Nightwalker, by Jayne Ann Krentz (as Stephanie James)

I actually read Nightwalker, by Jayne Ann Krentz (writing as Stephanie James) some time ago, but after so many JAK books, it's hard to find anything original to say about a new one. I still enjoy them very much, though ;-)

DEAD OF NIGHT

Cassie was alone in the old mansion when the lights went out. Then three knocks on the heavy r front door resounded through the house. Lashed by rain, Justin Drake stood at her doorstep. A sudden bolt of lightning illuminated the dark form of the man who had come to exact the revenge he had promised--her seduction.

But soon strange events began to occur, and Cassie wondered if she had tumbled into a nightmare. Was Justin the protector he now claimed to be. . . or was she fatally drawn to the instrument of her own destruction?

I don't know, this one seemed to me a bit more original than other of hers. It did have a couple of elements she's already used, but that was it. A B+

I especially liked the heroine. Cassie's rich because she's made her money herself (a self-made heroine at last!!), and doesn't feel guilty about it. Neither does she feel the need to keep on making more and more money. No, she has enough, now it's time to enjoy life. Can I mention how much I like her attitude?

She's a bit too hung up on her sister's life for my taste, but at least when she decides to blackmail the hero into not marrying her sister (don't ask!), she thinks it through, finds his weak points and attacks. And she doesn't allow herself to be intimidated into backing off. But then she lets Justin manipulate her into not throwing him out of the house she's rented, and seeing how this contrasts with her first attitude, I'm a bit baffled.

Justin was all right, too. He tried his best to be a bastard, with his plans for revenge and his macho attitude, but Cassie soon has him behaving like a teddy bear of a guy. Nice ;-)

Oh, and these two definitely had chemistry!

I enjoyed the whole Dracula gothic thingie this book had going on. Big, decrepit mansion on top of a cliff. Apparitions popping up all over the place. A hero who might be responsible for them. Very good!

The suspense subplot itself (or rather, its solution, what actually was going on) was interesting, though pretty obvious. Luckily, as in all the books JAK wrote in those years, the actual suspense is pretty slight, and I thought what there was of it added to the story.