Sophia Rose Reviews: The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz

 

We start off February with Sophia Rose reviewing one of my and her favorite authors, The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz.
Enjoy!

The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz

#2 The Lost Night Files

Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Berkley

Published:  1.9.24

Pages:  336

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  NetGalley

Sellers: Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Synopsis:

The disappearance of a mysterious informant leads two people desperate for answers to an island of deadly deception in this new novel in the Lost Night Files trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz.
 
Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers, bonded by a night they all have no memory of, are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago—an experience that brought out innate psychic abilities in each of them. The women suspect they were test subjects years earlier, and that there are more people like them—all they have to do is find the list. When Talia follows up on a lead from Phoebe, a fan of the trio’s podcast, she discovers that the informant has vanished.
 
Talia isn’t the only one looking for Phoebe, however. Luke Rand, a hunted and haunted man who is chasing the same list that Talia is after, also shows up at the meeting place. It’s clear he has his own agenda, and they are instantly suspicious of each other. But when a killer begins to stalk them, they realize they have to join forces to find Phoebe and the list.
 
The rocky investigation leads Talia and Luke to a rustic, remote retreat on Night Island in the Pacific Northwest. The retreat promises to rejuvenate guests with the Unplugged Experience. Upon their arrival, Talia and Luke discover guests are quite literally cut off from the outside world because none of their high-tech devices work on the island. It soon becomes clear that Phoebe is not the first person to disappear into the strange gardens that surround the Unplugged Experience retreat. And then the first mysterious death occurs…

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

A pair of reluctant and distrustful partners come together to hunt down a missing person with answers for their private quests in a darker, edgier night world of secrets on an isolated island.  Sleep No More started a captivating new Jayne Ann Krentz psychic paranormal romantic suspense series and the atmospheric, sultry tension and secrets continue for a new pair trying to get answers about their lost nights that changed their lives forever.

 

While, I think one could pick this one up and read it standalone, the best way to experience it is in order so the mysterious villains in the background and the podcast team of people mean more.

 

Sleep No More was set in a creepy sanatorium and now an island with weird exotic experimental plants hosts the setting for Night Island.  I love how much atmosphere and tension are built because of it.  The heroine was a background character in book one and now, her background is fleshed out a bit more as is her enhanced psychic talent.  She and the other Lost Night podcast crew joined together when they realized that someone deliberately exploited them by kidnapping and experimenting on them for a mysterious purpose and now they want to know why. 

 

Talia is hunting down an informant with evidence the team needs that might lead to answers when she encounters Luke. Now, Luke, was also a guy who was taken by those mysterious people and experimented on, but he knew the darker purpose based on what he overheard when he was escaping his captors.  He was meant to be turned into a psychic assassin.  He escaped and now the hunted has become the hunter.  He has a dark psychic gift and he isn’t sure how Talia will take it so he’s cautious.  They’re both prickly at first even though they realize they have to work together.

 

The romance is rapid, but I did like this pair together and I enjoyed the tension level once they were isolated on the island have to figure out who is attacking them and where the missing woman is using their talents.  Things got lightly creepy and I loved the mystery of who the assassin turned out to be.  The reader is allowed in on some of the bad guy side’s machinations, but some is kept secret until the reveal.

 

All in all, I was deeply engrossed and read it so fast.  Now, I must wait until the next installment as the organization behind it all is planning to up the ante against the Lost Night podcast team.  Those who enjoy romantic suspense with a paranormal element should give this series a go.

 

Author Bio:

The author of a string of New York Times bestsellers, Jayne Ann Krentz uses three different pen names for each of her three “worlds.”   As Jayne Ann Krentz (her married name) she writes contemporary romantic-suspense.  She uses Amanda Quick for her novels of historical romantic-suspense.  Jayne Castle (her birth name) is reserved these days for her stories of futuristic/paranormal romantic-suspense.

“I am often asked why I use a variety of pen names,” she says.  “The answer is that this way readers always know which of my three worlds they will be entering when they pick up one of my books.”

In addition to her fiction writing, she is the editor of, and a contributor to, a non-fiction essay collection, Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women: Romance Writers on the Appeal of the Romance,  published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.  Her commitment to her chosen genre has been strong from the very beginning of her career.

“The romance genre is the only genre where readers are guaranteed novels that place the heroine at the heart of the story,” Jayne says.  “These are books that celebrate women’s heroic virtues and values:  courage, honor, determination and a belief in the healing power of love.”

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.

She is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.

Website:  https://jayneannkrentz.com/

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose