Customer Reviews

Ghost Hunter (Ghost Hunters, Book 3)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jayne Castle returns to her fascinating and highly entertaining Harmony series with GHOST HUNTER.

Elly St. Clair called off the marriage to Aurora Springs Guild boss, Cooper Boone, six months ago after she learned he had fought a ghost hunter duel with her ex-boyfriend, Palmer Frazier- and not over Elly as she secretly hoped but rather over Guild business. Elly was tired of being sheltered by her Guild family and moved to Cadence where she now has her own herbal shop.

However, Cooper is back to claim Elly for his bride. He has carefully planned his strategy but he forgot one thing- the personality of Elly herself. Now, he must first help her locate her missing friend and ruin rat, Bertha Newell, who has disappeared in the mysterious catacombs that are under the city. Bertha has stumbled onto an underground drug lab as well as a blue ghost freak. Unfortunately, blue ghosts are a thing of legend and very few ghost hunters have the power to de-rez them; Cooper is one of these few. Cooper and Elly will have to reveal all of their secrets to one another and learn the value of communication if they hope to stop both the blue ghost freak as well as the drug manufacturing.

Jayne Castle shows once again why she is a master of this genre. The richly developed and multilayered world of Harmony is easily explained to first-time readers without boring those of us very familiar with it. Rose, the jewel-loving dust bunny, is a great sidekick for Elly and her penchant for sensing trouble keeps Elly out of more than one dangerous situation.

Authors frequently struggle with creating believable futuristic worlds but Jayne Castle appears to do so effortlessly. Highly unbelievable concepts become real in her hands and it is only after the reader surfaces from the final page that reality sets in and reminds the reader that Harmony is unfortunately not real. Both Cooper and Elly are strong characters, each with a good sense of self and it is perhaps this sense of realism and common sense that anchors the story. In addition, as Castle points out in her introduction, certain things never change despite the environment. A story about a workaholic who learns to put love first is a story that resonates with everyone regardless of the locale.

GHOST HUNTER is not a novel to be picked up just before bedtime as you are guaranteed to remain sleepless until its conclusion. Jayne Castle captivates the reader's attention immediately and the intrigue in GHOST HUNTER keeps the reader enthralled.

COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

JAK has been on my pre-order list for two decades - Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick and her Jayne Castle paranormals. However, I think JAK's best writing of the last decade has been her Castle books. Amaryllis, Zinnia and Orchid, were sexy, funny and dead on target. The type of books that stays in my mind ten years later. After Dark and After Glow are tied to Ghost Hunter, and just JAK as her very best. Okay, it's "formula". JAK has set patterns and she gravitates toward that, but it's a formula I adore. I simply love her males. They are properly male, bossy, arrogant, love to control everything including the woman in their lives. Naturally, you have the female who wants to be loved for herself, not her family connections.

Elly St. Clair is engaged to the Guild Boss of Aurora Spring, Cooper Boone. Her father and brothers were always involved in the Guild, so naturally they were please when Elly became engaged to Cooper. Getting bridal jitters, she wants Cooper to declare his love and passion, not how suitable they are for marriage. When Cooper doesn't give her the reassurance she needs, fearing he wants her for her connections not love, she breaks off the engagement and moves to Cadence. In the six months past, she'd hope Cooper would come after her, like a dashing knight on a charger. Cooper thinks to give Elly time and she would come back. Boy was he mistaken. She's opened a plant shop and enjoys her life in Cadence.

When Elly contacts Cooper and asks him to help her, he believes she wants to reconcile. That is at the very back of her mind, but her current concern is her friend Bertha is missing down in the alien catacombs, and she needs a Ghost Hunter to save her. Cooper is delighted to get the call. Only, once again, he is combining business and romance as he rides to Elly's rescue of Bertha. There is someone, a Guild hunter, summoning legendary Blue Ghosts in connection to the manufacturing of illegal drugs. Cooper is out to put a stop to the drugs, take down the Ghost Hunter who handles Blue Ghosts, and win his ladylove.

Cooper stole my heart. Elly was properly feisty. Their chemistry sparkles.

Highly recommended along with Amaryllis, Zinnia, Orchid, After Dark and After Glow. It's JAK at the top of her game.

"Ghost Hunter" is a return to the planet Harmony where two main psi talents, ghost hunters and tanglers, have developed since the "curtain" closed over 200 years ago.

Elly St. Clair, a botany instructor at an Aurora Springs college, has heard gossip that her fiancee, Aurora Springs Guild boss Cooper Boone, has fought a ghost hunter duel with her ex-boyfriend. Such duels are discouraged due to the very real danger of fatalities. Elly barges into Cooper's office to see him and finds him with her dad who is also a powerful ghost hunter. Since Cooper has been very cool and controlled during their two-month plus courtship, Elly is excited thinking he may have fought a duel over her and thus loves her. However, Cooper and her dad inform her that it was "Guild business." Elly decides she just can't marry a man who doesn't love her and breaks the engagement and leaves right away for Cadence City.

Six months later, Elly hears from her mother that Cooper Boone is coming to Cadence. Elly has a friend who has gone missing in the Ruins that she is worried about. She contacts Cooper, meets him and asks his help finding her friend. Since this suits Cooper's own agenda he agrees. They find her friend injured but alive but first Cooper is forced to de-rez a very rare type of ghost!

The details in this story and twists and turns in the plot were alot of fun as was meeting Elly's dust bunny, Rose. I also enjoyed meeting back up with Lydia and Emmett London. I hope JAK plans to write more stories from Harmony!


If you enjoy any of the Jayne Castle books on Lost Colony worlds, you

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Castle's other books- Orchid, After Glow, ect.- Harmony is a planet colonized by Earthlings when a curtain , or worm hole, opened up between the planets. Everything was great until that curtain suddenly closed and the settlers had to learn how to survive all over again. Two hundred years later, most of the citizens have developed certain psychic powers. Most of these abilities center around the ruins of settlements abandoned by an earlier culture on the planet that died out. Now they spend a large amount of time in these underground catacombs and ghost hunters use their abilities at defusing large masses of energy to keep archeologists and others safe.

Cooper Boone is the head of one of the major ghost hunters guilds. The love of his life, Elly St. Clair, has made it clear though that she has finally had enough of him and the guild. It seems his plan not to come on to strong has backfired and Elly feels he isn't actually interested in her but in the stature she can give him as future firstv lady of the guild. So she ends their engagement and high tails it out of town to the big city for her first shot at independance.

Cooper gives her six months before finally chasing after her. Both of them are still in love but each wants to play it cool and make the other one confess their feelings. Elly uses the disapearances of a friend down in the catacombs as a way to hook back up with Cooper. But as he helps her, Cooper finds something fishy is going on in the big city. He'll stay to investigate and to win Elly back. And maybe it's finally time to unleash a few secrets about the rare abilities that both of them possess.

With a baddy running around to foil them, a starlight hogging cop on their tales, a few past characters from Castle's series popping into help, and an adorably disarming pet dustbunny set to gaurding them the couple may have their hands full. But when is there a better time to fall in love again than when you are on a adventure?

I'm not much into the romance reading except when it is coupled with fantasy. If I would have known that Jayne Castle is also Jane Krentz, I probably would not have bothered even picking up this book. Yet, I did give it a try and was really surprised on how much I enjoyed it. I found the beginning slow, because I had no idea what they were talking about. The language was obscured to me, probably because I have not read any of the Harmony books before. Basically, from what I understand this is a new world cut off from the old one and only just making it to a parallel with the 21st century. The world needs these ghost hunters to get to the stones that allows everything to run. The people have developed these unique talents just by being exposed to the planet over generations--I guess in a sense they adapted to their environment.

This book contains action, romance, suspense, and drama. I liked it alot. I thought the characters were well thought out and planned and really quite endearing. I especially liked the herione and the dust bunny. I've already looked into reading more of the Harmony series. Happy reading!

It's been a while since I've read Jayne Castle's Harmony series and this is a welcome addition to the lot. The book reads like JC started it just when she finished the last Harmony book. Amazing really. So if your a fan who has read this author under her many pen names this will take you back to an earlier time. If this is new to you it is a fast, eventful read and worth picking up.

Elly St. Clair decides that her engagement to former librarian now head of the guild, Cooper Boone, is built on delusion and leaves for the big city of Cadence. Six months later Cooper arrives in the city determined to woo Elly. First the couple must solve the mystery of a new and deadly illicit drug on the streets. There are twists and turns to the plot that will keep the reader glued to the page. Elly and Cooper have a few surprises that are add to the story line. Grab a copy of the book, a glass of ice tea, and go out to the porch swing to while away an afternoon.

I call this the "dust-bunny" series - third book after After Dark and After Glow - this paranormal romance features Elly St. Clair, former fiancé of Cooper Boone. Elly and Cooper live in Harmony, a planet of colonized humans who have developed psi abilities. Cooper is in charge of the guild of ghost hunters in Aurora Springs, and therefore suspect to many people, including Elly. But Elly must swallow her pride and ask for Cooper's help in going into the catacombs to find her friend, a ruin rat. Cooper just happens to be in town, unbeknownst to Elly, and their partnership begins to bring the romance back into their lives - along with murderers and smugglers. The dust bunnies ARE the story, IMO. Great stories, lots of humor, and a great read.

While I usually love the quirky heroines in JAK's novels, I have to agree with another reviewer that Elly acted like a spoiled brat at the beginning of the book and I too didn't like that she dumped orange juice on the hero. She didn't seem like JAK's usual heroines. Unlike the other reviewer however, I did think she improved as the book went along.

I loved Cooper Boone. He was enigmatic and sexy, as are most of her heroes, but he had more funny lines than others I've read. That set him apart for me. I especially loved his relationship with Rose.

Rose was the true star of this story. She was even better than Fuzz. I loved how she kept taking Elly's bracelets and wearing them like a collar. That dust bunny had definite personality.

Some people have commented that JAK's books are formulaic. I say if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's a formula that works for her.

I LOVE Jayne Castle (Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz)!!! And a few years ago when I learned she had written a paranormal I was thrilled. Her stories are always a fun escape from reality--especially if they are futuristic. This one was was no exception. I truly enjoyed it.