Customer Reviews

Light in Shadow

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Zoe Luce has been in hiding in Whispering Springs, Arizona. She is a decorator with very special abilities. She can hear past tragic events in the walls of a room. When a recently divorced man hires her, she is disturbed by what she senses in the bedroom. Zoe is convinced the man murdered his wife, and is compelled to help, but she is unsure what to do since she is living a lie herself as an escapee from a mental institution. She decides to hire a private investigator to help her. Ethan Truax has just taken over a small operation in town, and Zoe reluctantly hires him. They clash from the first time they meet, but that doesn't stop the attraction from coming to the surface. Ethan is trying to piece together his life after his brother's murder, and another failed marriage - his 3rd! He also hates psychics, and makes no secret of it.

As the pieces begin to fall into place in solving the mystery, Zoe's life begins to fall apart. One of the guards at the mental institution has tracked her down, and decides that it would be more profitable to blackmail Zoe than take her back. When Zoe goes to Ethan for help they are drawn even closer to each other, as he now understands her past. When Ethan delves deeper into Zoe's life it comes out how her deceased husband's family had her put away to keep her from her inheritance. To keep her safe, he decides to marry Zoe.

I liked the characters of Ethan and Zoe and was rooting for them to be together. It was interesting that the main case was solved early on only to fall immediately into another to solve. Different concept not often seen.

The last 6 Krentz books have been less than stellar. But now she's back in stride. Characters you care about, enough of a plot to keep me reading all night--and on a work night yet. Hope the rest of the series are as good as this one.

Zoe Luce was an interior designer and owned a shop called Enhanced Interiors. She had talent that she considered to be a curse, walls spoke to her. Well, in a way. If any strong emotion happened in a room, such as lust or fear, it would sink into the walls. So when Zoe went into a client's bedroom and the walls "screamed", Zoe could not leave fast enough! Whatever horrible thing happened in that room was recent. The client said he was going through a divorce. Zoe believed he murdered his wife in that bedroom. Without proof, cops would laugh at her. Besides, she could be wrong. The wife could be sunning herself on a tropical beach somewhere. Zoe simply needed a computer whiz to discretely find out.

Ethan Traux had taken over Truax Investigations from his uncle. Zoe would be his first case. It should have been simple. Only a few minutes on the computer to see if a lady was using her credit cards or an ATM. Instead, Ethan found a corpse.

Zoe and Ethan became attracted to each other. All seemed to be going well. However, Zoe's dark past was about to catch up to her. After a year of hiding under a different name, they had finally found her!

***** Wonderful! Zoe always seemed to be bubbling over with optimism no matter how awful things became. But she sure had to tap deeply into a bottomless well of optimism to get through all this! Zoe was a strong willed character that needed an extra ordinary man in her life. Author Jayne Ann Krentz did a wonderful job in creating just such a man.

This novel was like having two books in one, a murder mystery and a romantic thriller. The "client" part was a work of genius on Krentz's side to bring the couple together. The author brought back the Vastu and Feng Shui techniques that I recall being used in one of her novels a few years ago. This is a fast paced, romantic, and heart pounding thriller that I highly recommend to all.

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.

I took a gamble and bought Light in Shadow without reading the reviews first. I hit the jack pot for this is vintage Krentz. Now that I have read the book and the reviews...a backward approach....I am delighted that the readers are again charmed by Ms Krentz's signature style. I too, have been disappointed in her recent works but all is forgiven with this charming tale. The story line grabs your interest from the first sentence, the plot twists and intrigues keep you on your toes and the interesting support characters are the icing on the cake.

My response to the negative reviews regarding Zoe and Ethan is I definitely felt the spark and liked the other sly hints of sparks with the other characters....rather interesting. I also disagree that one husband should mirror another. Life experiences alone can change the relationship needs of an individual. I liked the fact that both characters were strong enough to stand up to one another but not so much so that every scene became a battle of the sexes. The dry humor exhibited by both was a delight. Now all I need to make the literary world right is for this level of writing to carry over to Amanda Quick novels.

"Light in Shadow" is one of the better Krentz/Quick romantic suspense books in years. The characters are well-developed, the romance seems believable, and there's enough suspense to hold it all together.

Zoe and Ethan are great characters, and complex enough to hold on to our interest. Their romance is well-developed and believable, and Krentz manages to achieve a great deal of wonderful sexual tension between them. In addition, the book doesn't have an aloof attitude towards its own characters, a weakness that has characterized a few of this author's books the past few years.

The suspenseful plot line is gripping and, for the most part, well-developed. As with "Smoke and Mirrors," I was a bit disappointed with the final solution(s), because there seemed little to no build-up to the eventual true villains. In addition, there were almost too many small villains and not enough of a big one. But the initial hook of "Zoe as wrongly-imprisoned escapee from corrupt asylum" is a great one and brings a lot of tension to the book.

All in all, a good, gripping read with all that we've come to expect from a Krentz book.

Crafty romantic suspense writer Jayne Ann Krentz is back again, this time with a tale chock full of greed, deceit, and unlikely romance. Interior designer Zoe Luce is quietly living her life in Whispering Springs, Arizona when a client asks her to redesign the master bedroom of his residence. But Zoe sometimes feels things that others don't, and the walls in this room "scream" that something terrible happened there.

Deciding to hire a P.I. to trace the whereabouts of the client's ex-wife, Zoe hires Ethan Truax, who just took over his uncle's one-man P.I. business. Two more unlikely lovebirds would be hard to find, but Ms. Krentz credibly shows that while they are physically attracted to one another, their underlying integrity is what makes their relationship click.

And finding the locale of the missing ex-wife is just the beginning of this suspenseful novel, as Zoe hires Ethan to discover who is blackmailing her to prevent them from revealing that she changed her name after she and friend Arcadia Ames escaped from the rest facility, Candle Lake Manor. Committed to the Manor by her deceased husband's family, Zoe is intent on staying free until she can expose her brother-in-law's role in her husband's death at the next board meeting.

With believable romance, spellbinding suspense, and several intertwined plotlines, this latest from author Jayne Ann Krentz is one of her best yet.

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.

Jayne Ann Krentz is back with another winning combination of suspenceful plot, humor, and delightful primary AND secondary characters. Somehow Krentz manages to weave mythic relational issues (love, trust, commitment, risk, honor, responsibility, family) into a magical blend that leaves you wanting to read more about Whispering Springs and Zoe, Ethan, et al. This one will be a keeper --- go ahead, buy it in hardcover!! --- because she manages to juggle plot elements and keep even seasoned "Jayne" fans (and I've been reading her since the 70s!) guessing about what REALLY happened, and what will happen next!

Accomplished voice performer Joyce Bean keeps listeners' pulses pounding as she gives a thrill packed reading to Jayne Ann Krentz's latest first rate mystery.

Zoe Luce is a top notch interior decorator in the Arizona town of Whispering Springs. Krentz fans know that's not all Zoe is. She's also gifted with psychic powers - she knows immediately if she goes into a room where a crime has occurred. Did someone do in his/her spouse? The very walls let Zoe know it.

She is currently assisting recently divorced clients to redo their homes, all the better to begin a new life. However, could it be that her newest client, Davis Mason, murdered his ex-wife? She's convinced that he did, and to bring the dirty deed to light she hires private investigator Ethan Truax.

Ethan takes more than a shine to Zoe, and the feeling's mutual. But Zoe has a few secrets of her own, which Ethan soon discovers.

The path of their love isn't running smoothly at all - in fact, the more Ethan pokes around the more he endangers both of them.

Lots of twists, turns, and trembling in this one!

- Gail Cooke