After Glow — Jayne Castle

“When it comes to dysfunctional families, he said,I’ll put mine up against anyone’s, anytime” ― Jayne Castle, After Glow

For Lydia Smith, life is challenging. She is attempting to save her para-archaeology career by working at Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors, a garish, subpar museum, while also dating the most dangerous man in town. Just as she starts to feel in control of the situation, she trips over a dead body and learns that her partner has a dark past that could lead to his murder. And to top it all off, there’s trouble brewing beneath the Dead City in the weird, lighting green tunnels.
This book is a direct sequel to After Dark, as I indicated in my review of it. It follows the same couple to their happy ending and answers some of the unanswered questions from the first book.
The history of Harmony since humans first began to inhabit the planet is filled in, along with more backstory on Lydia and Emmett. Fuzz, the cutest dust bunny, continues to be great.
I’ll now groom myself a little. Mercer Wyatt, the leader of the Hunters’ Guild in Cadence, and Emmett had a brief exchange of words in After Dark. I said to myself, “I’ll be darned, All of these issues are minor in comparison to the fact that Lydia has been invited to the Restoration Ball but has nothing to wear.
Emmett’s father is Mercer. This complicates matters considerably for Emmett, Mercer, Lydia, and Tamara, Mercer’s second wife and Emmett’s previous fiancée, assuming you’ve read the first chapter.
Well, it turns out I was correct. This is revealed fairly early in the novel, following an attempt on Mercer’s life, and it explains a lot of Emmett’s reasons and his semi-antagonism towards Mercer in After Dark. The plot of After Glow is also fueled by it.
An abbreviated summary Emmett relocated to Cadence and even went so far as to purchase a home in the neighborhood Lydia calls home. He is planning how to convince Lydia to wed him, even if it is only a temporary marriage of convenience. With time and the closeness of sharing a home, they can upgrade to a permanent covenant marriage.
After playing a key role in one of the most amazing archaeological finds in recent memory, Lydia has a new private client with a substantial project and budget. She will undoubtedly enhance her reputation as a consultant and grow her business if she performs to his demanding standards.
Lydia is still hooked on learning the truth about what transpired during her most recent university assignment, which resulted in her spending two whole days trapped in the city’s catacombs. She finds yet another body as she continues to investigate the situation.
A nearly simultaneous attempt is made to kill Mercer Wyatt, who asks Emmett to run the Hunters’ Guild while Mercer heals from his injuries. Which, in Lydia’s opinion, brings up a ton of difficulties in their lives as well as a sizable dosage of danger — for Emmett.
The mystery element in this book is considerably better developed than it was in After Dark because, among other things, it connects multiple unrelated threads without any shocking disclosures at the end. There are hints and clues throughout the novel, and even while I could pretty much guess where they were leading by just over halfway through the book, there were still enough unexpected elements to keep me interested until the very end.
More action occurs in the narrative, and Lydia saves the day once more (which, in my opinion, is always fantastic), while Emmett also has a chance to be brave.
Although there are more characters than in After Dark, there isn’t enough to warrant a character chart. It’s also simple to understand who is doing what and why because all of the main characters and the most of the secondary characters are fully developed and dimensional. However, there are a few red herrings, or the equivalent, in every good mystery.
It was interesting to see how the Hunters’ Guild operates as we learn more about the past of the human settlements in Harmony. The most of the information we have so far about it is from Lydia’s perspective, and she is undoubtedly biased against them.
Regarding the romance, I really liked how Emmett and Lydia’s differences are developed and resolved. The world’s premise may be extraordinary, but the human aspect makes sense; because their relationship is still in its early stages, these two occasionally work in opposition to one another. As a risk neither is certain they can take, they are not yet at the point where discussing things openly with each other is normal and anticipated.
That’s excellent, then.
The fact that Ms. Castle doesn’t try to explain Fuzz or turn him into a glorified dog, cat, rabbit, or whatever makes me like his position even more. It works because dust bunnies are independent creatures.Evaluation

Storytelling Quality — 4

Story Itself — 3

Character development — 3

Writing Style — 4

World Building — 4

Feels — 4

Pace — 3

Plot — 4

cover art — 3

Ending — 4