Quick Thoughts: Deception Cove

Deception Cove

by Jayne Castle
Book 10 of Harmony
-- Book 2 of Rainshadow

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

In the world of Harmony, Rainshadow Island is home to a mysterious preserve, secrets that have been kept for centuries, and a treasure worth killing for...

As a light-talent, Alice North has the rare ability to make things disappear, including herself—a gift that comes in handy during her magic act with her dust bunny Houdini.

Business mogul Drake Sebastian is day-blind, since his sight was nearly destroyed in a lab accident.  But he’s the one man who can see Alice when she disappears—and he needs her.

On Rainshadow Island, two dangerous Old World crystals are missing, igniting a paranormal storm.  Drake thinks Alice is the key to finding them, and proposes they head there, but only after a Marriage of Convenience.

Alice’s honeymoon on Rainshadow is guaranteed to be memorable, as the island—and the passion between her and Drake—is about to explode...

Deception Cove continues the Rainshadow conflict, picking up where The Lost Night left off, with the search for the last two crystals, and well as figuring out what's causing the Preserve to become so psi-hot, as our characters put it.  The entire community of Rainshadow is in darkness with the electricity being affected, and no outside resources able to land as the psi-hot atmosphere is causing dangerous travel.

Drake Sebastian and Alice North were both mentioned from the previous book, and it was pretty much a gimme who the main couple would be for this following installment.

Despite being the same typical romance formula that Jayne Castle is known for, I found that I really loved this installation of the series a lot.  I think it mainly has to do with the atmosphere and the setting.  In a sense, it kind of reminded me of some video games I used to play, where your game character travels to an unknown land and ends up trapped there until you can defeat the big boss of that level.  Meanwhile, there is no electricity, and you must solve the conflict by speaking with the mysterious in-game inhabitants.

I mean, that wasn't the plot of this book, in particular, but we still have that "stranded on an island" feeling, with no electricity, and our main characters must resolve the conflict to save the day.  Work and plan by day; get indoors and away from the mysterious hallucinogenic fog by night.  A very intriguing synopsis, indeed.

Meanwhile, I really DO love a lot of the new developments that keep popping up in this long-running Harmony series.

If there is one thing about these books, however, that kind of make me roll my eyes, it would be the deliberate pop culture references by our characters.  Someone always brings up some real-time present day thing in these books, which are technically historical to them.  But it feels both amusing and a little tacky at the same time.  I'm not saying I don't enjoy them--they bring a little bit of strange humor to the books--but they feel awkward as well.

Meanwhile, I'm still a little confused about a few psychic abilities, and am trying really, really hard not to slam on the whole "psychic recognition of your one true love" thing.  It's quite obvious that each couple's set-up for the past few books is bringing the "psychic compatibility" thing as part of the romantic attraction.  Why can't we just have a "getting to know each other" romance without bringing the whole "psychically compatible and meant for each other" theme into it all?

Last, but definitely not least, Houdini made an exception dust bunny addition to our book, even if his presence felt a bit lacking.  Once again, I wished we could have seen more of our dust bunny friends, as Darwina, from the previous book, gets a little bit of book time, though not quite enough.

Nonetheless, a very enjoyable experience!