Second Sight

Amanda Quick
aka Jayne Ann Krentz

5/22/2008

In Victorian England a woman's place is in the home. But Venetia Milton doubts she will marry. Since her parents died in an accident she has been responsible for her younger brother and sister and their aunt. She is a good photographer and is able to earn a living with her artistic skill.

She is hired to photograph the Arcane Society collection. This secretive group has an impressive collection of oddities dating back to an alchemist a couple hundred years earlier, the founder. They pay her very well to take good, identifying photographs and to keep their privacy. She not only enjoys the job but also is attracted to the man there to oversee her work, Gabriel Jones. Venetia decides this is the perfect time and place (away from her family) and man for a romance. The evening is cut short when some men are seen sneaking to the mansion where the collection is.

A few weeks later Venetia reads that Gabriel Jones was killed in a fire that night. The family had already decided to move to London. She is going to open business there as a photographer. She is aware a single woman is not going to be easily accepted. Instead, the family agree she should pretend to be a widow. Sentimentally, she chooses the name Mrs. Jones.

A few months later her business is getting a successful start. Then Gabriel Jones shows up, claiming to be her lost husband. He didn't die in the fire and they were able to concoct an explanation as to why she thought her "husband" was dead. He moves in with her family. He is there to protect Venetia. The men who broke into the Arcane Society that night are now after her photographs. There is something in that house they want. If they can't have the original, the photos may show the information they seek. Gabriel will protect her from those men. Who will protect her from Gabriel?

This is the first novel in Jayne Ann Krentz' Arcane Society novels. The series jumps between the past, written as Amanda Quick, and the present, written as Krentz. The Society is even mentioned in her futuristic novel, Silver Master, written as Jayne Castle.

As a romance novel, Second Sight is obvious from the beginning where it will go. Venetia and Gabriel are the beginning of the Jones dynasty of the Arcane Society. They each have special psychic powers. The mystery, though, has the clues to lead but not give away the culprit. It has an interesting twist to keep the reader going. Although I was able to figure out the people and motive involved, Quick still kept the intrigue building until the end with the twist here or there for the reader.

Second Sight is a quick read and quite satisfying. I enjoy the addition of the paranormal psychic abilities Quick puts in the characters. I wouldn't mind some of those myself...

You can find more about this book at .

Notice: Explicit sexual situations

Second Sight (Amanda Quick)
White Lies (Jayne Ann Krentz)
Sizzle and Burn (Jayne Ann Krentz)
The Third Circle (Amanda Quick)