Book and Audio Review: Illusion Town by Jayne Castle

Illusion Town
Author: Jayne Castle
Narrator: Barbara Rosenblat
Series: An Illusion Town Novel (Book 1)
Publication: Berkley (July 26, 2016); Recorded Books (July 26, 2016)
Length: 351 p.; 8 hours and 19 minutes

Description: A new adventure begins on Harmony… 

With its opulent casinos and hotels, the desert city of Illusion Town is totally unique—and will take you on a thrill ride you’ll never forget.

Hannah West isn’t the first woman to wake up in Illusion Town married to a man she barely knows, but she has no memory of the ceremony at all. For that matter, neither does Elias Coppersmith, her new husband. All either can remember is that they were on the run…

With Hannah’s dubious background and shaky para-psych profile, she could have done much worse. The cooly competent mining heir arouses her curiosity—as well as other parts of her mind and body. And even her dust bunny likes him.

But a honeymoon spent retracing their footsteps leads Hannah and Elias into the twisting underground catacombs, where secrets from both their pasts will come to light—and where the energy of their clashing auras will grow hot enough to burn…

My Thoughts: Hannah West is an orphan with a unique paranormal talent. She is a finder who recently found a family heirloom for Elias Coppersmith. They began an email relationship and Hannah finally agreed to meet him in person for a dinner date.

Neither expected to wake up the next morning in a hot sheets motel, missing memories, and evidence that they had undertaken a Marriage of Convenience. They knew that they were on the run from something but weren't sure what. Elias wanted her to use her skills to rescue some people who were trapped by an illusion spell in Ghost Town. So he thought they were being chased by people who didn't want his crew rescued.

But Hannah had recently completed a necklace which was her only inheritance from her mother and learned it was a psy map which led her to the long-missing Midnight Carnival which was built to house Arcane Society secrets and then lost. Hannah immediately filed her claim and believes her discovery is still a secret.

Unfortunately, Hannah's secret is known to one obsessed collector who will do anything to exploit the treasures of the Midnight Carnival. 

After Hannah and Elias rescue his missing people and discover that there is a conspiracy to steal from the Coppersmiths, they are sidetracked into Elias's problems. Hannah believes that once his problems are solved, he will end their Marriage of Convenience. But Elias is in no hurry to end the marriage and jumps into helping Hannah solve her problem. 

I enjoyed the way the romance built in this episode. I also enjoyed the way orphan Hannah had built her own family in the dark zone of Illusion Town. I liked her dust bunny Virgil who is a great companion. I also liked the references back to earlier books about the Arcane Society that make up attractions in the Midnight Carnival and include Virgil's toy Arizona Snow doll which becomes his constant companion. 

This was another fun episode of Castle's futuristic paranormal romances set on the planet Harmony.

Favorite Quote:

"Look, I'm an engineer, so I'm not always real intuitive or insightful when it comes to conversations of a personal nature, but I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and guess that we're talking about you."

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.