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259th out of 1,505 books
—
7,088 voters
After Dark (Harmony #1)
by
Jayne Castle (Goodreads Author),
Jayne Ann Krentz (Goodreads Author)
Welcome to Harmony—where the rules are a little different.
Life is tough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed para-archaeologist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged to work part-time in Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors, a very low-budget museum. She has a plan to get her career back on track, but it isn’t going well. Stuff ke...more
Life is tough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed para-archaeologist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged to work part-time in Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors, a very low-budget museum. She has a plan to get her career back on track, but it isn’t going well. Stuff ke...more
Mass Market Paperback, 332 pages
Published
September 5th 2000
by Jove
(first published January 1st 2000)
Win a Copy of This Book
After Dark (Harmony #1)
by Jayne Castle (Goodreads Author), Jayne Ann Krentz (Goodreads Author)
by Jayne Castle (Goodreads Author), Jayne Ann Krentz (Goodreads Author)
Life is tough these days for Lydia Smith, licensed para-archaeologist. Seriously stressed-out from a nasty incident in an alien tomb, she is obliged t…more
Giveaway dates:
Jun 01
- Jun 30, 2013
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SFR Reading Challenge 2012: 3/15
SOA Listening Challenge 2012: Paranormal/SFR 3/4
Grade B-/C+
Narration by Joyce Bean 3.5* Grade B
A Krentz/Castle/Quick is generally an enjoyable read for me. After Dark is no exception, although it isn't nearly her best sci-fi/futuristic romance. There was decent world-building and the suspense plot was entertaining, but the character development was weak. Every time I thought I could like Lydia, she acted like a self-righteous prig again. Her pettiness toward Emmet...more
SOA Listening Challenge 2012: Paranormal/SFR 3/4
Grade B-/C+
Narration by Joyce Bean 3.5* Grade B
A Krentz/Castle/Quick is generally an enjoyable read for me. After Dark is no exception, although it isn't nearly her best sci-fi/futuristic romance. There was decent world-building and the suspense plot was entertaining, but the character development was weak. Every time I thought I could like Lydia, she acted like a self-righteous prig again. Her pettiness toward Emmet...more
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Oct 04, 2011
Dawn
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
People who like JD Robb's In Death Series
Lydia Smith is a paranormal archeologist on the colony of Harmony. She has recently had an episode where she has been labeled as "psychically crippled" and has been shunned from her life at University. Lydia is trying to figure out how to redeem herself by working at a third rate museum. One day things look up as a wealthy businessman hires her as a consultant to find a stolen family artifact. However the same day they meet a man is murdered and that man is Lydia’s friend. Emmet London is more t...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I may be giving this book less credit than it deserves because it didn't fulfill my usual expectations from this author. There was something just a bit off about it. Plus, as the first book in a scienc fiction series, I have to say that I'm not sure I would have understood the world very well had I not read some of the later books first.
The biggest complaint I have is that the story isn't quite over and I'm not sure why. This author has never (as far as I've read) spent two books coming to the...more
The biggest complaint I have is that the story isn't quite over and I'm not sure why. This author has never (as far as I've read) spent two books coming to the...more
Eh, this was an ok start of a new sci-fi series, but I don't think it engaged me enough to read further.
The action takes place on a planet not our own, 200 years after Earth colonized the planet and the "curtain" shut down, cutting off the colonists from Earth. The colonists have made their own way though, discovering psychic abilities that allow them to "resonate" with amber and other materials. Turns out Harmony (the new planet...at least I think) was home to an alien race before humans arrive...more
The action takes place on a planet not our own, 200 years after Earth colonized the planet and the "curtain" shut down, cutting off the colonists from Earth. The colonists have made their own way though, discovering psychic abilities that allow them to "resonate" with amber and other materials. Turns out Harmony (the new planet...at least I think) was home to an alien race before humans arrive...more
Very good book, that takes place on an ancient world, called Harmony, and the Earth people have been there for centuries, people use amber to amplify their psychic talents, and use those talents to untangle illusions and de-rez ghosts that the ancients left to protect the catacombs. Lydia is a para-archeologist,and a strong tangler, 6 months ago she was caught in an illusion and left her with no memories of the event, she has been trying to get back underground to prove to herself that she can s...more
This is one of those “guilty pleasure” type reads. It’s super-light fluff and is easily readable in like an hour or so. Not so much intellectually challenging or even challenging, but it’s definitely a fun read. Amanda Quick/Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle (all the same author) is my reading “vice.”
In this installment in the “Harmony” series, we meet Lydia Smith – para-archaeologist who has recently seen a downward spiral in her academic career after a dig went wrong. When she stumbles across the...more
In this installment in the “Harmony” series, we meet Lydia Smith – para-archaeologist who has recently seen a downward spiral in her academic career after a dig went wrong. When she stumbles across the...more
This is a really hard book to classify. It's sci-fi, but with some mystery and romance thrown in. In the end, I think it’s about equally romance and sci-fi with the mystery getting the shortest shrift.
I liked the premise, though it felt a little... sparsely populated. The story takes place on a world a handful of centuries after initial colonization is shut off by a closing of "the curtain". So the colonists know that they originate from Earth and that the artifacts found on the world are not fr...more
I liked the premise, though it felt a little... sparsely populated. The story takes place on a world a handful of centuries after initial colonization is shut off by a closing of "the curtain". So the colonists know that they originate from Earth and that the artifacts found on the world are not fr...more
Mar 20, 2012
ZaBeth
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
_g-paranormal,
_g-romance,
source-lib,
r-goodreads,
r-fmiw,
r-suite101,
series_tracked,
6-fromfictionstack
Imagine there is a great Connection open that people on Earth can go through to another planet. Jayne Castle, aka Jayne Ann Krentz, has done exactly that in After Dark, the first full-length book in Castle’s Harmony series. Harmony was colonized by people who are later cut off from Earth and have created a very Earth like society on a strange planet once thought to be inhabited by aliens. After generations had lived on Harmony, people learn to use amber to focus their psychic abilities to contro...more
This book really should get a better cover! The story is sci-fi and fun.
Lydia is intelligent, funny and a para-archeologist. But after an accident in one of the excavations she is slightly damaged, brain-fried. So she lost her jobb, most of her friends and her fiance and are currently working in a third rate museum. So when a wealthy collector asks her to help him find an artifact she jumps at the opportunity.
Emmet is looking for his runaway nephew in the shadier parts of town. The nephew took...more
Lydia is intelligent, funny and a para-archeologist. But after an accident in one of the excavations she is slightly damaged, brain-fried. So she lost her jobb, most of her friends and her fiance and are currently working in a third rate museum. So when a wealthy collector asks her to help him find an artifact she jumps at the opportunity.
Emmet is looking for his runaway nephew in the shadier parts of town. The nephew took...more
Having read the first two books out of order, I was familiar with the two main characters and the world of Harmony. As with 'After Glow', I enjoyed this story and the futuristic world, but again I just never really warmed to Lydia. I did however like Emmett more in this book. The addition of Fuzz was a brilliant touch.
A number of subplots were introduced in this book that get more fully explained in the next - the mystery surrounding Lydia's 'lost weekend', the secret world of the Hunters' Guil...more
A number of subplots were introduced in this book that get more fully explained in the next - the mystery surrounding Lydia's 'lost weekend', the secret world of the Hunters' Guil...more
This is the first book of the Harmony Series. I gave it a solid 3. I like the concept of the book. Though, I call it “Sci-fi Mystery”. The plot was quite good but I found that the writing style was a bit hard to follow.
The book had a slow start and didn’t grab me right away. So I have a very hard time with the first few chapters. However, it did pick up a little faster in the middle. I found that all of the raz-this-and-that was kinda annoying. But once I get use to them, I will probably be les...more
The book had a slow start and didn’t grab me right away. So I have a very hard time with the first few chapters. However, it did pick up a little faster in the middle. I found that all of the raz-this-and-that was kinda annoying. But once I get use to them, I will probably be les...more
Jul 26, 2011
Jess
added it
Loved it! Usually I hate sci-fi, but Jayne Castle's story of colonist's from Earth on the planet Harmony is enthralling. Harmony is a planet shrouded in mystery. Humans have lived there for 200 years now, and they are still not sure of why it's original inhabitants left, or what their culture was even like. Para-Archaeologists like Lydia Smith work underground in the 4 abandoned cities to try and answer those questions. But the catacombs are fraught with many dangers of their own- ghosts and ill...more
I don't generally read romance novels, but this one caught my eye on the library's ebook list, so I gave it a try.
On a planet where everyone has some degree of psychic ability to use the local 'amber', a possibly traumatized trap-tangler teams with a ghost-hunter to find his missing nephew and the heirloom that the nephew took off with. This leads to a lot of trouble, of course, and romance.
One thing I liked was that the actual sex waited until about 3/4 of the way through the book, and even the...more
On a planet where everyone has some degree of psychic ability to use the local 'amber', a possibly traumatized trap-tangler teams with a ghost-hunter to find his missing nephew and the heirloom that the nephew took off with. This leads to a lot of trouble, of course, and romance.
One thing I liked was that the actual sex waited until about 3/4 of the way through the book, and even the...more
Another futuristic romance set beyond the Curtain, this time on Harmony. The residents of Harmony have different psychic gifts than those of St. Helens. They are able to use amber and psi energy to power everything from cars to televisions. Some are more gifted in that they can manipulate 'ghosts' and untangle 'traps' left in the old cities built by the former residents of the planet. These people are para-archaeologists and ghost hunters. Lydia and Emmett are just such a team, trying to find Em...more
Lydia Smith, a licensed Para-archeologist, has had her whole world tumble upside down in the last six months, now she finds one of her few friends left dead. To make matters worse her new client Emmett London, wants to fire her to keep her out of danger.
I was slightly confused with this book, it is more of a futuristic tale rather than what I thought initially. Interesting concept for a story, but I had a hard time visualizing the setting. Not sure if I was more familiar with Jayne Castle's pre...more
I was slightly confused with this book, it is more of a futuristic tale rather than what I thought initially. Interesting concept for a story, but I had a hard time visualizing the setting. Not sure if I was more familiar with Jayne Castle's pre...more
Although I do like the story, an antiquities theft-murder mystery, the paranormal part of the story is tossed in a little too casually. Terms like para-archaeology, rez-shrinks, para-rez, and a few others are sprinkled within the narrative before they were explained, and the explanations, when they did come, were not detailed enough to eliminate any confusion. Readers are a few dozen pages or a chapter or two into the novel before learning the series takes place on an off-world colony that has b...more
What a great start (real one) of the Harmony series. Wonderful introduction into the world, the history, and paranormal elements. And despite the fact it’s set in a foreign planet, in the (distant?) future, and the inhabitants all have paranormal abilities, it still reads like a pretty straightforward romance (almost contemporary, if you ignore certain para/sci-fi terms). It has murder, it has romance, it has danger, it has an explosive attraction, it has mystery and intrigue, it has sex, it has...more
I liked it. I did spend the first few chapters struggling to reconcile this book with the other 2 from the series I have read (one before, one after). They are set in the same world, but not necessarily the same characters. Once I realized that, it was easier to let it go, and enjoy the story. I enjoy (and admire) the author’s ability to create the world so similar, and so different, but has the ability to suck you in completely. Within that she weaves together and intricate mystery, with the ap...more
Re-read in February 2012.
I didn't like this book quite as much the second time. The setting of Harmony, which interested me so much the first time around, feels a bit silly and gimmicky now. I started to get irritated by the frequency with which the word "resonate" or, more often, its abreviated form, "rez," popped up. Castle/Krentz has an unfortunate tendency to introduce a moderately interesting concept, then harp on it continuously until her reader is sick of it.
Lydia is one of Krentz's feist...more
I didn't like this book quite as much the second time. The setting of Harmony, which interested me so much the first time around, feels a bit silly and gimmicky now. I started to get irritated by the frequency with which the word "resonate" or, more often, its abreviated form, "rez," popped up. Castle/Krentz has an unfortunate tendency to introduce a moderately interesting concept, then harp on it continuously until her reader is sick of it.
Lydia is one of Krentz's feist...more
I'm really close to the end (the HEA has been established and there's just some small details to be worked out) and it's due back to the library, so I won't get the final close. And that's okay. While I love the author's voice when she'd writing as Amanda Quick, it didn't suit me for the science fiction world. Maybe it wasn't the scifi setting, but that I didn't fully buy into the romance (or fully buy into the conflict) between the h/h, so the light tone bothered me more. The truth is probably...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
** "After Dark" precedes "After Glow", with the same lead characters, among other similar explicit romance-murder mystery plots by Jayne Castle aka Krentz on planet Harmony of radiating green crystal. I did like them 4-5* and the unusual original setting, on first read, but a reread is too much for me. I don't like angry, selfish Lydia, prejudiced against 'hunters' who can disperse threatening energy clusters, and their Guilds, self-policing groups. She argues and criticizes Emmett constantly, b...more
The first two books in this series are the most disappointing of the whole series. They read like one book and would have been better published that way IMO. The rest of the series gets at least 5 stars from me. Fun to read and well developed. I love it when an author delivers a scifi world I can hang up the reality and just plain enjoy. This series does it for me.
I have enjoyed this author's books written as Jayne Ann Krentz and Amanda Quick and decided I needed to try out her Jayne Castle books. This one didn't work for me. It was alright but nothing special and I struggled through it. The characters were likable enough and the storyline had the potential but nothing really caught my attention.
Very good. Castle tells a good tale. Mystery, romance, & a bit of the paranormal on a planet called Harmony;
Book 1 of the Ghost Hunter Series.
Lydia Jones is showing a new client, Emment London around the museum where she works, when they stumble upon a dead body.
Book 1 of the Ghost Hunter Series.
Lydia Jones is showing a new client, Emment London around the museum where she works, when they stumble upon a dead body.
J.D. Robb’s In Death series is truly one of a kind. However, if you’re looking for another futuristic love story with plenty of mystery, you might give Jayne Castle’s Harmony series a try. Start with Harmony, which combines the first two stories in the series.
Join Lydia Smith,a licensed para-archaeologist trying to get her career back on track and Emmett London, a former ghost hunter and soon-to-be Guild Boss in Harmony. Lots of ghosts to tangle with, a family member to find and still time for a little fun inbetween.
After I read my friend, Cathy's review of another Jayne Ann Krentz book I remembered I had a few of the Jayne Castle Harmony series that I'd never read. I read this one - Harmony #1 last night. It was fun, lots of paranormal, a little romance and a great mystery.
Jayne Ann Krentz, writing as Jayne Castle, creates a future on another planet where people have psychic abilities. This backdrop makes a great setting for Emmett and Lydia's love story. This is my favorite romance set in Harmony that I have read so far.
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| Jayne Ann Krentz ...: After Dark (2000) Book 1 | 1 | 1 | Sep 27, 2012 10:24am |
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Sant...more
More about Jayne Castle...
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Sant...more
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