Jayne Castle - Amaryllis

The first book in the Curtain: Futuristic World of St. Helen's series, published 1996.
Genre: futuristic/paranormal romance
Cover: pretty. The new cover has a shirtless hero in a long leather coat on it, ridiculous.
Re-read: for the second time.



Amaryllis Lark is undeniably beautiful. She's also one of the best psychic detectives on St. Helen's, the earth colony recently cut off from the mother planet, yet not so very different from home - a place where love still defies the most incredible odds. Lucas Trent, the rugged head of Lodestone Exploration, isn't keen on the prim and proper type - and, from her neatly buttoned business suit to her cool evaluation of his request to bust a corporate thief, Amaryllis is excruciatingly proper.
Amaryllis may have psychic powers but she can't read minds - least of all her own. When a bold hunch leads them from a wild murder investigation to a red-hot love affair, Amaryllis is shocked. Lucas is delighted - and no power on heaven, earth or St. Helen's can keep them apart!


St Helen's is a hard world for humans, their technology and plastics didn't survive on the planet, so they were thrown back a few hundred years, technology wise, and had to make a whole new society based on the ancient labours, farming, fishing and building. But the people changed as well, developing psychic powers. Some had different talents, others were focuses, able to build a prism in their minds that the talents could use, and they had to work together. Strong powers are good and respected, but too strong a power, and people are afraid of you.
Lucas is one of those, but he has managed to hide how strong he was during testing. But now he needs a class 10 full scale prism, and Amaryllis Lark is one of the few who qualify. Can they work together?
And so from finding out the truth about the person selling his company's secrets, to finding the murderer of Amaryllis' old professor and mentor, they stumble in a few different adventures. And into each other's arms. Neither has ever felt the strong attraction when working with a person using their psychic talents. But on St Helen's, old fashioned values have been reinstated. A marriage is for life, and the only ones that are accepted by society, are those matched by a marriage agency. Love and lust only last so long, compatibility is needed for the long haul. But it is very rare for two such strong talents to be matched; do they dare choose to marry anyway? Amaryllis' family certainly is against it…

I wanted to re-read this series, as I was a bit disappointed in the latest Amanda Quick book I read, and I wanted to go back to her roots, and try something old. I remember falling in love with this genre thanks to this series, and I enjoyed it a lot, re-reading this first book. I will certainly re-read Zinnia and Orchid soon. (If you don't know, Jayne Ann Krentz, Jayne Castle and Amanda Quick are the same person, different genres).
I love the paranormal aspect, the psychic powers and the hint of suspense in these books. But I think I prefer her Harmony books, as those have the added cuteness of the alien Dustbunnies!

9 stars.

© 2016 Reviews by Aurian