Giuvaierele nopții

by Jayne Ann Krentz, Amanda Quick, Mihnea Columbeanu (Translator)

Când un străin misterios intră în micul ei anticariat ca să vadă o carte rară abia scoasă la vânzare, Mercy Pennington nici nu-și imaginează că acesta va fi începutul aventurilor ei într-o lume fascinantă și primejdioasă. Viața lui Croft Falconer se învârte în jurul violenței – o violență înnăscută pe care a învățat să o controleze cu ajutorul artelor marțiale și care l-a ajutat să răzbată în misiunile periculoase în care l-a trimis cariera lui. El știe că „Valea giuvaierelor secrete”, o lucrare erotică din secolul al optsprezecelea, este strâns legată de un secret întunecat. Mult timp a crezut că a fost distrusă de foc – și, odată cu ea, și nebunul fanatic care și-a construit imperiul pe exploatarea naivității adepților săi. Cum a putut cartea să ajungă în mâinile unui anticar dintr-un orășel de provincie? Și cine este cumpărătorul bogat care s-a grăbit deja să o achiziționeze? Conștient că Mercy se află în pericol fără să știe, Croft insistă să o însoțească spre proprietatea izolată din munți a misteriosului domn Gladstone. Pentru Mercy, Croft ar putea fi pericolul în persoană. Sau ar putea fi dragostea vieții ei. Dar secretele pe care el le ascunde ar putea să le aducă amândurora moartea, înainte ca Mercy să descopere adevărul.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Fiction, Suspense

355 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

The author of over 50 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense 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 Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.

Reviews

[fleurette · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very typical book by Jayne Ann Krentz and definitely not her best. If you've ever read one of her average romances, Midnight Jewels will be like a replay. You can skip reading.

JAK ticks off all her usual points. Unfortunately, not the good ones. The characters appear to have been taken out of several of her other books. Mercy, our heroine, blends into the crowd of other JAK’s heroines. Like many of them, she is naive and joyful while maintaining the appearance of strength. I will forget about her in two days. Croft, her lover, is also a compilation of several other characters. As is often with Krentz, he is dark, silent and fascinated with Asian martial arts, he also has his own (though not very interesting) life philosophy. He is as uninteresting as Mercy.

The plot line is more than average. There is absolutely nothing special about it. You can't even say it's interesting at any point. Everything is basically known from the very beginning and there is no mystery or any surprise. Everything is painfully predictable. Including the idiotic behaviour of the heroine, which is another permanent point in Krentz's work. There is no surprise or twists, in truth there is not much action, only some plot.

A romance does not make the story any favour as it is close to non-existent. Mercy and Croft feel attracted to each other from the very beginning. They end up in bed rather immediately. They also quickly realize deep feelings for each other. These, however, are imperceptible to the reader. It was very difficult for me to believe in their love. However, I don't care about the main characters enough for it to make it a significant problem.

The book was published in 1987 and you can definitely feel it. It is outdated. By today's standards, Croft's behaviour towards Mercy can be considered a disregard. This is not the worst thing you can find in romances written in the 80s but it annoyed me anyway. Although, I must admit that I read Krentz books in which characters irritated me much more than here. It is not a bad book after all, only very average.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another book from JAK's early career and it shows. The heroine, Mercy, is the epitome of TSTL and the hero, Croft, is arrogant and overbearing.



We begin the story with Mercy, a bookstore owner, having recently placed a magazine ad to sell a rare book she stumbled across at a flea market. She's already been contacted by a buyer who has insisted that she hand-deliver the book to his extremely remote estate in Colorado because he "doesn't trust the mail". Mercy agreed to this without a second thought and is planning to travel there alone. Is she insane? She knows absolutely nothing about this guy or where she's going other than that it's nearly inaccessible. That sounds like a recipe for rape and murder.

Croft has also seen Mercy's ad about the book and recognizes it as having belonged to an evil man he thought dead these last three years. This is a plot hole that never gets explained. First, Croft makes it very plain that he does not collect rare books, nor have any particular expertise where they're concerned. Also, the event from three years ago involved Croft one night sneaking onto the bad guy's island compound and battling guards to rescue a friend's kidnapped daughter. There was a fire and Croft had to rush to get the daughter and other assorted kidnap victims to safety. So a) when exactly did he have time to browse through the bad guy's extremely extensive island compound library and make a mental note of all his books, and b) why on Earth was Croft reading a book-collecting magazine three years later in the first place if he had no interest in the hobby, and no reason to be on the lookout for said books? It was a pretty weak way to get the plot going and it could have been fixed easily by just giving Croft an interest in rare books. Then it would have at least been plausible that he'd taken note of this particular rare book as he was passing through the island library during the rescue mission and then also believable that he was reading the magazine. I hate when authors create plot holes that could have been fixed with an easy change.

Moving on, Croft immediately goes to check out Mercy to see if she's one of the bad guy's accomplices or just an innocent bystander who happened to find a book. Once he meets Mercy, he goes out of his way to act all creepy and sinister. Mercy tells him that she's already got a buyer for the book and she won't break that agreement, even when Croft offers her more money. Croft then demands to see the book and asks where it is. Mercy shows her TSTL status here again by first admitting that the book is at her house, then telling Croft that her house is within walking distance of her bookstore, and then again by allowing Croft to follow her to her house. He's been pushy, arrogant and creepy in the five minutes since they've met, even removing the bell on her shop door so he could sneak up behind her without her realizing it, and she thinks it's a good idea to let him come to her house? This woman has absolutely no sense of self-preservation.

Worse yet, just as they're entering her house, Mercy asks Croft where his interests lie and he makes it a point to shut and lock the door before turning to her and saying that he's interested in violence. VIOLENCE! He actually says that to a woman he's just met and bullied into letting him follow her home! That's psycho talk right there! And yet our brainless heroine isn't even really afraid of Croft at this point because "something" inside her says she can trust him. Honestly, how has this woman not been killed by this point in her life? Things get even more unbelievable when Mercy blithely explains to this virtual stranger all about how she's going to hand-deliver the book to her buyer's remote compound. Croft demands to accompany Mercy on the trip and she says no, but he basically tells her that she doesn't have a choice in the matter and that he's taking her to dinner that night.

Mercy and Croft's relationship moves forward very quickly and in a completely unsatisfying and unrealistic way. Croft decides, in a very cold and calculating inner monologue moment, that seducing Mercy will serve his greater purpose of getting to this compound so he can scope out the buyer and see if he's the evil dude. Mercy is strangely smart enough to recognize that these are Croft's motives, but dumb enough to still sleep with him. Their first sex scene feels completely unfounded, at least from Mercy's perspective, because they barely know each other and Croft has done nothing but bully her and act creepy. Instead of just saying "no" when Croft tries to get into her pants and she knows it's all just about the damn book, Mercy instead acts like a crazy person until she manages to get a rise out of Croft. You see, he's a man who prides himself on being completely in control at all times. And that basically means that while he's functionally good at sex, emotionally he's like a cold-hearted robot. Yet despite this unromantic scenario, Mercy is still "wild" for Croft and wants him to feel just as wild and out of control as she does. So she yells at him and says crazy things until he loses his temper and therefore his control. It's the opposite of romantic. Croft doesn't lose control because he's so desperately attracted to Mercy, or because she's "special", he loses it because she acts like a harpy until he gets pissed off. You're not going to find that kind of thing on a Valentine's Day card.

As soon as that initial sex scene is over, Croft announces that he definitely WILL be going to Colorado with Mercy. Gee, Romeo, ever heard of tact? Of course Mercy gets upset that he's basically just flat-out admitted that he slept with her in order to seduce her into letting him come on the trip, but Croft waves this away like she's just being a PIA. He insists that he'd have slept with her regardless of the trip situation because he just plain wanted to. The fact that in his inner monologue he totally admits that he's using seduction to manipulate Mercy is completely irrelevant in his mind. His self-appointed mission is much more important than treating her with respect.

They go to Colorado and meet the buyer. All of Mercy and Croft's actions at this compound are either stupid, irrational or despicable. Croft keeps Mercy in the dark about his mission for much longer than is necessary or prudent, but even when he tells her, Mercy persists in her TSTL ways and constantly tries to prove that the buyer really isn't the evil dude. Even though she knows nothing about this buyer and at least knows Croft well enough to sleep with him, she is convinced that the buyer must be a great guy simply because she's banking on his money serving as the seed money for her next business venture. So she continually ignores warning signs and tells Croft that he's just got an over-active imagination. Right, because the ice-cold Croft is clearly the sort of man who's prone to flights of fancy.

She becomes "mesmerized" by the good-looking buyer's blue eyes and hypnotic voice and spends hours talking to him about rare books. This makes Croft jealous so he makes a very deliberate decision to use sex to try to reassert his hold over over her. Mercy realizes what he's trying to do and insists that she doesn't want to have sex, even physically fighting against him when he tries to still take her to bed. This spirals into another bizarre scene where Mercy says and does whatever she can to break through Croft's emotionless control until he finally loses it and forces himself on her. It's not really rape though because by this point Mercy wanted the sex too, she just wanted it to be as affecting an experience for him as it was for her. It's a pretty dysfunctional relationship, really.

After they're done doing the deed, Croft slips out of the bedroom to go and search the buyer's vault for clues that might reveal whether he is or is not the evil dude from three years ago. Mercy wakes up to find Croft gone and again behaves like a TSTL 1980's heroine. She's still convinced that her buyer is really just a nice guy and frets that if Croft is discovered breaking in to the vault, the buyer will be pissed and her future as a dealer in rare books will be ruined. Up to this point, Mercy has continually referred to Croft as a "ghost" because he can move around so silently and with such stealth that people don't know he's in the room. And yet she's so worried that he'll get caught and ruin her business prospects that she decides the best idea is to go racing down to the vault to drag him back to their room. It never occurs to her that she will be much more likely to get caught since she is NOT a "ghost" or in any way trained to be stealthy. Or just that having two people roaming around after hours means twice the chances they'll get caught. Naturally she trips some security sensors and it's only Croft's quick thinking that prevents them from getting caught.

There are a bunch of inconsistencies in the rest of the book. Several times the buyer is shown to have some kind of supernatural hypnotic power, and that's never explained. One time in particular he has Mercy locked in the vault and is using his ability to try to question her about Croft and Mercy only just manages to keep her head. This isn't a paranormal romance book so he really shouldn't have actual powers, but no other explanation is ever given. It's never said, for example, that he slipped Mercy some kind of drug to make her susceptible to suggestion, or that he's actually a trained hypnotist, etc. Another inconsistency is that Mercy periodically develops claustrophobia. It's so bad at one point that she chooses to go racing out into the open with two armed thugs searching for her, rather than to just stay hidden in an old shack. But there's no explanation for this phobia and it only seems to pop up when needed to force Mercy to do something that makes her TSTL.

Meanwhile, Croft grabs the idiot ball for no reason other than plot contrivance. He remains convinced throughout the whole book that the buyer is indeed the evil dude. Yet he decides to leave Mercy alone with the man all afternoon so that he can take a helicopter ride with the buyer's smoking hot chief of security. This gets a vague explanation in that Croft wanted to get an idea of the "lay of the land" but he never uses that information for anything. Then later on, he makes plans to break into the vault while a party is going on at the compound. This is his last chance to search for proof of his suspicions and it'll be risky because his absence at the party might be noted. Also, Mercy has already told Croft that the buyer guy tried to pump her for information while they were alone that afternoon so it's clear the bad guys are getting very suspicious of Croft and his reasons for being there. Yet he decides it's a good idea to drink wine poured by one of the evil dude's lackeys. Why would he drink wine at all before a mission like this? And why would he trust something given to him by one of the bad guys? For a man who is supposedly soooooo good at this spy game, he makes a real rookie mistake.

Lo and behold, the wine was drugged and Croft is almost killed. Mercy has to save him and then bundle him into the car to try to make their escape. They have a harrowing race down the mountain while being chased by two lackeys but the bad guys catch up. Croft uses his super-human martial arts skills to gather his strength and defeats the two gun-wielding bad guys at an abandoned mining town. Then he tells Mercy to drive all night until they're far away from the compound. He sleeps off the drugs he was given, but Mercy descends into a near psychotic state of nerves and when Croft finally wakes up, she basically attacks him sexually.

She talks about how every time they've had sex up to that point it's been because he was using seduction to try to manipulate her. Well, now it's her turn. She's going to use him to give herself a release and hopefully she'll be able to relax enough to go to sleep. Mercy was clearly in a state of psychotic PTSD so I found it to be pretty icky that Croft was already, um, rising to the occasion, the moment she made a grab for him. Even though she was the aggressor in this scenario, I felt like he should have said no. It was similar to taking advantage of someone who was so drunk that they couldn't make decisions for themselves anymore. I also didn't believe that anyone in Mercy's position would want to jump into bed this way. It would be one thing if her character had been shown to be damaged so that she used sex as a balm for everything, but that's the opposite of Mercy. She's the typical good girl heroine who only has sex when she think she's in love. So it just didn't seem believable that she was ready to basically rape Croft after spending hours in a permanent state of freaking out over their close call with death. Either way, it was a very creepy and unromantic scene, AGAIN. There really aren't any sex scenes in this book that show a loving couple who care about each other. Everything is manipulation, violence and crazy behavior.

The final climax again illustrates Mercy's TSTL status when the bad guys manage to trick her into coming to them so they can use her as a hostage against Croft. And that's basically it. They save the day and the bad guy is defeated. Croft and Mercy proclaim their love for one another, but have in no way demonstrated that they'll last as a couple. Their whole relationship is completely dysfunctional. Croft behaves like an aggressive robot who believes he is perfectly justified in using whatever means necessary to manipulate Mercy into doing his bidding. Mercy is fully aware of what Croft is doing but still allows him to manipulate her and her sole act of defiance is to behave like a crazy person whenever they have sex. Totally dysfunctional.

[Bona Caballero · Rating 2 out of 5]

En los noventa, JAK era una de mis favoritas. La dejé de leer porque metía cosas paranormales en sus novelas. Esta simplemente era aburrida. Sigue su esquema habitual: heroína de letras pizpireta y atractiva a su manera (Mercy, que tiene una librería de segunda mano), y héroe misterioso y potente, con su aura de peligrosidad (Croft). Lo peor del libro son los comportamientos TSTL de Mercy. Discutir con un experto cuando tú no lo eres no demuestra independencia sino bastante idiocia. Como novela de suspense, además, no tiene la menor intriga, sabes quien es el malo, dónde está, qué hace… Salvaría al personaje de Croft, que es de los que me gustan, un tipo firme, callado, muy competente en lo suyo. En él encontramos ese competence porn que tanto nos gusta. Y la ambientación en las Rocosas tiene su punto, con esas montañas y los prados alpinos cubiertos de flores. Pero si no eres muy fan de JAK, no merece la pena que lo intentes.
Crítica más extensa, en mi blog.

[Debrac2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second time reading this! Not her best.

[Cruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
First published: 1987
Length: 426 pages, 7476 kindle locations.
Setting: Contemporary. Ignatius Cove, Washington and Colorado mountains.
Sex: Frequent and excerpt.
Hero: Martial arts expert and government mercenary.
Heroine: Rare and secondhand book dealer.
Includes: Excerpt from Shield’s Lady.

Interestingly long narrative with superficial characters. Enjoyable but nothing special. Very explicit and frequent sex that fails to move the narrative.

Given I was expecting a very dry, ordinary story, it was readable and enjoyable.

2.5 stars rounded up.

References:
Author's website: jayneannkrentz.com/midnight-jewels/

(ISBN …)

-CR-

[Primadonna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I already hated Croft in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 showed more red flags, and still, the heroine readily accepted him in her home.

Are you stupid, Mercy? Or perhaps that naive? Why should you trust a stranger telling you what to do and infiltrating your space? Why would you even want to hand deliver a book to a stranger in a remote location? Have you no self-preservation, Mercy? Why oh why oh why?

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Midnight Jewels
3.5 Stars

This is another of JAK's older books (published in 1987), yet it could just as easily been one of her newer works with similar characters and plot lines.

A precursor to JAK's Arcane Society hunters, Croft Falconer's stoicism is a facade concealing a man who cares deeply for others and strives to help those in need. It is entertaining to watch his confusion over his attraction to Mercy, which forces him to surrender the control that is such a significant part of his nature.

Mercy Pennington also foreshadows JAK's more naive and trusting heroines with a more "artsy" occupation. This time, she is a bookseller who has discovered a rare and expensive book that a nefarious criminal wants to get his hands on.

The suspense plot has potential, but the megalomaniac Bond-like villain, whose identity is revealed early on, is over-the-top. The only twist is the real reason for his obsession with the book. Moreover, Mercy has far too many TSTL moments, one of which she even acknowledges is a bad idea and yet she goes through with it anyway.

Overall, one can always expect a light and satisfying read from JAK and this is no exception.

[Jane Stewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't enjoy the story because I was angry at the heroine's stupidity.

At least three different times, Croft told Mercy (the heroine) to stay put while he went to do what he was good at doing, sneaking around like a ghost, investigating and dealing with bad guys. She did not do as he told her, and she went after him, putting them both in danger. I saw this as stupidity on her part, and I hated it. Examples are below in Spoilers.

DATA:
Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: five. Setting: current day (or 1980s) small coastal town, Ignatius Cove, Washington and a mountain retreat area in Colorado. Copyright: 1987. Genre: romantic suspense.

CAUTION SPOILERS:
1. She knew Croft was going to snoop in Gladstone's vault at night. Yet, when she discovered him gone from bed, she decided to go after him to tell him not to do it because he might get caught. He was like a ghost and made no noise. She was clumsy and set off silent alarms as she walked around and got them both caught.

2. Croft told Mercy to stay in the motel while he went to deal with Gladstone. After Croft left, she got a message from Gladstone saying he had Croft as a prisoner and that Mercy should bring the book to trade for Croft. She asked to speak to Croft, but Gladstone said no. Then, she stupidly went to Gladstone, whereupon she was immediately imprisoned. Gladstone planned to use her as bait to capture Croft. Croft had never been captured by Gladstone, and Mercy stupidly became the bait.

I did not like her personality. She would argue with Croft for petty reasons, and sometimes she was just plain wrong. Also, after their first night of sex, she said she didn't want any more sex until they developed more of a relationship. This turned into a game of her saying no, but meaning yes. He would chase and catch her, then she would melt, then they both wanted each other. I did not like her being dishonest with herself as well as him. From his perspective, he was attracted to her because she caused him to lose control emotionally, whatever that meant. Page 224 described this as "It worried him that he couldn't explain his passions or his sense of protectiveness or the strange bond that seemed to link him to her." I saw no reason for him to like her. Their interaction did not make a good story.

[Farah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely one of my favorite books by Jayne Ann Krentz , I enjoyed the plot , characters and mystery.


Mercy was the kind of heroine who did the opposite of everything she's being asked , she's also the kind of character who walks into danger for the sake of the man she loves either to save his ass or tell him off , quite the heroine. Croft was an instant hit from the very first page , I was very interested in his philosophy and in the way he viewed life , though his tea obsession made me wanna smack him on the head .. every time he opened his mouth I just couldn't wait to hear what he has to say .. a very intriguing character who can be quite funny sometimes. Mercy and Croft made quite the couple together , Jayne Ann always entertains when it comes to the battle of the sexes and the clash of wills , I loved reading about Mercy and Croft.


The mystery was fun and even though we knew almost all of the facts , the book still entertained , the villain was interesting with his hypnotic voice and very blue eyes but I feel like I wanted a little more , the plot with the villain could have been more interesting and Isobel didn't really make sense at the end of the book.


Overall it had some flaws but I really enjoyed it and I loved the characters.

[Janette · Rating 3 out of 5]

WOULD HIS KISSES FREE HER DEEPEST DESIRES...OR MAKE HER A PRISONER OF LOVE?

From the moment Croft Falconer walked into her West Coast bookstore, Mercy felt drawn to him. He radiated an aura of mystery and a raw, primitive maleness that made her shiver with desire. Her career was books; his was violence, the beautifully controlled violence of the Asian fighting arts. That was all he would tell her when he demanded the "Valley of Secret Jewels," a rare edition of erotica she had advertised. How could Mercy have guessed the deadly secret of this book of forbidden passion? How could she have imagined that it would take her to the lust-haunted halls of a wealthy collector's remote mansion? And how could she have known it would be the first step on a woman's most perilous journey, that Falconer would become the lover of her dreams...stroking her gently, touching her deeply, and leading her toward the breathless limits of ecstasy itself.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend recommended Jayne Ann Krentz when I told her I liked adventure/ romance / paranormal / time travel books as fun reading.

Reading this book was an exercise in frustration, however. None of the pieces seemed to fit. Who was the hero and what gave him such special powers? Nothing, evidently. And the heroine was somewhere between spunky and cardboard. The mysterious, ancient book of erotica? And how it got into the heroine's hands? Never explained. The significance of the ghost town? Who knows?

There was a lot of action. And some fairly tepid sex. And a whole lot of unbelievable rationalizing about what a miracle it was that the two lead characters found each other. Krentz seems like a capable writer. But the plotting was a giant mess.

[BookAddict ✒ La Crimson Femme · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is embarrassing. I remember the book cover and I have this sitting on my shelf. (At one point in my life, I purchased every single Ms. Krentz book and have a section just dedicated to her books.) If she wasn't so prolific, I probably would continue to buy her physical books. Anyway, this one I barely remember other than it was kind of a repeat of many of her other books. Same formula with strong alpha male to save the day. Unfortunately I can't quite remember much of it other than where it sits in one of my 3 wall to wall, ceiling to floor bookshelves.

[Marybelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story line is good, but definitely not one of JAK top books. However, I like the way the hero is self aware enough to actually say "I love you" without a lot of hemming and hawing.

[Penelope · Rating 3 out of 5]

MY RATING GUIDE: 3.5 Stars. Originally published in 1987, I enjoyed MIDNIGHT JEWELS from a nostalgia perspective as well as for the fun of the journey but I do not recommend it to readers who view themselves as firm feminists. They probably would not appreciate the humor, dialogue or the characters.

1= dnf/What was that?; 2= Nope, not for me; 3= This was okay/cute; 3.5= I ENJOYED THIS; it was fun; 4= I liked it a lot; 5= I Loved it, it was great! (I seldom give 5 Stars).

Ignatius Cove, WA and the mountains outside Denver, CO ~
Mercy Pennington, in her late 20’s, began her second-hand book store, Pennington’s Second Chance, 2 yrs ago. Maintaining and operating it keeps her busy and without a social life; (not that she’s complaining). Rather, Mercy is quite content running her small business in the affluent and quaint little town a fair distance north of Seattle. At a recent estate sale, Mercy purchased an old book of erotica which she believes is more valuable than her normal stock. She places an advertisement in the paper hoping to attract a good buyer cognizant of the book’s value.

Croft Falconer is trained in martial arts and currently resides with his Rottweiler on a lonely stretch along the Oregon coastline. Both man and beast live disciplined lives and are equally capable of either civilized behavior or ruthless pursuit. When a book store owner places a small advertisement in a local paper for an out of print book that he believed had been destroyed a number of years ago, Croft focuses his attention on her. How did the unknown woman get that book, what does she know and how does her having the book change things he believed to be true?

Quote ~
> (Besides tea), “what other things are ruined with compromise?” Mercy
> “Honor, vengeance and love.” Croft

Comments ~
1) MIDNIGHT JEWELS is a Standalone Romance Suspense novel originally published by Krentz in 1987, recently rereleased. I read MJ for the first time soon after it was published. It has been a number of years since I last read it and feel that except for the changes in technology, it has held up rather well over the years (with the exception noted below).
2) The characters in MJ are capable and resilient. In addition, MIDNIGHT JEWELS’ MMC is an honorable, thoughtful, alpha, take-charge type who believes his way is the best way. The FMC is an educated, independent, smart, spunky yet rather naive and unworldly woman. Beginning as strangers, they become a team in a dangerous adventure against a number of antagonists (MCs teamed together in a Danger-Proximity trope, is one of my favorite).
3) I am a Krentz/Quick/Castle fan from the 1970’s. Today I read them as palate cleansers, as light reads between other genres and life. Krentz novels tend to be light in tone, driven by dialogue, with honorable characters, adventure and humor. (Unlike the real world, usually there is justice in the end).
4) I enjoyed MIDNIGHT JEWELS from a nostalgia perspective as well as for the fun of the journey but I do not recommend it to readers who view themselves as firm feminists who expect and demand their fictional MCs to be everything they hope for in the real world. This is not the case, (although the characters’ relationship develops certain give and take during the story). After all, this book was originally written in 1987, from that mindset.

READER CAUTION ~ Not recommended to YA readers or those who prefer Clean fiction.
PROFANITY - Yes. Strong language is used on occasion.
VIOLENCE - PG. MJ includes killer/antagonists but the descriptions are not dark or graphic.
SEXUAL SITUATIONS - Yes. Detailed intimacy scenes occur on several (4?) occasions. The plot involves a certain book of erotica or curiosa from the late 1700’s although book details aren’t graphic.

[Ann C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have never given Jayne Ann Krentz a 1 star rating. I guess there is a first time for everything. I disliked the book. Neither of the main characters were likable.

Croft was a control freak. He told Mercy what to do multiple times. He acted like she did not have a brain of her own. As far as I could tell, no birth control was ever used. At one time it was stated he 'spilled his seed into her.' This was 1987, birth control was widely used. Not once did Mercy state she was on the pill. I considered their second time together a form of rape. She kept telling him 'no' but he kept insisting. He just basically forced himself on her.

Mercy came on as rather stupid to me. She found nothing wrong with Gladstone to start with. She was rather naive when she found nothing suspicious about how much Gladstone paid for the book, asked her to deliver it, paid her transport, and put her up for a few days. To me, it was too good to be true. She ignored Croft whenever she was told to stay put. He was the experienced one, but she still had to jump right in. Gladstone told Mercy he had captured Croft. She didn't think about it. But, Croft said he would not get to Gladstone until a certain time. It was not that time, yet. But, she believed Gladstone and as usual jumped right into the fire.

There were also some editing problems: ".....annoyed with Mercy for haying found Gladstone unthreatening." I reread this sentence several times. I looked up haying. It did not fit in the sentence. It finally dawned on me the word should have been 'having.' I also found an instance when 'he' was used instead of 'she.' These types of editing problems ruin the flow of reading. I was having enough problems with the book without this. Surely, if edited, an editor would have caught 'haying.'

All in all, the book is a waste of time to read.

[Shannon Bardsher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well...ugh!

***Maybe some spoilers- be warned!***
***Also- be warned this is a tough review! And this is from someone who has ALWAYS enjoyed JAK’s books and characters!!!***
I found this book in my Kindle library. Apparently I had bought it at some time in the distant past. I remember even reading the book and some of the details but what I didn’t remember the incredibly long internal dialogue the characters had with themselves and the LONG, descriptive pages of unimportant parts of the book (seriously, the drunk, horny scenes and her being pissed because he’s drunk and horny....that felt like 100 pages to get thru. Or how about wondering for a gazillion pages why he would get drunk when she just “knows him” and it’s NOT in his nature to drink like that- in the story she had known him for about 3 whole days at that point or the obnoxious complaining the heroine did the throughout the book every time she felt the hero did wrong- my eyes crossed every single time. Additionally, the heroine came off as rather lacking intelligence and the hero came off as as a chauvinistic pig.

But- we can’t always love them all. Most of JAK’s books are a solid 4.5-5 star books IMO. This one is gonna be a permanent delete from my library so I don’t accidentally forget I’ve read it again and have to suffer thru it again.

[Kristy Halseth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm hiding it for spoilers because I mention one scene. To be fair, I've not finished the book but I will. But I have thoughts I don't want to forget. Like the story is written in such a way that it seems like it fits in the the other books set around the 1920's or so. But then there is a mention of people keeping computer passwords written down right next to the computers. So it must be contemporary. But Croft comes across as someone from the 1920's with his attitude towards women. He is awful and I feel like one scene in particular is basically rape but where Mercy just gives in to the inevitability of it. But I still feel like he basically forced her and didn't take no for an answer. He makes me very angry all the way through the book. There is no excuse for a modern man to behave like that. I also feel like this book had another story before it and I haven't figured out which one it is. But that doesn't change how annoyed I am. This is the first time this author wrote a 'hero' in a book that I really hated as much as I hated the villain. I should have been finished by now but I keep putting it down because of that one character.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

M-am așteptat la o carte romance, însă am descoperit o poveste interesantă, care a avut câte un pic din toate.
Nu pot sa spun mare lucru despre ea, pentru că la genul acesta de cărți dacă spui chiar si foarte putin, riști să dai din casa și să strici bucuria de a citi. Pot să zic însă, că am avut parte de dragoste, de o poveste plina de intriga care m-a prins foarte repede, de ceva scene fierbinți și de suspans.
Personajele n-au fost neapărat pe gustul meu, dar asta cred că a dat un pic de savoare poveștii, asa că nu mă plâng prea tare.
Mercy m-a enervat la culme. Atât de căpoasă... de nu stiu cum doamne iartă-mă a scăpat cu viață din toată nebunia. Îmi venea să o scutur un pic să o trezesc la viață.
Povestea celor doi, destul de simpatic construită... la fel si acțiunea din jurul lor.
Una peste alta, mi-a plăcut.
Se încadrează undeva intre 3-3,5 *, dar voi da 3.

[Harlow Walsh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Even if Krentz's characters are usually variations on a theme, there's something I usually find to enjoy in all of her books. This is probably the only one I ever read of hers that I actually couldn't find anything I liked. The H sounded like he would be a nightmare of OCD trauma to live with even with a so-called HEA. This was probably the first h by this author who suffered from treacherous body syndrome, something that was expected more in an old Harlequin from that time. It wasn't a charming mismatch of characters, they seemed to dislike each other's basic characteristics which were not going to change with time and probably would lead to a bitter divorce once their physical chemistry calmed down. I had it at 2 stars but after writing this, I realized how much I apparently reallllly hated this book, lol.

[Eva Chudovanová · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started to read as a teenager when found on my mother's desk. Did not have a chance to finish that time as she returned the book, but since then I remembered that book seemed very interesting. mystery, danger, romance... Years later I have searched for the book and found it. And... I am disappointed. The plot is good. But the way how it is written is too simple. Maybe it is caused just by translation but now I expect more from the dialogues comparing to my childhood. And some of them were just poor. I would not read that again. It was OK, not trash, I wad pleased by the romantic line, but the impression still remaines not so good. As a book to relax it is OK

[beverly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete waste of money

Her books always have great plots but stopped reading Amanda Quick books after the second one with an "Original". Think the intent was to make the women clever and amusing but instead they came across as manipulative and antagonistic. In this book the female is even worse, just outright annoying and stupid. A third of the way in you're thinking if the male had any sense he'd dump her. Didn't make it to the end.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oldie but a goodie. It took me a few chapters to get into this book but Krentz’s writing style, even from her earlier writing days, took hold and I couldn’t put down this book. Croft is a most intriguing and annoying hero but Mercy manages to make him quite loveable by the end. Suspense and romance and great pacing equal a thoroughly entertaining story. Needless to say Krentz is one of my favourite authors.

[Gloria Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Krentz, always satisfying!

The story draws you in, and the main characters are interesting and mysterious at first. They seem to be ill suited for each other,but as we learn more about them, we see how well they bring out the best in each other. The plot is more and more compelling. Great read!

[C.F. Yankovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Midnight Jewels is one of Krentz's older romances. It's an enjoyable, light read from her Arcane Society series. A cookie-jar-raiding, fluffy non-human side-kick adds humor while the motorcycle-riding head of Jones and Jones provides a twist on the heroine side.

[Carrie Babin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s no author in the world like JAK.

I’ve read all of Krentz’ books and many more than once. Her characters are always unique and interesting. Once I start one of her books it’s almost impossible to put down until I’m finished.

[Rebecca Delio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Story

I first read this book in hard cover when it first came out, wonderful story, I really enjoyed reading this story and through the years I have read all of Jayne Ann Krentz books in all her pseudonyms……..

[Kasey Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story but drags some

The story had 5* potential, but the excessive emotions got in the way of the plot. I skimmed through a lot of the book searching for the action. Worth the read and likely will suit a reader who enjoys romance more than suspense.

[Kelly Crowley · Rating 1 out of 5]

To many grammatical errors. Find a book editor.
Female MC is really dumb.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not love it, it was ok.

[Marian Viljoen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced fun

A love story surrounded by intrigue and danger...A great read, difficult to put down once started. I loved the story.