cover image Guild Boss

Guild Boss

Jayne Castle. Berkley, $27 (304p) ISBN 978-0-593-33699-1

Castle returns to the intricately built, unique world of her Harmony series, a former Earth colony long cut off from the home world, in the hot, delightful standalone 14th installment (after Illusion Town). Lucy Bell, a professional weather channeler, meets her very own brooding prince charming in Gabriel Jones, a member of the peacekeeping Ghost Hunter Guild who comes to her rescue after a botched kidnapping attempt lands her in the alien Underworld beneath Illusion Town, Harmony’s version of Las Vegas. With no witnesses and no suspects, no one believes Lucy’s story, instead assuming she’s too embarrassed to admit she’d simply gotten lost. Her professional reputation takes a nosedive—until Gabriel crashes back into her life two months later as the new Guild Boss of Illusion Town with a job offer for Lucy in hand. Together, they explore the alien technologies and dangerous crevices of the Underworld and find themselves drawn into a conspiracy generations in the making. Tinged with just a kiss of romantic suspense, the novel’s seamless blend of past, present, and future sensibilities and familiar yet otherworldly backdrop are more than enough to tantalize. Add in frequent humor, and one incorrigible dust bunny with a penchant for pizza, and readers will fall in love. Agent: Steve Axelrod, the Axelrod Agency (Nov.)