Customer Reviews

Midnight Crystal (Book Three of the Dreamlight Trilogy)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Look, I've been a huge fan of JAK for years. I purchase all her books without hesitation. Both the Harmony and Arcane Society series have been interesting to follow and I suppose I was expecting quite a bit from Midnight Crystal. Sadly, it was a total disappointment. I just did not like Marlowe Jones! She resembles an archetypal Nora Roberts character--tough on the outside, boring on the inside. Where's the signature JAK charm Marlowe is also rather contradictory... she cynically boasts several times in the book about her easy sex life and yet she's searching for love? I'm confused.

As a finale to the trilogy, one would expect a rich plot full of suspense. Instead, it's contrived and well, quite dull.

For JAK fans, this book is still worth a flip. But please, lower your expectations. And go read the other Harmony books! After Dark, After Glow and Obsidian Prey are my faves! :)

A VERY rare misfire for one of my favorite writers, Jayne Ann Krentz writing as Jayne Castle. Really 2.5 stars, but I gave her three for being so inventive.

The grand finale of the dreamlight trilogy goes out with a less-than-modest bang. The story is set on a distant planet called Harmony that was colonized by earthlings generations ago. Midnight Crystal wraps up the story of a lamp created on earth that has some pretty amazing properties even for a fantasy.

The romantic element of Midnight Crystal is on a par with her other novels, but it's broken up by a constant barrage of technical details about how different talents work. It's CSI Harmony. I can't believe I'm saying this--for me, she too often glosses over the fine details--but I felt as though I were reading a technical manual! It's as though she thought out all of these very imaginative background details before the first novel, parceled out a few at a time in each book, and then dumped all the leftover elements into Midnight Crystal.

No spoilers--the actual Midnight Crystal is a tiny part of the plot that, like many other elements, is resolved a bit too quickly and neatly after all the buildup in the preceding novels. It all falls just a bit flat.

And there's way too much conversation in this novel!!! Adam and Marlowe blather on and on while you wait for something to happen. Usually Jayne plops you right into the action from the first page, but this one takes a long time to crank up. Of late, there's a pedestrian plotting style pervading romance novels: most of the action is told as a narrative in the past tense, and the action consists of characters simply reacting to what has already happened. This occurs to a lesser degree in Midnight Crystal than some others, but this is the first time I've felt cheated by one of Jayne's novels!!!

Also, Krentz usually picks a couple of phrases that she repeats incessantly throughout her books; in this case they're "crime boss" and "J&J agent." Maybe she uses this device to keep the characters' background firmly in the reader's mind, but the constant repetition is especially jarring in this case. I wanted to find out the resolution of the Dreamlight trilogy, but I was actually relieved when this book ended so I could move on to another.

This might have been better presented as two books. No matter what name she writes under, Krentz seems to write better when she has the space to develop her ideas. Don't get me wrong--a subpar Krentz novel is still better than many others. But after the other Harmony novels, which are a delight, this one is a clunker.

All the i's are dotted and t's crossed in this final & 3rd installment of the dreamlight trilogy and long time readers won't be disappointed but neither will they be surprised as a Winters male & Jones female get together to solve the mystery of the midnight crystal (on the famous dreamlight lamp). A new psi ability was revealed but those are becoming 'ho-hum' and I hope that the next Harmony universe story will get away from the power du jour meme. Merging the Arcane/Jones universe with the Harmony universe may do that and I thought the Sweetwater family of characters who appeared in Ghost Hunters 6 worked well.

All in all, the plot of the Midnight Chrystal suffers a little more than usual from staleness & predictability. The humor &/or quirkiness that usually characterizes the Harmony universe stories fell flat (or was missing) this time around. Some Frequency city characters make cameo appearances here and I still remember how amused I was by Vince the dust bunny who stole the show in Ghost Hunters 6. :-) . Other Ghost Hunters books that worked well for me were #4 (Celinda the matchmaker also a theme in Arcane universe) and of course the best ever is still After Dark that featured Lydia Smith, a former university faculty member reduced to working in a tacky horror museum after a traumatic incident under ground.

As with the other Castle books, this one was published in paper back, so no complaints about paying HC prices from me, but I would have been/will be willing to buy HC if this Harmony universe story had matched the quality of other of JAK's efforts in the series.

I am a big fan of Jayne Ann Krentz and her Amanda Quick books. I've never read the Jayne Castle work until I was in the Dreamlight Trilogy series.

I never thought I'd say that I had to force myself to read one of her books. But it was so contrived - repeating massive chunks of the other books - no real conflict that I saw either in the physical or emotional areas. Nothing that made me anxious to turn the page.

What kept me reading? I kept expecting a payoff, after all this was one of my favorite authors in Romantic fiction. It never delivered.

I hope that Ms. Krentz forgives this scathing review. I've written well over a dozen great ones for her in the past.

I love the way this story winds up the 3 'worlds' in which the Burning Lamp has functioned. I've been waiting, very impatiently, for this book, and I was not disappointed. AT ALL. I read it straight through in one sitting. I loved the added detail of the herd of dust bunnies in the rain forest, and that Gibson was inviting dust bunnies to the condo to share the power bars. For being centuries-old enemies, though, Adam and Marlowe's families sure didn't put up a fuss over their relationship. It was surprising and nice to see the families willing to lay aside the old vendetta. I also liked the final explanation of the function of the Lamp. Loved it all!

Really, Jayne Castle has always been a secret, guilty pleasure. I have enjoyed her twist of fate, paranormal interpretations of romance even while recognizing that the predictability of her characters and plot lines made her novels somewhat anticlimatic. It was always her humor and style of writing which brought the works above the level of Harlequin writing. However, the Dreamlight Trilogy was painful to read. It became increasingly less interesting, culminating in the truly unbelievable mess of words in Midnight Crystal. There just was not enough plausibility in the chemistry between the main characters. The tension seemed missing. The ruins were tiring. Enough with the dust bunnies already. While I have enjoyed Ms. Castle in the past, I do not think I will be picking up anything for a while until she finds her old magic and leaves the formulas behind.

I have loved many of Jayne Ann Krentz's books. I have loved the Arcane Society and Dreamlight Trilogy books til this point. As far as conclusions to a series go this one was a major disappointment. The characters were not lovable like in her other books. I did not get behind feeling for Marlowe. I felt a lot of passages were a repeat of something I had previously read. It definitely was not the worst book I have read, but felt most of the book was forced and contrite.

Last book in the Dreamlight Trilogy. Usually the Arcane Society novels are written under Amanda Quick. The first book was under Jayne Ann Krentz, second under Amanda Quick and then this under Jayne Castle. The Trilogy was as great as all her books. Being under different names was confusing at first.

This book wrapped up the Dreamlight Trilogy in true Jayne Ann Krentz style. As a plus, I received it within 3 days from Amazon!

Jayne Ann Krentz, by any name, is one of my favorite writers. This book wraps up the Dreamlight Trilogy nicely. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.