This was supposed to be a review of the book Burning Lamp by Amanda Quick—but it isn’t
In Burning Lamp, Amanda Quick continues with her Arcane series, specifically the Dreamlight trilogy. Burning Lamp follows Fired Up and is set in the late Victorian era. I’ll be honest. When I started writing this review, I couldn’t even remember the names of the two main characters, because although this book was an enjoyable read, it didn’t turn out to be memorable.
I bought the book through Amazon and got a great deal on the hardcover version at $9.99. I don’t regret my purchase at all, because I do love Jayne Ann Krentz’s Amanda Quick novels, but I admit to a lack of passion toward the books of late.
If it weren’t for the fact that I have just reread both Ravished and Deception not three weeks ago, I’d think it was just me and my changing tastes. However, I don’t think that’s the case. Ravished and Deception were both great books, with Ravished remaining one of my all-time favorite historical romance novels, and Deception isn’t far behind.
What I’ve noticed is a lack of depth in the romance between the characters in the Arcane series books with too much focus on the psychic connection of the characters, leading to romance without passion. Her historical characters have become too modern, her heroes too uninteresting. What happened to the men like Gideon and Jared from Ravished and Deception? Since Jayne Ann Krentz still writes fabulous paranormal romance with a psychic twist as Jayne Castle, I’ve begun to think it’s just the Arcane series, but then I think about the other recent historically set Amanda Quick and contemporary Jayne Ann Krentz novels in which the heroes lacked those qualities that made me fall in love with them in her earlier novels, and I realize it isn’t me. It’s her.
Her heroes and heroines have changed, and although I can appreciate on an intellectual level that nothing stays the same forever, it saddens me to know what once was and what likely will never be again.