The Lost Night

A Rainshadow Novel, Book 1

By: Jayne Castle

Narrated by: Joyce Bean

Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

With the ability to detect the auras of dangerous psychic criminals, Rachel Bonner has found peace and quiet on Rainshadow Island with her dust bunny companion. Then Harry Sebastian, the descendant of a notorious pirate, arrives to investigate strange developments in the privately owned woods known as the Preserve. Rachel can sense the heart of darkness within him - and the stirrings of desire within her own soul....

©2012 Jayne Castle (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Nice edition to the Harmony series

I generally enjoy all of Jayne Castle/Jayne Krentz/Amanda Quick's books, this one was no exception. The beginning felt slightly disjointed, the transition from Frequency City to Rainshadow Island felt a little rushed. I almost thought I accidentally forwarded through a scene, but I know that she uses that style in a lot of her writing. Though it is easier to 'see' the transition when you read than when you listen, lol.

Castle's female characters are always a bit feisty and a little 'unusual' in that they never seem to fit in with the norm (of the society the books are set in). Their quirks are part of their charm, and usually the reason the hero ends up falling for them. I've always liked the mix of fantasy & mystery & romance she puts in all her series. I am fascinated with the idea of psi- abilities and like the way she's still able to put a slight twist on it given Harmony's history - a bit of old fashioned sci-fi alien technology mixed with old-world fantasy psi-abilities.

I basically logged on to Audible today to see if she had any other more recent books out in any of her pseudonyms. Alas, not until next month!

Definitely recommend the author and this series, as well as the Arcane Society series which can be seen as part of this series too, if you squint :)

OK book not great but ok

OK listen, I did enjoy it even if I didn't think it a great book

good and typical

this is another typical Harmony book-- it was very good.

If you like her books you will not be disappointed. --
a good addition

loved the combination of writer and the narrator

I think when you put Jayne Ann Krentz and Joyce Bean together they are a very good combination easy-to-understand great to listen to and very good job!!

Ms Bean was the best thing about this book.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Sci-fi enthusiast

What do you think your next listen will be?

I have several favorite authors. Will look for a book written by one of those.

What three words best describe Joyce Bean’s performance?

Solid,pleasant, and very expressive

An Okay Listen - Performance was Great

Rachel Blake is somewhat of a misfit, yet has found peace and quiet on Rainshadow Island with her dust bunny companion. That peace would be shaken when Harry Sebastian, the descendant of a notorious pirate, arrives to investigate strange developments in the privately owned woods known as the Preserve. Rachel has the ability to see ‘aura’s’ and senses a darkness in him, but more importantly she feels a desire within herself.

Before finding sanctuary on Rainshadow Island, Rachel knew monsters existed, where before she came to the island she encountered one daily, namely Marcus Lancaster at the Chapman Clinic where she had previously worked. Unfortunately, the administration at the hospital didn’t agree with her prognosis that he was a psychopath, hence her return to Rainshadow. Unfortunately, Marcus was not the only monster in Rachel’s life as she had nightmares of the bizarre creatures she had encountered the night she was lost in the mysterious preserve on the island. One thing she does know is that Harry Sebastian, a self-proclaimed monster hunter may be the only one who can both vanquish the monsters and save her from her lonely existence.

*** Being a fan of Jayne Castle aka Jayne Krentz aka Amanda Quick one has the ability to read many different genres and of course, be totally enthralled with whatever this amazing author dreams up. One can always expect dry humor, action, romance, and unusual twists and turns whenever you are fortunate enough to settle in with one of Ms. Castle’s novels.

As with most of her books, in THE LOST NIGHT, she has paired a couple of misfit lonely protagonists who ultimately fall in love after a series of starts and stops. Her characters generally have a fleshed out background in the type of worlds she creates which are filled with people with unusual psychic type gifts and backgrounds. Castle’s gift is the fact that she can not only imagine all these characters, but make the reader believe and dream of having some of these special gifts for them selfs. Imagine how cool it might be to be able to weed out your acquaintances by reading their aura’s and knowing whether they were truly nice – or not!

The addition of the mysterious - funny - unbelievable - dust bunnies was a bit far-fetched and it did take me a little bit of time to wrap my head around just what they were, but in the end they were okay - however I might have related better with a cat or dog. All in all, the romance was a little rushed, but as far as the mystery and the plotting went it was quite good - not the best but enjoyable all the same.

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.ck2skwipsandkritiques.com

I WISH I WOULD HAVE PASSED

Would you try another book from Jayne Castle and/or Joyce Bean?

No

Would you ever listen to anything by Jayne Castle again?

No

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

I have always enjoyed Joyce Beans male voices she did a good job

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Lost Night?

I'd have to tell the writer to go back to the drawing board

Any additional comments?

Could not even finish this book. It's so so so slow and the chemistry between the two lead characters is just sad. The world that the author created is like watching a child learn how to color in between the lines, which could be cute but its not something I would pay for.

Another Great Paranormal

Jayne Castle delivers consistently engaging paranormals and this is another one to add to my keeper shelf. In the Lost Night, the main characters are interesting and have real (paranormal) issues. I enjoyed Lost Night so much I listened to it twice the first week I got it.

loved it

5 stars

An excellent addition to the Rainshadow / Harmony series. Wonderful writing, characters and story as always.

Listened to the audiobook:
Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this - the narrator did a great job.

Good story, terrible narration.

Enjoyed the story, the characters and the setting, but when ever Harry (the male love interest) spoke, he sounded like like an old woman with a stuffy nose!…. Made it difficult to get into the romance…

Ok

Story ok.
Narrator does not do male voices well. They sound like they have a nose block or else a sore throat.

An enjoyable adventure on Rainshadow Island.

I have just listened to this on Audio and have to say I really enjoyed it. It took a while to settle in with the narrator but she did a reasonable job. The character voices weren't that differentiated - especially the men but overall the performance was good.
This time around I enjoyed the story maybe because this time around I started here not the previous Harmony books. Previously I read the paperback in 2015.
I am looking forward to reading the next in the series and have revised my rating to 4 stars.

Okay

This book was enjoyable but not fantastic. I think the most annoying thing was the constant mentioning of people and events that you are clearly supposed to know about but have never been mentioned and you know nothing about. At first I though maybe I had bought the second book, but when I checked this is listed as the first of the series. Odd. The narration is okay, I have definitely had to put up with worse when it comes to audio book. May get the next in the series, but not sure.

Good but not perfect

Generally a good convincing performance but a lot of the male characters sounded similar. Story was good but had a few sections where the action stopped and the characters all sat around explaining back story to each other

Very easy listening

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this whilst doing my knitting. The story was interesting, fanciful and entertaining. I enjoy Jayne Castle's Harmony series.