Customer Reviews

In Too Deep: Book One of the Looking Glass Trilogy (An Arcane Society Novel)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just finished reading this book, and I enjoyed it a great deal. Fallon Jones has been a secondary character in all of the contemporary Arcane books, it was nice to finally get to spend more time with him, and read his story. I thought that he and Isabelle had a lot of chemistry (an important bit in any romance novel) and that the story moved at a good pace. I also liked the fact that the story moved beyond the whole Arcane vs. Nightshade thing, and that we got to see some of the characters from other books. All in all a good read.

BACKGROUND & STORY BRIEF:
Fallon Jones' continuing enemy is Nightshade. When one Nightshade leader is killed, another replaces him. Nightshade consists of several independent groups that make drugs to enhance psychic abilities. Fallon and his partners/buddies had some success against Nightshade groups in prior books with more to come in future books. This book is about other bad guys, with a minor role for Nightshade.

The characters in the Arcane Society books have a wide variety of psychic talents. Fallon sees patterns inside of chaos which helps uncover conspiracies. He can also send power that kills. Isabella finds lost things - people, bodies, objects. In this book, Isabella comes to Fallon and gets a job as his office manager. Together they solve at least four different mysteries/questions. Each mystery has something to do with a mechanical object like a lantern, doll, clock, etc. The objects have different powers, for example to kill or make someone unconscious.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
The story starts off interesting with Isabella on the run and two thugs chasing her. But after that, there is not enough interesting action. Isabella and/or Fallon interact with a bad guy, the bad guy then confesses or tells them what he has been doing, and it is solved. This happened for each mystery. It had the feeling of telling, not showing - because there were long explanations about PAST EVENTS. I didn't get to experience bad guys and good guys doing things and feeling things. Also there was too much dabbling in different places - like the author was grabbing unrelated stories out of the air. By the end, some of the mysteries didn't feel complete. They weren't explained enough.

There was some good action, just not enough. For example Isabella used her power a few times to get out of trouble. I also enjoyed a conversation Isabella had at a cocktail party where she defended Fallon and likened him to Sherlock Holmes.

When I was at 75% of the book, I felt like I was waiting for the story to take off - for things to start happening. It's not that I wanted it to be over, but more like when is it going to get good? A couple of times I was bored when the author went into lengthy technical descriptions about psychic influences, for example: why different geographical areas have different psychic energies.

I hoped for interesting romantic relationship development, which I did not find. There was no back and forth, witty dialogue, or conflicting personalities. No one grew or changed. Isabella just came into Fallon's life and was a good thing for him.

OTHER BOOKS:
I've read 5 Arcane Society books. I enjoyed two of the earlier books: "Running Hot" and "Sizzle and Burn." But the most recent two books "Fired Up" and "In Too Deep" just fizzled for me. I gave 5 stars to two of her non-Arcane Society books: "Trust Me" and "All Night Long." Those two are favorites.

DATA:
Story length: 324 pages. Swearing language: moderate. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 3. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 5. Setting: current day California and Arizona. Copyright: 2010. Genre: paranormal romantic mystery.

I've been loving the whole Arcane story line that JAK has taken across her sub genres, w/ her Amanda Quick, JAK & Jayne Castle stories, but there isn't another character that I've waited and anticipated their story more than Fallon Jones. Head of the Arcane Society's Investigative branch, J&J, Fallon Jones needs an assistant ~ but doesn't want to share. Isabella Valdez, a newcomer to Scargill Cove, decides she'll BE his assistant ~ and proceeds to do so, schooling Fallon on what it means to work w/ a partner again. With paranormal talents and secrets of her own, she's a perfect match for the secretive, theorist Fallon Jones ~~ I loved, loved this story! JAK totally lived up to all the promise we've seen coming w/ Fallon. Isabella is a perfect match for him, and their dancing around one another was fun to read ~ and of course, seeing what Nightshade is up to! I loved seeing other Arcane characters, and just enjoyed every min. of this read ~ I couldn't quit until I was done!!

I waited all week for this so I could download to my IPod and stayed up all night listening to it. I loved the book and highly recommend it. I was glad to finally get to know the mysterious Fallon Jones a little more. My only regret was that I would have liked to see a little more romance from Fallon. Even though he fell for Isabella "hard" I wanted to see a softer Fallon. He still remained a little aloft until the very end. Otherwise the storyline/plot was great and had me from the first sentence. I am waiting for the second book in the "looking glass series"....

I have enjoyed JAK's Arcane series and have particularly looked forward to Fallon's story, as he has been repeatedly characterized as a loner, obsessive in his pursuit of enemies, grumpy, cynical and self-absorbed but with contacts and interests that stretch throughout the Jones and Jones world. Instead of watching this difficult, morose and defensive character struggle with emotions with the help of an equally complex foil, Krentz took unsatisfying shortcuts. We're told, not shown, how Fallon becomes fascinted with Isabella enough to allow her into his heretofore closely guarded office, and Isabella forsakes her lifelong secrecy to tell him her real name and background. Where's the interesting conflict? We join up with their relationship a month or so in, when a great deal of the discoveries and accomodations are inferred rather than experienced. The characters fall into bed together quite early, to "decompress" each other. Where's the romance and passion?

The story is reasonably satisfying and it is good to catch up with some of the characters from previous books. However, I thought the most interesting part of this story was the introduction of the imaginative Victorian paranormal weaponry, not the characters or the action or the plot. In fact, I began to read it and got through 4 chapters or so before I put it down and forgot it, going on to read another book before remembering I still needed to finish "In Too Deep". I have always finished Krentz' books in a single sitting before, but despite being Fallon's long-awaited story it just wasn't that interesting. Too bad - he deserved better.

Listen, I used to love Jayne Ann Krentz. Her books are ones that I keep neatly lined up in order of publication on my bookshelf. But the latest ones? They've gone downhill fast. I couldn't even finish this one. There's none of the witty banter her past books contained, definitely none of the heat or passion. It's like she wants to write mysteries now, which is great, but then don't call them ROMANCES.

When Jayne Ann Krentz started writing these type of "paranormal ability" books, they were good. Just enough woo-woo stuff to be impossibly possible. With each book, the powers have gotten more fantastic (and I don't mean that in a good way) and far-fetched. Now EVERYONE in the books seems to have some sort of powerful ability. More time is spent on that than character development or relationship building. The main characters jump each other within the first couple chapters and the sex is never safe - no thought whatsoever about consequences. Get real, JA. This will likely be the last of this genre I will read by her. Just not doin' it for me anymore.

Isabella Valdez was raised around conspiracy nuts, but with her talent for ferreting out secrets, Isabella stumbles on a real conspiracy and is now on the run from those who would kill to keep those secrets. But during her flight, Isabella finally finds the perfect place to make her stand, Scargill Cove. Scargill Cove, a place with a special energy of its own - and a dangerous secret. It is also is home to Jones and Jones parnormal detective agency and its owner chaos talent Fallon Jones, descendant of the Arcane Society founder. Fallon, is no stranger to conspiracy theories and is just the ally that Isabella needs to win back her life. Which is a good thing, because Isabella is just what Fallon needs when forces working within the Arcane Society threaten to oust the Joneses from their hereditary control. It will take both of them working togehter when Scargill Cove's dangerous secrets come to light.

I enjoyed In Too Deep, which starts another present/past/future Arcane Society trilogy but this wasn't my favorite of the Krentz/Castle/Quinn Arcane books. Maybe I just was anticipating Fallon's romance too much, he's been a reoccurring character - brusque, arrogant, efficient, and lacking in personal skills - for so long and I've be dying for more of him and to see his heroine turn him to putty. But I didn't think that we got into either character's head enough to build tension I was hoping for - most of the setup for their relationship, including Fallon's fascinating with Isabella from afar - was done in previous books. Consequently, their hook-up here was sort of abrupt and after that, the connection between Fallon and his leading lady Isabella was just so natural and conflict free that they just kind of flowed into couplehood. They are a good match though, since Isabella is just what Fallon needs - she brings him back from the edge that has lead many Joneses with Fallon's talent to madness.

In Too Deep book is the first of a trilogy but I didn't think there was as clear a setup for the Looking Glass trilogy as there was for thep previous Burning Lamp Trilogy - this time it seems like a group of clockwork Victorian paranormal weapons are at the heart of the stories, so I can't imagine what the Harmony book will be like at all. The trilogy takes a step back in time when the story continues in Amanda Quick's Quicksilver: Arcane Society:Looking Glass Trilogy book 2 and finishes up with Canyons of Night: Book Three of the Looking Glass Trilogy.

While I will always be a fan of Krentz/Castle/Quick, honestly some of her books just appeal to me more than others. This one rocks! I love that Fallon finally has the spotlight and the Isabella character is charming. I honest could not turn the Kindle off until the very end. :)

Isabella Valdez is used to being on the run but she's run out of options. The man who set her up is relentless in tracking her down. Now she has to run to the place her grandmother told her might be safe--but her grandmother has been murdered so taking her advice is risky at best. In the tiny town of Scargill Cove, Isabella hooks up with Fallon Jones, a paranormal detective. The attraction is strong and mutual, but a woman on the run, a woman who's undocumented and who lives her life as a conspiracy theory would seem a bad match for an ultra-logical detective who only believes what he can prove.

When Isabella insists on taking a job investigating a supposedly haunted house and discovers instead a serial killer and a mysterious psychic weapon, she and Fallon are drawn into the mystery of Scargill Cove. The plots extend far beyond the small California town. Someone is attempting to undermine the Jones family control over the Arcane Society--and Fallon detects the hand of the evil Nightshade conspiracy.

Author Jayne Ann Krentz mixes action, magic and romance in a well-written tale. Fallon is a classic romantic hero--rich, quiet, interested in just-the-facts, muscular, and recovering from a relationship that went bad despite every logical reason why it should have gone well. Isabella is his opposite, emotional, talky, and very much concerned with people. Yet the two find that they can work together, in fact have to work together, to uncover the threat to the Arcane Society.

Krentz creates an intriguing world in the Arcane Society--a world that's ours with the magical held secret. The magical glasswork from Victorian times that forms the basis of the weaponized psychic threats makes for an intriguing premise. I would have liked to see Krentz do more with the romantic conflict--Isabella and Fallon seemed too happy with one another too early (and everyone was so happy for the two of them). To me, Isabella's decision to rush off to see what was going on with Walker without letting Fallon know seemed a 'too stupid to live' moment, required by the story rather than being consistent with the capable Isabella we'd seen earlier in the story.

Despite some minor problems, IN TOO DEEP is an enjoyable quick read by a highly capable author.