morning--I haven't done that for a book in a long time.

I then gave it to my sister to read and she did the exact same thing. So, thanks a lot JA Krentz, for giving us a thoroughly exciting book, two wonderful characters that I absolutely adored, a book with not one slow moment, and a promise of a sequel with these same characters. I can't wait.

Rating:
Summary: Too many storylines
Review: I think JAK couldn't decide if she wanted to write a fantasy/paranormal story, a romance or a mystery so she clumped them all together w/dissapointing results.

Zoe can sense emotions in rooms. She senses that one of her clients murdered his wife and hires an investigator, Ethan. So, when she is later blackmailed by someone who threatens that s/he will tell the prison fronted as an expensive asylum (which she escaped from) her whereabouts, Zoe asks Ethan to look into it. She doesn't want to go back as 1) she's not crazy 2) her 'therapist' had an obsession with her ability and tried to take her to rooms where disturbing things happened to see her reaction 3) all the patients are kept drugged 4) she has plans for revenge on her in-laws who committed her and possibly murdered her husband. Basically, the asylum's after her, people are dying, and she's having an affair w/the P.I.

It has potential but all of the plots are half-done (they should really be multiple developed stories), the romance is flat (as both hero and heroine are undeveloped) and not fully resolved, the dialogue trite and overdone (the characters keep repeating each others' jokes/comments), and there are so many miscellaneous characters that when one of the villains was apprehended I had to go back and check where s/he was mentioned b/c I didn't recognize the name.

The bottom line: If you're a die-hard fan borrow the book from the library, and if you're new to JAK don't despair: almost all of her other books are much better.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Guilty Pleasure
Review: Jayne Ann Krenz's Light in Shadow is a wonderful guilty pleasure, a romantic thriller that is well-done and compelling. The story of Zoe Luce, an interior designer with a hidden past is light fun reading. I definitely will read Truth or Dare, the sequel to this novel. I am sure it will be as much fun to read as this one. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Guilty Pleasure
Review: Jayne Ann Krenz's Light in Shadow is a wonderful guilty pleasure, a romantic thriller that is well-done and compelling. The story of Zoe Luce, an interior designer with a hidden past is light fun reading. I definitely will read Truth or Dare, the sequel to this novel. I am sure it will be as much fun to read as this one. Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, but something was missing
Review: Overall this is a good book, just not up to JAK standards. Zoe Luce is an interior designer who hears the walls scream. If something bad has happened in a room, for example a murder, she can strongly feel it. She's in Whispering Springs, Arizona hiding from her past. Ethan Truax is private investigator new in town. He's had 3 failed marriages, his older brother was murdered, and his business wasleft bankrupt. He recently arrived in Whispering Springs to be closer to his sister-in-law and nephews. His first client: Zoe. I would say sparks started to fly, only they didn't. In the first few chapters, I felt I missed something. After meeting each for the first time the reader is unaware of what they are thinking or feeling. Then it seems to jump to Zoe and Ethan having the hots for each other. This is unlike JAK's usual style. In addition, I think the ending rushed, leaving me feel that I had been left hanging. The killer was obivous, if a little out there.
Maybe the next book will be better.

Rating:
Summary: excellent romantic suspense
Review: She is an interior designer who incorporates the principles of feng shui and other New Age ideas when she redesigns a house. Zoe Luce is so popular in Whispering Springs that the wealthy Davis Mason hires her to redo his home. When she walks into the master bedroom she senses that somebody very recently was murdered there and she thinks it was Davis' missing wife. Not wanting to work for a killer, Zoe hires private investigator Ethan Truax to discover what happened to her client's wife. It doesn't take long For Ethan to discover that Davis did indeed murder his wife and he offers to protect Zoe before Davis kills her too. He gets there in time to incapacitate Davis.

Zoe and Ethan's relationship is far from over. Somebody knows that Zoe escaped from Candles Lake Manor after being wrongfully committed there by her dead husband's family. Zoe knows that she will somehow flush out the killer who destroyed her life and bring him to justice if Ethan can protect her from the blackmailers and those who will harm her.

Jayne Ann Krentz can always be counted on to write an excellent work of romantic suspense and she doesn't disappoint her audience in LIGHT IN SHADOW. The heroine and hero bumble along into a relationship that neither wants to let go of but one in which both are afraid to admit their true feelings. This endears them to the audience who will find them very likable and unpredictable as they jump from the frying pan into the fire as there are two distinct subplots linked by this attractive duo.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Highly Entertaining Contemporary Romance!
Review: Zoe Luce has gone to great lengths to appear as normal as possible. She changed her name and moved to Whispering Springs, AZ to make a fresh start and leave all who knew her behind. However, it is hard to appear normal when walls start screaming at her in her new client's bedroom. Zoe has always had sensitivity to rooms where great emotions were felt and she knows that something terrible happened in that room. She has a sinking suspicion that her new client killed his wife in that room. Zoe isn't sure what to do so she hires Ethan Truax, the new private investigator in town to find her client's wife, but Ethan is suspicious of Zoe and is determined to find out more about her.

Ethan knows that Zoe is not what she seems, especially after he finds her client's wife buried in the backyard, but he cannot seem to break through her shell - until Zoe gets a blackmail note. When Ethan finds out that Zoe was imprisoned in a mental hospital by her dead husband's family, he knows that he has to protect her. He is not sure why, but it is just something that he does. When his brother was murdered, he lost his career, his third wife, everything to bring his rich and powerful killers to justice - and it was worth it. Ethan, too, is starting over and he thinks that he has found the fresh start that he wants in Zoe. However, Zoe and Ethan are way too stubborn and afraid to share their hopes and dreams with each other. Will they admit their love before more lives are ruined?

I enjoyed this book more than I have enjoyed a Jayne Ann Krentz book in a while. I really felt that Krentz was making an effort to differentiate her characters from other books that she had written and not do the stereotypical quirky heroine with stoic, incommunicative hero. I really liked Zoe and found her to be quite normal (aside from the screaming walls thing) and Ethan was much more in tune with himself than most of the other heroes out there. My only complaint was that there were a lot of side plots going on in the book and Krentz didn't have time to follow up on all of them in a satisfactory fashion. I think that it would have been better for this book to have been split into two so that the characters and the plot could have been more developed. Still, if you enjoy Krentz, I think you will like this one and it is worth your time to check it out from the library or buy from a used bookstore.