Romance Book Review: Midnight Crystal

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Series Connection:  Dreamlight Trilogy/ An Arcane Society Novel #9
ISBN-13: 978-0515148367
Genre: Paranormal/ Futuristic Romance/ Sci-Fi
Publisher: Jove

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Midnight Crystal is the final book of the Dreamlight Trilogy. Jayne Ann Krentz writes three different genres of Romance and uses a different name in each genre: Jayne Ann Krentz for contemporary, Amanda Quick for historical and Jayne Castle for futuristic or sci-fi. In her Dreamlight Trilogy she moved her Arcane series through the generations. She began with Fired Up, by Jayne Ann Krentz. Then moved to the past with The Burning Lamp as Amanda Quick and finally finished up with Midnight Crystal by Jayne Castle.

The three books followed the Winters family who is the arch enemy of the Jones family from J&J Investigations. The story tells of the development and subsequent legend of Nicholas Winters' final attempt to kill off the Jones family by instilling a great power into a Lamp that will activate when the Winter's male with the right psychic powers comes into his full psychic power.

Interesting idea with a lot of imagination. As always Jayne brings great entertainment with the three books. I love her writing style and she worked well to relate the three stories. In many of the reviews I've read there are lots of complaints about repetitive explanation about how the Lamp works, repeating history and legends and so forth. That generally doesn't bother me. I think an author has to do that in case someone hasn't read the previous books. How would they be able to understand the story unless they were told. For them it will be the first time. For readers who have read the whole series it will be the third.

In Midnight Crystal we meet Adam Winters a new elected Guild boss sent in to clean-up the Frequency City Guild. In previous Harmony series books there have been mention about the corrupt Frequency Guild. Not everyone is happy that Adam has been chosen to clean-up the Guild. As a matter of fact two council members are out to try to kill Adam.

Adam has other things to worry about. For the past month he has been having terrible nightmares and he is afraid that the old legend about the Winters' Clan is coming true and he will be the one to set forth Nicholas Winters' plan. Not to mention the fact that the infamous family lamp has gone missing.

In walks Marlowe Jones. Marlowe is the first dreamlight psychic to be in charge of the J&J Investigations. J&J is still around protecting the Arcane Society. The only problem is that since most everyone in the new world of Harmony has some kind of PSI talent they aren't as busy as they used to be.

Last we saw the Lamp it had been given to J&J for safe keeping, but now we find that that was a fake. Although the Winters' family didn't want to use the Lamp, they didn't quite trust the Arcane Society to keep it safe. So when the Arcane Society's version of the Lamp goes missing as well, Marlowe seeks out Adam to find out what is going on.

At the same time, the underworld of Harmony is in great danger of exploding and Adam believes that the real Lamp can help fix the problems. Even after the two safe the underworld there is still the matter of those that are trying to kill Adam and Marlowe's problem with having men sleep in bed with her.

This might spoil it for people so you may want to skip this part:
Generally I liked the final book of the Dreamlight series, but there were a few problems with the story.  I hate it when mysteries are not answered at the end of the story, but unless I missed it, readers don't know who stole the real Lamp that Adam had. Also, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but basically Marlowe had the same problem as Chloe had in Fired Up. Because of their dream talent it was hard to sleep with someone because of the other person's dreams. Makes sense, but it makes the story sound too much the same as that story. It would be nice if she could have a different reaction.

In Chloe's case it was clear why she could sleep with Jack. I just don't like that it was repeated in this story. Not really significant to the story, but just annoyed me.

I think Jayne fans will like this last in the Dreamlight Series. The next in the Arcane series is due out on Dec. 28 with In Too Deep. For all of you who have been following the series this is Fallon Jones' story.

Description:
For many earthly centuries, a legendary curse has plagued the Winters family, stemming from the tumultuous founding of the Arcane Society. But now, on the futuristic world of Harmony, the curse’s final mystery will be unraveled...
Adam Winters has enough responsibility as the new head of the local Ghost Hunter Guild without being saddled with the family curse. He’s convinced his recent nightmares and hallucinations will lead to him becoming a psychic rogue—unless he can find a stolen relic and a woman who can read dreamlight.

Marlowe Jones rides into his life on a motorcycle and with a dust bunny at her side. Though a descendant of the rival Arcane family, she’s just what Adam needs: a psychic private investigator and dreamlight reader extraordinaire.

Together, amid the glowing catacombs and steamy underground jungles of Harmony, Adam and Marlowe must break the curse, save the entire underworld—and fight a passion that could destroy them both...