Because she’s single-handedly managed to drag me kicking and screaming – okay, not exactly screaming but definitely reluctantly – out of my self-imposed hiatus with a recent post on a Jayne Ann Krentz book called Random Romance Sunday: Jungle Love. And even that probably wouldn’t have done it for me it I hadn’t already been mulling over the craziness of a recent purchase of mine.
Here’s the thing, I’ve been seriously thinking lately on filling out my collection of Krentz’s backlist, all AKAs. Notice the word “collection” there. This isn’t so much a reader thing, as it is a collector thing, although I do love her current Jayne Castle books. Anyway, last week, I think it was, I was out shopping, I can’t even remember which store, and picked up a couple of random romances purchases that just happened to be Krentz’s I didn’t have yet, although one was under her Jayne Castle pen. They were All Night Long (Krentz) and Midnight Crystal (Castle)
Then I got home and started checking out Midnight Crystal, figuring I’d read it first due to it being a Castle and noticed something odd. Way down at the bottom of the front there’s this line of small, fine print, “Book Three of the Dreamlight Trilogy”. What?
How did I miss Book One and Two?
So, I immediately got online and checked her website. That only made things worse. An Arcane Society Novel #9? Oh, but wait there’s more. I went to Goodreads, just to doublecheck and my head almost hit the desk. It’s listed there as Harmony #7, which in the normal course of things wouldn’t bother me since I think I have all those books.
It’s just the other connections. When the heck did Krentz of all people start doing connected books to the point where the publishers are actually numbering them on the covers?!?
Oh, and an even more important question, do I have to read a previous book in either the Dreamlight or Arcane groups before I read this one?
Okay, I was just doing some further checking before going to bed and I’m a little suspicious that this Dreamlight trilogy might be more “connected” than I thought and not at all a random bit of storytelling within either the Arcane or Harmony group. Just maybe attached to each. If I’m reading these descriptions right, it is a three piece story arc – each book set in a different time period under each of her AKAs.
So maybe she has done what I was wanting, just not directly sequentially. Only problem is now I think I have to get the other two books first.
Well, dang. I wrote up an entire reply and completely lost it in the ether. For a second there, I was starting to think this new theme wasn’t going to let me comment on my own blog. Oye.
Anyhoo, I know exactly what you’re saying, Wendy, about her and crossing genres. It’s the numbering that threw me, I think. And didn’t she have some mention of the Arcane business in the Quick books years ago? I say that because seems like that’s about when I lost interest in them and therefore lost track of her Quck backlist. I could be wrong on that though.
Victoria, it’s a relief to know that she’s still mainly just having her characters and stories existing within her universe, not necessarily within a particular story arc. That’s not to say I couldn’t go for, oh, say, a trilogy from her like that. As long as we were warned in advance. 😉
Yeah, she started having her series “cross over” the pen names a couple years ago. I think it’s been years now? Oh who the heck knows or remembers. I just see her name and buy the book(s) for work 🙂 But yeah, there are Arcane series titles under the Amanda Quick name even. If any author was going to do this, it makes sense that it would be JAK since she’s always had her fingers in a lot of sub genre pies….
I read a couple of random Arcane Society books from mid-series and didn’t feel like anything was missing.