Enter the Nightmare
Harmony #18
By Jayne Castle
ISBN: 9798217187386
Author’s website: jayneannkrentz.com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
Nightmares become real when a woman trying to rebuild her life enters the Hotel of Dreams in this exhilarating Harmony novel by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Castle.
Alice Radstone should have known not to return. Her life before the Hotel of Dreams had been the perfectly cloistered world of a teacher at the Ballantine Academy. When the death of her mentor forced her out, she was left to reinvent herself in the big city. Since then, things have not gone well. Ten months ago, after her first trip to the hotel, she woke up in the locked ward of a hospital for the criminally insane, told that she had murdered her husband on their wedding night. She has no memory of the husband or the wedding but after escaping the asylum, one thing is certain—she is never going back.
Unfortunately, Alice’s second reinvented life is also deteriorating rapidly, which is why she finds herself once again at the Hotel of Dreams—this time hiding in the shadows of her room, a dead body in the shower, and two men wearing masks creeping toward the bed to kidnap her. Again.
When the enigmatic and decidedly dangerous Owen March shows up, claiming he’s there to rescue her, she has no choice but to accept his offer—and hope that he doesn’t intend to kidnap her, too.
With Alice and now Owen in the killer’s sights, time is running out. Alice and Owen must trust each other and the electric passion between them if they are to make it out of this hotel alive.
Review
Enter the Nightmare starts with Alice Radstone crouching next to the body of an unknown dead man in the bathroom while listening as an assailant is looking for her in her hotel room. The same hotel where ten months ago she allegedly went mad and killed her new husband. The worst part is she doesn’t remember her husband, her wedding or why they were in that hotel room. But she knows that the man in the bathroom was already dead when she arrived and the man outside is looking for her.
Many things happen at once. The man reaches the bed and stabs the body of pillows she left as a decoy. She fires her flamer-gun, and another assailant enters the room. Her aim is bad, but she learns that the men are there to take and they will do it by force. She tries to shoot again but still misses. At this time, her pet Sebastian, a dust bunny, attacks one of the men and a shot from the outside takes down the other one.
In comes Owen March, a Forensic Psi-Genetics consultant that works as a private detective on the side. Owen, without knowing the full story, at first provides the location of Alice’s whereabouts to her capturers and is now trying to help Alice stay alive and free from those who wish her to be committed into a hospital ward. Even though Owen saved Alice’s life this time, she might not fully trust him, but they don’t have much choice as the strange Hotel of Dreams tries to kill them and they need to escape before it happens.
Alice Radstone has unusual psychic powers that make normal people afraid of her. Her powers let her control the dream energy of others and let her either help them get a peaceful sleep or induce their worst nightmares. It was fun at some times to have Alice’s POV and have her try to calm herself with the Ballantine Core Principals, and as the story moves on we see how she must let them go or think outside the box of the Core principals to get her and Owen out of danger.
Owen March, while being the hero that rescues Alice from her most recent kidnapping attempt, comes off as a bit intense from time to time. We know that he is trying to help Alice solve the murder she was framed for but I hoped we had gotten more of his background.
Enter the Nightmare, is set in a world that seems to be an interesting one. It is set in an alien world where humans thrive but have psychic powers because of the ambient energies of the planet. This is the fourteen book in the series, while it seems to be set as a standalone, it didn’t provide more information about the worldbuilding and other characters.
“Late in the twenty-first century, a vast energy curtain opened in the vicinity of Earth, making interstellar travel not only possible but practical. In the typical human fashion, thousands of eager colonists packed up their stuff and headed out to create new homes on the unexplored planets that were suddenly within reach. Harmony was one of those worlds.”
The story starts with many unknown questions: why was Alice committed and locked in the hospital? Who killed her first husband? Who is after her?. As the story progresses, we get answers to these questions, but I also feel that some questions are overlooked or characters only show up for a scene to provide information and don’t show up later again. In the end, most of the reasons for the villains are money or revenge.
If this is your first entry into this series as is mine, I do suggest to start reading the first books to learn more about this series. I think that the dust bunnies might have a deeper story, and I assume Owen’s family money might have come from somewhere. Their hotel bill did go up after the dust bunnies came to the party.
I recommend Enter the Nightmare, in this new instalment of author Jayne Castle Harmony series, we meet the Derange Bride as she looks for who murdered her first husband and gets married again.
