Obsidian Prey (Ghost Hunters) [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Jayne Castle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2009 | ISBN-10: 1410419347 | ISBN-13: 978-1410419347 | Edition: Lrg

Three months ago, Lyra Dore suffered a heartbreak and a hostile takeover - both at the hands of the same man. A descendant of her ancestors' fierce rival. Cruz Sweetwater charmed his way into Lyra's heart and gained access to her pet project, an amethyst ruin. Then he took over the project and took off. When Cruz walks back into her life and requests a private meeting, Lyra convinces herself he's there to crawl and beg forgiveness. Wrong again - he just needs her help. With the project he stole from her. Five innocent men are trapped inside a chamber in the amethyst ruin, and Lyra is the only one who can reopen the door. Reluctantly she agrees to help. Then Cruz wants her to apply her talents to the rest of the ruin - because no one else can work it. Lyra and Cruz are both harboring psychic secrets. Unknown - and dangerous - powers pulse within the amethyst ruin, and the closer Lyra gets to them, the more at risk she becomes. And now she must decide whether to trust her guts or her heart...

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jayne Ann Krentz, who also writes historical and futuristic fiction under the pseudonyms Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle respectively, has more than fifty NEW YORK TIMES bestsellers under various pen names; more than twenty-five million copies of her books are in print. She lives in the Pacific Northwest. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 431 pages
• Publisher: Wheeler Publishing; Lrg edition (August 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1410419347
• ISBN-13: 978-1410419347
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,928,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When a curtain opened allowing travel between Earth and a new world, it was a tourism opportunity like no one could have envisioned. Travelers moved back and forth between worlds with ease until...the curtain closed.

Abandoned on the new world with no access to Earth technology, the unexpected colonists had to learn to survive. And survive they did. JAYNE CASTLE chronicles the lives of their descendants in her best selling HARMONY SERIES. Turns out folks on HARMONY are starting to exhibit paranormal abilities and -- wouldn't you know it -- some of those people with psychic talents descend from members of the ARCANE SOCIETY (a bestselling series that Jayne writes under her two other pen names, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ and AMANDA QUICK).

Jayne is busy working on CANYONS OF NIGHT, Book 3 in the LOOKING GLASS TRILOGY due out in Summer 2011. Writing as JAYNE ANN KRENTZ she will release Book I, IN TOO DEEP, in Winter 2011. And writing under her historical pen name, AMANDA QUICK, she will contribute Book II in the trilogy, QUICKSILVER, in Spring 2011.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Same old Krentz, August 26, 2009

By 

Deborah Verlen "Deborah" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Obsidian Prey (Ghost Hunters, Book 6) (Mass Market Paperback)

The planet Harmony was cut off from Earth centuries before this story of its descendants takes place. Amber powers everything from toasters to psychic abilities. Three months before the story starts, Lyra Dore had found an amethyst ruin which was involved in a hostile takeover by Cruz Sweetwater. Cruz had lied to Lyra about who he was while investigating the site. Now Lyra and Cruz meet up for the first time since Cruz's company Amber Inc. took over. Cruz comes back to enlist Lyra's help in opening a portal at the ruin which has trapped five people as she is a very talented amber tuner.

This is the sixth installment in Castle/Krentz's Harmony series which has links to Krentz's Arcane society books with psychic abilities and in common ancestors. You may not understand all of what is going on without having read the prior five books. It's basically vintage Krentz in terms of the strong hero who loves the weaker heroine (in his estimation) and knows what is best for her. The heroine holds out for awhile, but at the end realizes true love is more important than her original premise. Ms. Castle/Krentz also kind of drives the supposedly humorous exchange of "you stole my mine" and "you broke Cruz's heart" into the ground.

There is chemistry between the hero and heroine, but the story falters a bit with a lack of freshness in dialogue and hero/heroine interaction.I think it is fine to be able to depend on an author for a good story, for a dependable plot, writing etc. But sometimes it would be nice if they would freshen some of the wording, some of the interaction etc.

Vince the artistic dust bunny who likes to paint and is the ultimate predator is the most fascinating character in the book! He is funny and a fresh element.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Obsidian Prey, August 29, 2009

By 

Isabelle Jolly (El Segundo, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Obsidian Prey (Ghost Hunters, Book 6) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is book 6 of the Ghost Hunters fantasy series but, as with the others, it can stand alone. It's as good as the others.

Independent amber tuner Lyra Dore had found amethyst ruins, a very important find. She can tune amethyst, which most tuners can't.

The 'love-of-her-life', Amber Inc. CEO Cruz Sweetwater, takes it over! He knows that she is his true love, but she won't see him or talk to him and sues, although she loses and is broke. However, her dust bunny paints. She and a very close friend who own an art gallery, have been selling the paintings as by a very reclusive artist.

Three months later, he calls on her to open a psychic door that has trapped 5 men in the ruins. He knows she won't let people die, regardless of how mad and hurt she is. She does it and they find the five people alive.

They start dating again. She's afraid she's going crazy, as she has spells where things start morphing and she can't walk or move. Her Harmonic Meditation instructor senses something has upset her, and offers to help. She assures him that she is OK.

She evaluates an amethyst piece for a buyer at an auction, and tells him that it's nice, but not powerful. The gallery owner says he has another piece and takes them into a locked room, and starts to hand it to them. Cruz comes in and interrupts. She has sensed that it is one of the artifacts that was in the ruin.

Cruz wears obsidian amber, another rare amber. He 'shatters' his amber protecting her from an attack and collapses. When help arrives, she refuses to let go of his hand, and wards off his losing all his psychic senses.

The dealer gets murdered. The head of Amber,Inc's lab is found dead, with the artifact. Cruz feels that it is just too neat. He's right.

Lots more to the story: a very sneaky villain; a bunch of mischievous dust bunnies; family feuds; a love story. It has them all.

If you like fantasy and mystery, you'll love this book. (I did!)

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars New Insight into Harmony: Unlikable Characters and Boring Dialogue, August 31, 2009

By 

Shawna Lanne "Book" (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Obsidian Prey (Ghost Hunters, Book 6) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm a big fan of this series and read all of the books that Jayne Castle puts out over every alias. So, I enjoyed the further detail about Harmony and the Arcane society and dust bunnies and what not. I was bored as all heck by the romance though. And apparently so was the author. The dialogue was repetitive and the author re-explained and re-explained plot points that had already been talked about earlier in the book. I felt talked down to. You know how you might give a three year old repeated instructions very s-l-o-w-l-y. That is sort of how she wrote.

So here's the thing. If you are a longtime fan of the series go ahead and pick it up but otherwise it isn't worth it. In addition to the repetitiveness of explanations(it felt as if she was filling in stock phrases to reach a word count)and bad dialogue, I didn't really like either character. Especially the heroine. She came off as whiny and sort of stupid, having her repeat Harmony cliché's as conversation rather than adding local color didn't help. You know when you meet people in real life and their conversational skills are such that they can only speak in clichés? Well that is how Jayne wrote the heroine. So annoying.