Guild Boss (Ghost Hunters, #14) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Nov 25, 2021 Monadh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, pnr, murder-mystery, mystery, futuristic

The Comfort of Familiarity

I have been an avid fan of JAK’s books since the 90s (showing my age here) and I used to grab her books just as soon as they came out. These days I still like her books, but more often than not I re-read old favorites, abd though usually I get around to reading her new releases, I am just not driven by the same urgency. Her Harmony books are among my favorites, but with so many books to her name (and I have read most of them), it seems inevitable that some of her storie The Comfort of Familiarity

I have been an avid fan of JAK’s books since the 90s (showing my age here) and I used to grab her books just as soon as they came out. These days I still like her books, but more often than not I re-read old favorites, abd though usually I get around to reading her new releases, I am just not driven by the same urgency. Her Harmony books are among my favorites, but with so many books to her name (and I have read most of them), it seems inevitable that some of her stories, especially if read back-to-back, start to appear a little bit repetitive.

Her Harmony books are set on a different world, sometime in the future, which for a time was accessible from our known world through a curtain, before at some point in the past it closed without warning, leaving the explorers stranded with no way to go back. Most of the Old World technology they brought with them degraded pretty fast, so instead they had to rely on “crystal-powered” technology for energy and everything else. But either the unfamiliar atmosphere or the properties of the crystals led to a slice of the population developing paranormal abilities (or to hone the abilities that were already dormant in them). These people are now able to resonate with the crystals in different ways and manipulate them sometimes also the environment. The crystals are/were not native to Harmony, but are thought to be the relicts of an ancient alien civilization that abandoned Harmony long before humans ever got there….
The Harmony stories are all structured in a similar way: there is usually a Ghost Hunter involved (always male) who has the ability to manipulate “ghosts” (sort of dangerous and unpredictable energy emanations of the structures left by the aliens), and a female, with some special talent that has fallen down on her luck or got herself into a scrape, from which she doesn’t necessarily have to be rescued (though sometimes she is), and then she and the ghost hunter have to work together to solve some kind of mystery. Another important ingredient are the so-called “dust bunnies”, a type of cute looking predator that is reminiscent of cats: they are intelligent, independent, but sometimes attach themselves to humans as a kind of companion/familiar.

In this story, Lucy, our female protagonist, gets abducted from a wedding and is driven into the underground ruins left by the aliens. Her family commissions a ghost hunter, Gabriel Jones, to search for her. He does find her; and they have a very intense experience together, but after bringing her back to the surface, he immediately abandons her (he has another important job lined up) and Lucy is carted off to a mental clinic for a supposed break down, from where she subsequently manages to escape. Sadly, the whole episode has ruined her professional reputation, so the only job she is able to get is as a bus driver for an amusement park to the alien ruins. She is also trying to find out on her own who abducted her and why, as nobody, neither the authorities nor her parents believe she was abducted in the first place and put everything down to her break-down.
Gabriel, meanwhile, has completed his assignment and has secured the post of Guild Boss of Illusion Town. He searches out Lucy and wants to pick up where they left off in the catacombs, only Lucy feels quite a lot of pent-up anger for Gabriel for abandoning her while she was in a vulnerable state. But Gabriel will do everything in his power to win her back, and though in the beginning he is rather dubious of her assertions that somebody is after her, subsequent events force him to acknowledge that she was right all along…

3 stars from me, because of the comfort of familiarity this predictable story provided. Sometimes you just want to immerse yourself in a story, where a HEA is guaranteed, with the bad guys vanquished, and a sweet romance and a cozy mystery along the way.

But I do have some points of criticism, which revolve around what I would call a lack of imagination, an assertion which at first might appear paradoxical, because creating a whole different world surely requires a lot of imagination. And while I admit that JAK’s world building is both deft and coherent, she does not avail herself of the freedom inherent in sci-fi and fantasy literature of exploring new ideas, different ways of conceptualizing society, of questioning existing norms and structures, instead she tries to preserve dated, conservative (not to say reactionary) social ideas. One of those ideas are the strict marriage laws that the first colonizers established on Harmony. The rules distinguish between an MC (marriage of convenience), which is limited in time and entered into as sort of a legal framework for a temporary relationship (to have sex in a socially acceptable way) and reminds me a little of the “pleasure marriage” known in Islam. And then there is the Covenant Marriage, which is extremely difficult to dissolve. History teaches us that these types of arrangements as a rule disadvantage women.
And then there is the Guild, which is all male, because only men can be Ghost Hunters, re-creating and perpetuating an ideology that there are areas (activities/professions) where women don’t belong.
And finally, Harmony seems to have similar labor laws inimical to workers’ interests as the US, as exemplified with Lucy’s situation. She has a job, which does not even pay a minimum wage, but she only earns what she gets in tips. And this is presented more as a matter of course than as a critique of existing realities. And if you write sci-fi/fantasy, you can write your world anyway you want and need not be shackled by some out-dated, reactionary ideas. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2021 Marisa rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: part-of-a-series, next-in-series, romance-paranormal, romance, half-star, biblioteca, 2021

★★★☆

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 08, 2022 Diane ~Firefly~ rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, romance, paranormal, alien-alternate-world

Gabriel rescues Lucy from the underground, which leads to Lucy losing her reputation as a weather channeler.

What I enjoyed:
* Otis, the dust bunny who loves being the center of attention and olive pizza
* Lucy - she had a difficult path with no one believing she had been kidnapped and drugged. She had to start over to keep a roof over her head.
* Gabriel was an interesting Guild Boss since he was new to the job. Luckily, his assistant Adien had everything under control.

What could have been better:
* ...more

Like · see review

Feb 06, 2022 Michelle the Romance Witch rated it it was amazing

Love the return to Harmony with this story and the "Easter eggs" of the Arcane society and Jones family are AWESOME for us longtime Jayne readers. Lucy and Gabriel were obviously perfect for each other and a kickass crime fighting team. And OMFG Otis could not have been cuter!
Can't wait for the next one. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 12, 2022 Thenia rated it liked it

Shelves: paranormal, series, romance, sci-fi, 2022, to-review, r-ab, magic, tbr-sci-fi

Guild Boss on Books On Track

RTC ...more

Like · see review

Nov 11, 2021 Sandra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pnr-uf, own, krentz, kindle, fav-authors

It was a long time in the making, but I was glad to read about the latest Dust Bunny, Otis.

As always JAK, under whichever name, is a fun, comfortable ride, full of warm & fuzzy feelings. This one is full of little reminiscences of past books, J & J, Fallon Jones, Old Earth goodies & baddies, Coppersmiths' still in mining & Marlow Jones gets a mention as well. Mrs Bridewell's shocking dolls also play a part.

Hopefully, we get another Harmony book in the not too distant future & perhaps even a wedd ...more

Like · see review