Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harmony's return was worth the wait!, May 30, 2006
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
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20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
JAK at top form, June 19, 2006
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.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dust bunnies are back!, June 18, 2006
"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
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