Eugenia is a director of a top-notch glass museum. Cyrus is a PI with a deep dark secret. She wants to find out what happened to her late friend. She doesn’t believe the police report of a boating accident. He wants to find a man who betrayed him three years ago and killed his wife. They meet in the middle, and love happens the way it always does – unexpectedly and gloriously, despite their mutual initial distrust – amid the confusion, the mysterious murderer running loose, and a mass of unanswered questions. Finding the answers brings them closer together, as it always happens in this author’s novels.
The writing is simple and professional, the plot engrossing and fast-paced, and the characters are a stuff of dreams, the best a fiction writer could come up with. Realistic? No. But it was pleasurable to read about them.
The only aspect of this book I didn’t like was that Krentz’s villains talk too much, explaining all their nefarious deeds during the final confrontation, before they even think about pulling the trigger. Many mystery writers suffer from this malady, so it’s a small flaw in an otherwise extremely readable romantic thriller. The best name for this book is ‘brain candy’, or maybe a brain cake, and I’ve always been partial to sweet treats.
Delicious.

This is a late '90s contemporary set in the art world with some of Krentz's signature moves: ⁠
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*An "opposites attract" couple of a museum curator and a private investigator⁠
*A fake dating cover story⁠
*An overarching mystery that serves to throw our MCs together⁠
*A real sense of time and place (late '90s PNR)⁠
⁠
Half of the fun of reading these books is how of their era they feel. With references to "cellular phones," "laptop computers," and all varietals of white wine EXCEPT chardonnay, we had a blast reading this one. ⁠

42-Word Summaries:
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Meg: It’s the late ’90s. You’re a museum curator. You love white wine, discovering new glass artists, and vegetarian food. Your museum has just received a bequest for expensive glass, but to get it, you have to pretend to date a private investigator. ⁠
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Laine: Meg told me to read this because I've been obsessed with the Portland vase and it might be the most 90s thing I've ever experienced? It's neither objectively good or objectively hot but my notes app and I had a fantastic time. ⁠
⁠

Krentz is always fun

I always enjoy her work. Well plotted, logical and always ties the threads together by the end of the book. Her fans will enjoy this one too.

Good book

Would recommend this book to anyone looking for a great read

I can see that I'm destined to become a fan of Jayne Ann Krentz. This book isn't my favorite of hers, but it was still a fun read and an engaging story. The main characters in this one were a bit too, I dunno, quirky, I suppose, for my taste. Eugenia was a touch too sure of herself, even when so far outside her regular competence. Cole was a touch too certain of himself absent verifiable data. Still, it was a fun mystery and the characters worked well enough for me to lose myself in their story.

A note about Steamy: I'm beginning to recognize the default Jayne Ann Krentz standard on the steam scale. Most of her books have a couple of explicit scenes of only a page or two with maybe a few follow-up mentions that fade to black before much more than a paragraph. I rather like that and this book is in that range.

I keep reading Jayne Ann Krentz, although her books are not very emotional and kind of stiff to me. She's a bit of a formulaic writer, both as Jayne Ann Krentz as well as Amanda Quick, but I like her Amanda Quick books better.

What I mean by formulaic is, each book will seize and revolve around a certain repeated theme, almost like she's bashing the reader about the head with it. In this book, it's Cyrus's loud Hawaiian print shirts (which are never explained) and his constant thoughts about how different he and Eugenia are and how she's so classy but he isn't. His lack of self-esteem grated.

Eugenia drives the plot; a lot of times she makes the first move, she apologises when they have misunderstandings, she tells him what she thinks of him and how she feels. I don't really feel that they are a good match. She gives him comfort and acceptance that he has never had, but I don't quite see what he is giving her. He's so laconic and sarcastic that I think he's closed up emotionally and she will have to keep drawing him out, which will end up being frustrating. I also don't feel that Cyrus's loud shirts will fit in Eugenia's refined artsy world, and it makes me wonder how long their relationship will last.

The plot is a bit convoluted but the whole point is to show that the two MCs both have a personal sense of honour and loyalty, and are strong people in their own right. I was really annoyed at the fact that they change the codes on the security system but Eugenia comes home and doesn't bother to lock the door, thus allowing an intruder to creep up on her. She's apprehensive and shocked, all the more reason to lock the damn door!

Good read

Always love reading her books exciting and romantic. Great read for a nice quiet evening at home or anytime at all.

An Entertaining Story

This is a fun read. Predictable but satisfying romance between opposite personalities. Some interesting information about art glass. Greed is the overwhelming evil in this story.

☆4.2
ミステリーがメインだけど後半は特に物語に引き込まれた。

複数の出来事や人間関係が上手く絡み合ってハッピーエンドに収まる所がとてもお上手で読後感がとても良かったし、ヒーローの精神年齢が高い所が素敵で甥とのやり取りは尊敬してしまった。

やっぱりクレンツ先生の昔の作品は私好みだなぁ。
その中ではベストではないかもですが、とても良い出来の一つだと思った。

Myベストは「優しい週末Absolutely positively」で「愛と運命にさまよいFamily man」や「Grand passion愛の遺産」も楽しかった記憶あり。

他にこの時代のクレンツ先生作品で読んでない名作はないか探してみる予定。

My second time reading this and I loved it every bit as much the second time. Cyrus reminds me a lot of Elvis Cole, which is a wonderful thing!!

I really liked the story. The mystery kept you engaged and although I figured most of it out, I didn't get quite all of it right. I really liked the hero in the story. I found him interesting and relatable. However, this author needs to realize that a strong confident women would not just rush into danger or ignore the advice of a trained professional. That doesn't make her strong, it makes her stupid and bullheaded. I spent the majority of the book irritated with the heroine for that reason. She endangered multiple lives and didn't learn from it. If not for that this would have gotten 4 stars.

3 years previous-Cyrus Chandler Colfax was in business with Damien March and married to Katy. Damien had the connections to make March & Colfax Security profitable but Colfax didn't trust March and had decided after 6 months that this was his last job with March. They were to deliver a glass bowl depicting Hades and Persephone to a customer when Colfax was shot in the shoulder. March disappeared with the bowl. He cleaned out the company bank account and Katy was murdered.
Cyrus had taken it upon himself to be almost like a father to his late wife's nephew, Rick. He threatened the boy's dad, Jake Tasker, to show up at his high school graduation with thanks from his late wife's sister, Meredith.
Colfax was still in business, now alone, and worked private, high paying security details. He was also almost obsessed with finding out what happened to the bowl. He was hired by Tabitha Leabrook who's foundation endowed a museum run by Eugenia Swift. The museum was known for it's glass collection. Colfax had been hired to investigate the death of a contributor to the museum, Adam Coventry. Eugenia was to go to his house and log in his glass collection and Colfax was to go with her to keep an eye on her and investigate his death. The executors of his estate wanted to be sure his death was an accident. Adam had died and his wife, Nellie Grant, was missing and assumed drowned although her body had never been found. Nellie was a friend of Eugenia's and Eugenia wanted some answers concerning her death. Eugenia was not going just to look into the glass collection. Tabitha was her boss so she had to do as she was told and take Colfax with her to Frog Cove Island. Eugenia was attracted to Cyrus and didn't like that either.
Damien Marsh now lived on a Caribbean Island and was keeping an eye on Colfax. He was under the impression that Adam had the Hades bowl and Colfax would find it. After Marsh retrieved the bowl, Cyrus would die this time. Damien had also decided to use some information he had on Colfax to try and blackmail Zachary Elland Chandler II who was running for the Senate. Someone knew that Zachary had a son who had been the result of an affair he had when he was younger. He didn't want that information to leak before the election and he didn't know how his family would take the fact that he had another son that he had never acknowledged. Zachary began to do some research on his end to find out if the blackmailer was that son. Damien didn't ask for money. He informed Zachary that he wanted someone in power to do him favors when asked.
They arrived at Adam's house and were surprised that the caretaker wasn't there to meet them. Eugenia had a hard time sleeping that night and got up to notice that someone was in the house. She thought it might be Cyrus and yelled. This woke up Cyrus and scared off the intruder. They did some further inspecting of the house and found the caretaker dead in the wine cellar. They called the police and while they were waiting, they talked. Cyrus told Eugenia he was there to find the Hades cup and she told him she was there to investigate the death of her former employee and friend, Nellie. Nellie had complained of Adam's behavior and drug usage.
They went into town the next day and their cover for being there was supposed to be with Cyrus as Eugenia's assistant but that didn't seem to be working to Cyrus pretended that he was there as Eugenia's lover. Eugenia was angry and first but Cyrus was more angry and his decisions being questioned. He kissed Eugenia in anger and she responded by returning the kiss to the surprise of them both. They were in their car and were being watched by the locals.
When the kiss was over, Eugenia spotted a painting of Nellie's in a local shop. They went into the gallery and ended up purchasing the painting from the owner, Fenella Weeks, and asking about the artist. They got home and tried to contact her. They went out to dinner a few days later and the artist came in and confronted Eugenia in the restroom. She told Eugenia to stay away from her. Eugenia followed her out of the restaurant and found that she had fallen into the icy water off the Puget Sound and was unconscious. Eugenia tried to get to her with a life preserver and ended up falling in herself. They were both rescued and Rhonda Price was taken to a hospital on the mainland. Eugenia had saved her life. Cyrus took Eugenia home and they made love that night.
Cyrus and Eugenia had talked at dinner and Eugenia told Cyrus about her parents divorce. Her father had cheated on her mother with one of his grad students. He was a professor of sociology at a small college. Eugenia found out that Cyrus wife had cheated on him with Damien Marsh before Damien had killed her. Damien had been raised by his grandparents after his mother, Jessica, their only child had died.
Eugenia was in town a few days later and purchased a piece of glass created by a local artist, Jacob Houston. She purchased a piece of his glass at the art gallery where she purchased the picture that Rhonda had placed there. She saw Rhonda get off the ferry and followed her home.
Rhonda had returned to the island to pack up her things and leave. She confronted Rhonda about the picture and Rhonda told Eugenia that she had taken two portraits from Glass House and it was she who broke in the first night they arrived to look for the additional portraits. She knew there were four and she only had two. She wanted them for the money they would bring her. She told Eugenia that she was leaving because someone was trying to kill her and she had been knocked into the bay. She was at the house the night that Adam was killed but she didn't know what she saw that would have led someone to believe she was a threat. Eugenia let her leave and gave her Cyrus' business card if she found out she needed help.
Eugenia was getting into her car when she noticed that the bag containing the glass piece had been smashed and a note was left telling her to leave Rhonda alone. Cyrus had come looking for Eugenia and found her at Rhonda's. They deduced that whoever had smashed the glass piece didn't know what was in the bag. It was clear that Rhonda had someone watching over her and Cyrus went to the local coffee shop for gossip in order to find out who that was. He quickly found out that it was the local artist who created the glass piece and he went home to tell Eugenia.
Rick, his nephew had come to see Cyrus and he was helping go through the files in Adam's house. He found blueprints of the house and he and Cyrus started measuring the rooms in the house so see where they were off so they could find a hidden safe.
Later, Cyrus went to see Jacob and found out that he was watching Rhonda. He was in love with her but Rhonda treated him as a friend. He didn't know that he had destroyed one of his glass pieces and was upset about that. Cyrus talked with him a while and convinced him that he was ready to help Rhonda if she needed it. Jacob eventually believed him and they parted as friends rather than enemies.
The next evening, he received a call from Jacob that Rhonda's place had been trashed. Cyrus went to pick up Jacob at his house and found two people trying to set his workshop on fire and Jacob knocked out inside. He chased off the two guys and took Jacob home for the night. The next day, he called one of his employee's and had Rick go back to Seattle with him. The guy that worked with Cyrus took over watching Eugenia went to the festival to talk to some of the artists. She noticed a portrait that she liked in the gallery and went to check it out. She didn't see Fenella so she looked in the back room. She didn't see Fenella but she noticed a work of art that disturbed her. She had seen a similar work in the Glass House where there was a piece of artwork from each of Adam Daventry's past mistresses. She left the back room but had cut herself. Fenella came in and Eugenia exited the gallery as soon as she could. She went home to see if the work was really the same as the one in the Glass House. Fenella had followed her and came into the room with a gun. She took a shot at Eugenia and missed. Eugenia hid around the pedestals until the opportunity came to jump her in the dark. Eugenia knocked her out after she admitted to pushing Adam down the stairs and killing the caretaker because he saw the push. Eugenia was blackmailing Adam because she knew he had the Hades cup. She had also just gotten angry and Rhonda and had hit her and knocked her into the bay. Fenella was semiconscious when the sheriff arrived and was mumbling stuff but no one took her seriously and no one was listening to her. It appeared that she had lost it after being knocked out. She was on her way to a sanitarium.
Cyrus returned home with Rick and Rick told Cyrus that he wanted to go into the security business with him. Cyrus was proud but told him that they would talk about it again after he completed a year of college. He would let Rick work for him the following summer and see how it went.
They went ahead and finished measuring the basement section of the house and found the safe hidden in the wine cellar portion. Someone else had opened the safe. They found the fourth picture of Nellie's set of four. It was a painting of the Hades cup rather than the cup itself.
Eugenia looked closely at the painting the next morning. She realized that the background was that of her own fireplace. She had wondered why Nellie had come to visit her for such a short time after Adam's death. Her fireplace had not been finished and she had left the next day when she had apparently been knocked overboard off her boat and died. Eugenia and Cyrus now thought that she had placed the painting in the safe to replace the Hades cup. She had taken the cup and hid it in Eugenia's home where she would retrieve it later. Cyrus and Eugenia headed off the island and went to Eugenia's home. The were working on opening up where they thought the Hades cup was when someone knocked on the door. It was Damien March and Nellie.
Damien had Nellie frightened. Nellie didn't realize that Eugenia cared enough about her to try and find her. She had left the Hades cup to her in her will. She had thought that everyone would believe she was dead. Damien's employee's had found her in Vegas. Damien told Cyrus that he was the one who had hired him to find the Hades cup that was in Adam's possession.
Damien approached Cyrus and asked him for the cup out of the fireplace. Cyrus had hidden his gun in the fireplace when he heard his voice as Eugenia opened the door. He took the cup out and rolled it carefully over the floor. March took his eyes off the women and Cyrus giving Cyrus enough time to reach into the fireplace and shoot Damien. The Hades cup was now in possession by the Leabrook Museum but Tabitha agreed that they wouldn't keep it. It would be returned to Cyrus' client.
Cyrus looked through Damien's computer and found out that March was attempting to blackmail his father. Cyrus went to see him expecting to be paid off. Zachery told Cyrus that he never knew about him. Cyrus' mother had died when he was just a few months old and had no one had ever told him that he had a son. Cyrus told Zachery that March was trying to blackmail him and that he was dead. He also told him that March had killed his wife.
Zachery asked Cyrus why he had never contacted him when he found out who his father was and Cyrus told him that he knew he was in politics and there didn't seem to be any point. Zachery told Cyrus that he just showed up to save him from a political nightmare and he didn't believe that he didn't want anything in return. Cyrus expected him to be offered a payoff to leave. Cyrus wife then walked in and introduced herself. She told Cyrus that she was pleased to meet her husband's eldest son as were their two children.
Cyrus returned to Eugenia who told him that she was in love with him. Cyrus in return told Eugenia that he was in love with her.
Cyrus left to return the Hades cup to his client. Eugenia was at the museum's opening for their glass exhibition and she had received a call that Cyrus would be late. Cyrus came in holding the Hades cup. His client had agreed to let the Leabrook Foundation have the cup for it's museum.
Eugenia told Cyrus that she had picked up tickets for their honeymoon trip to Hawaii. Cyrus told Eugenia that he guessed that was a 'yes' to the question he had asked her before he left to return the Hades cup to his client.