Jayne Ann Krentz closes out her Lost Night Files trilogy with the nail-biting Shattering Dawn. The series follows three women, all of whom woke up strapped to gurneys at a hotel in the middle of an earthquake and a fire—with no memory of how they got there, and with new paranormal abilities to boot. Surviving that horrific event forged an unbreakable bond between Pallas Llewellyn (Sleep No More), Talia March (The Night Island) and Amelia Rivers, and they created a cold case podcast, Lost Night Files, to discover what happened on that fateful night. Shattering Dawn follows Amelia, a photographer with psychic abilities, an eye for detail and a healthy sense of survival.
Amelia has struggled with paranoia and phobias ever since that night at the hotel, but unfortunately for her, the shadowy figure lurking around her apartment is not a figment of her imagination—it’s a dangerous stalker. So she hires private investigator Gideon Sweetwater to help catch him. Gideon is reluctant to help Amelia at first, as he thinks she’s just paranoid. But after her stalker tries to kidnap her, it’s clear her fears are rooted in reality. The only safe thing to do is to go on the run, which is especially hard for Amelia, for whom trust is so difficult. However, she quickly learns that Gideon has his own psychic gifts, abilities that are the yin to Amelia’s yang, and powerful when combined with her own.
Krentz, who has published more than 120 books since her debut in 1979, is an old-school storyteller with a quick, intelligent mind and a talent for building a wicked sense of tension and suspense. She’s an incredible world builder, to the point where the reader truly feels as if they’re in the story, parsing through the data and fighting the bad guys with dedicated intensity. Krentz’s main characters have equitable strength and vulnerability, and while the plot is lighter on romance, Gideon and Amelia’s love is shown in the way he stands by her side—even when he would prefer she stay out of danger—and the way she helps him work through his own trauma. If you’re a fan of romantic suspense, treat yourself to Shattering Dawn, an expert offering by one of the best authors in the business.
