Last week I was
lucky enough to finally meet my idol,
Jayne Ann Krentz at a book signing event at Anderson’s Bookshop. As a bonus I also got to meet Christina Dodd
and Susan Elizabeth Phillips! I waited
for months for this event and promised myself that, as an experienced blogger,
I would be cool, calm, and collected when I met Jayne. Well, that didn’t happen. I talked so
much and rambled on about my obsessive love for her for what felt like
ages. I could meet Chris Pratt on the
street and not fangirl half as hard as I did with Jayne. (Insert face palm here).
Is it even fair
for me to review Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle books when I’m so
freaking obsessed with her? Probably not, but I don’t care because everyone needs to hear about this
insanely amazing work of fiction.
The Other Lady Vanishes is the second book in her new series
under the Amanda Quick penname is set in 1930s California (the first book is
called The Girl Who Knew Too Much). I am over the moon about this new time
period, given that most historical romance novels take place in the Regency or
Victorian eras. It’s such a wonderfully
unique twist on the subgenre and I’m learning so much new lingo and so many
interesting facts. Did you know how easy
it was to commit someone to a sanitarium back in the day? And how about the prevalence of LSD? Or how many people thought other people were
government spies? Man, it sounds like a
freaking fantastic time. Yay for
learning!
Blurb: After escaping from a private sanitarium,
Adelaide Blake arrives in Burning Cove, California, desperate to start over.
Working at an
herbal tea shop puts her on the radar of those who frequent the seaside resort
town: Hollywood movers and shakers always in need of hangover cures and tonics.
One such customer is Jake Truett, a recently widowed businessman in town for a
therapeutic rest. But unbeknownst to Adelaide, his exhaustion is just a cover.
In Burning
Cove, no one is who they seem. Behind facades of glamour and power hide drug
dealers, gangsters, and grifters. Into this make-believe world comes psychic to
the stars Madame Zolanda. Adelaide and Jake know better than to fall for her
kind of con. But when the medium becomes a victim of her own dire prediction
and is killed, they'll be drawn into a murky world of duplicity and
misdirection.
Neither
Adelaide or Jake can predict that in the shadowy underground they'll find
connections to the woman Adelaide used to be--and uncover the specter of a
killer who's been real all along...
Review: Funny enough this is not the first book
Jayne Ann Krentz has written about a young woman escaping an asylum where she’s
been held against her will. She wrote
the book Light In Shadow which is an
amazing read about a brave young woman who can hear voices in the walls of
rooms where violent acts have occurred.
It’s absolutely fabulous. But this is the first of its kind under
her Amanda Quick penname.
The Other Lady Vanishes is your typical Amanda Quick novel in
that it’s absolutely spectacular from start to finish. I have no clue how she, time and time again,
comes up with these dynamic characters, crazy mysteries, and batshit crazy bad
guys. I read this book in a day and I
don’t regret the time I spent whatsoever.
Her heroes are awesome because even while they’re, most often, macho
alpha men, they’re still romantics at heart with all the sappy thoughts and
actions we want from our book boyfriends.
If you’re
looking for something to shake up your otherwise somewhat predictable reading
list then I one hundred percent recommend this incredible change of pace
read. Get ready to fall down a pit of old
Hollywood glitz and glamour with The Other Lady Vanishes.
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