The Bridal Jitters novella introduces Jayne Castle’s world of Harmony but that world truly begins to take shape in the two book story of Lydia Smith & Emmett London called After Dark and After Glow. While writing this post I have gone back and forth on whether to talk about these two books separately or together. Together won because I can’t seem to talk about one without mentioning the other, apparently. So here goes.
dust bunnies are simply adorable
The most striking thing up front is that dust bunnies make their debut in After Dark (and by association After Glow) and they are truly winners. More companion than pet, they’re in every story after the first novella. And they play important roles in each story, too. They are not simply there for the cute factor although they do provide that.
Dust bunnies earned their name from looking like some lint that rolled out from under the bed. Not sure if the author intended this but in my imagination they fall somewhere between a cat and a ferret. With maybe some dog traits tossed in for good measure. Possibly even some bunny characteristics. Cute and cuddly in appearance. In reality they’re little predators with small ears, four eyes and six feet under all that fluff. What they lack in size, they make up for in attitude.
And personality. Lots of personality.
In these two stories, a dust bunny named Fuzz finds and befriends Lydia. As a prototype, by comparison to many of the dust bunnies that come later anyway, Fuzz is pretty bland in the personality department. With the exception of having a thing for pretzels, that is.
dust bunnies and humans
Dust bunnies are also one of the big mysteries of Harmony that the settlers have yet to solve. Because apparently dust bunnies were there when the humans arrived. The books do mention other animals native to Harmony. Well, I think there are some more because I’ve never heard of a specter-cat on Earth. But dust bunnies are very different and stand out because their apparent fascination with humans isn’t about seeing people as food. Or something to run from. In fact more and more of them have been “adopting” humans. They form deep attachments to an individual human and the psychic abilities humans are developing on Harmony appear to be part of the reason it’s happening.
originally I had a mixed reaction to these stories
The very first time I read After Dark, I didn’t love the story as much as I did later ones on Harmony. I mean I loved the world and definitely loved the dust bunny concept. The mysteries weren’t bad either. I simply wasn’t all that impressed with either Lydia Smith or Emmett London or their romance, however. Maybe because at times it seemed like the story was more mystery than romance. In fact, once After Glow came out I got the distinct feeling that Castle was attempting to start a single couple romantic suspense series. I wasn’t sure I would read any more if that was the direction the series was going. Luckily the next book was about another couple and I really liked it.
So Castle hooked me in anyway. However, as the series has continued and I’ve read and reread them all – many times – these first two paired books have grown on me. A lot. I now see that Castle used the huge, if slightly annoying, presence of the Guild Boss Mercer Wyatt and his mysterious relationship to Emmett to give the Ghost Hunter guilds and their complicated politics a lot more definition. Lydia’s adventures in the underworld also flesh out what what it’s like to work in the catacombs.
So maybe she really did write a story that was simply too big for one book the first time around. Don’t know. I just find it curious that this pair of books are both so very different and yet basically the same as the following books. There is a gear shift there most definitely. As a fan I can’t help wondering what exactly was behind the change.
Now on to the books.
After Dark
In After Dark, para-archaeologist Lydia Smith is dealing with the aftermath of a truly bad experience in the catacombs. Like an entire lost weekend level bad. She blames what happened to her on a pair of Ghost Hunters specifically and the power of the Guilds in general but no one believes her. Not her doctors, not the academic world and most especially not the local Guild.
Problem is she’s not sure what happened either but has to get on with the rest of her life. So while all of the above label her as a fragile burnout, she ends up working in a second rate museum to make ends meet. That’s where Emmett London finds her when he needs her help locating a lost family heirloom. She still has a lot of contacts left over from her academic days and is very good at finding things. Along the way, though, she finds a dead body, his heirloom and lots of other trouble.
Not the least of which is finding out that Emmett is also a Guild man to his bones. Oh and an extremely powerful Ghost Hunter. She might actually believe he’s simply a private consultant now if his Guild connections weren’t constantly coming up as they attempt to solve multiple mysteries.
And he has major Guild connections. That’s basically the biggest roadblock that causes their romance to go into overtime in another book.
After Glow
In After Glow, they’re still trying to figure how to make their relationship work when even more complications arise. Lydia finds another dead body. Guild politics mess with their private life big time. The mysteries and even the Guild stuff she can handle but then she unexpectedly has to find something fancy to wear for the biggest social event of the season. Her life is getting way too exciting.
Oh, and about that lost weekend. Lydia isn’t a burn-out and Emmett knows it. He saw her inner strength and felt her psychic power the moment he met her. Fragile she is not. But when odd clues begin to surface that cast her lost weekend in a completely different light, he gets suspicious that something very strange indeed did happen to her underground. Yet another mystery to solve?
Or is everything connected?
my final thoughts
More and more I lean towards this simply being a story that was too big for one book. So we got two. And a much deeper look at the world of Harmony in the process. Which is not a bad thing. Are either one of these my favorite of the Harmony books or even the one I would recommend as an introduction to the series? No, oddly enough. That’s one later in the series. But they’re solid stories that do introduce the world of Harmony very well. Make of that what you will.