Jayne Castle - Silver Master

Fleeing a lurid scandal, matchmaker Celinda Ingram arrived in Cadence City desperate for a new start. Known for her strong para-resonator abilities, she is able to match up clients by reading their psi waves. It's this talent that sets her body tingling when security specialist Davis Oakes shows up at her office.
A formidable psychic himself, Davis is trying to track down a powerful relic that Celinda supposedly bought as a toy for her pet dust bunny. Trying to wrest the ruby red object from the suspicious duo nearly drains Davis of the energy he'll need to keep his growing desire for Celinda in check--and to keep her safe from those who will do anything to possess the relic...

Comment: This is a series whose installments so far I have enjoyed reading but yes, I admit this has not been a priority and the years pass by... the last book I've read was in 2020, but here I am again, with another one finished.

In this romantic sci-fi series, one day a huge opening suddenly appeared on Earth and that has allowed humans to travel into space at a speed not imaginable before, and many settlers traveled to a new world, with commerce with Earth being a continuous source of trade and money. However, one day the opening disappeared as easily as it had showed up and everyone on the new world could not go back to Earth. Now, in this world, people carried on with their lives, centuries passed by and some humans started to develop some psychic powers, probably related to the planet/world's minerals and such. 

In this book we have the story of Celinda, she is a professional matchmaker, whose life might be in danger after she buys a weird relic, apparently useless, as a toy for her dust bunny, the cute little pets who are native of the planet. However, someone seems to be eager to get the relic and Davies, a private security expert, decides to help and protect Celinda so he can recover the relic and give it to his client. Celinda and Davies join forces to safe keep the relic until it's delivered but will they be ready to protect it with their lives so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands? What about the feelings that they weren't expecting but can't seem to ignore?

This author, also known for her work as Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz (and others), is certainly known for her kind of formulaic stories, a pattern of plot that is easy to recognize after a few books read. This can seem tiring after a while or might mean one doesn't have much to look for, but in spaced doses, I kind of like going back to this author's work. There is some satisfaction in the familiarity of these stories even if one is reading a new book for the first time.

I don't think this is the type of series one has to always read in order, most of the plot isn't sequential to previous installments, but it's a bit specific in certain elements that reading out of order will feel weird, although the author does try to "explain" how things came to be in this alien planet in each book. I like the idea of how this world/planet came to be and how people live there, so the oddities aren't that radical to be considered. 

If there is one element I didn't like as much here (or in most of the author's novels) is how the characters claim they aren't interested in a relationship but quickly fall into one. If this is done in a convincing way, I don't mind it, and that is the whole point of a romance, but sometimes it feels as if this yet another element to get done and that's it.

Celinda and Davies aren't a bad pair and we are given many scenes and small hints of why they would be a strong pair, especially with all the paranormal details in the world. Nevertheless, their romance felt a little bland and not as strong as the romances in other books by this author, even when she writes under a different pseudonym. I think it is simply too obvious they are meant to be a pair and there's no real fun or novelty in making them a pair. I suppose I wish their relationship had been better paced, so that we could convincingly accept they would be good together.

The plot of this book is centered on investigating the relic Celinda buys by accident and why it is important. This might seem rather silly but it does work in the context of the story, especially because in this world people can increase their powers or can use them in contact with certain types of minerals existing in the planet and because they had been used by other aliens or something. The way the author explains this can make sense for the world she created but the old fashioned investigation methods and structure of the plot aren't that special. In a way, this is good, we can follow a familiar element, but on the other makes the story loose some relevance.

In the end, for a fan, this is a good and imaginative story and quite entertaining. I was definitely interested in seeing how the good guys would solve the issue of the relic and, as expected, the bad guys are predictably caught and punished. The romance, as I've said, wasn't that great but I feel glad enough this was another story that accomplished its goal. I will read the next one some day and hopefully the romance might be stronger then.

Grade: 7/10