Audiobook Review: Shattering Dawn by Jayne Ann Krentz

Shattering Dawn
Author: Jayne Ann Krentz
Narrator: Eva Kaminsky
Series: The Lost Night Files (Book 3)
Publication: Recorded Books (January 7, 2025)
Length: 8 hours and 43 minutes

Description: An unsettling investigation teaches two suspicious people how to trust, in the next thrilling novel of the Lost Night Files trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Ann Krentz.

Amelia Rivers, a member of the Lost Night Files podcast team, hires private investigator Gideon Sweetwater to catch the stalker who has been watching her. Amelia suspects that whoever it is may be connected to the shadowy organization responsible for the night that she and her two friends lost to amnesia—a night that upended their lives and left them with heightened paranormal talents.

Gideon believes that Amelia is either paranoid or an outright con artist, but they have a chemistry he can’t resist. He takes the case despite his skepticism. For her part, Amelia has second thoughts about the wisdom of employing the mysterious Mr. Sweetwater. She is wary of the powerful attraction between them and deeply uneasy about the nightmarish paintings on the walls of his home. She senses these were inspired by his own dreams.

Amelia knows she doesn’t have time to find another investigator, and Gideon is forced to reckon with the truth when he disrupts what was intended to be Amelia’s kidnapping. Now the pair is on the run, with no choice but to return to the haunting ruins of the old hotel where Amelia’s lost night occurred. They are desperate to stop a killer, as well as the people who are conducting illegal experiments with a dangerous drug designed to enhance psychic abilities. If they are to survive, they will have to trust each other and the passion that bonds them.

My Thoughts: The finale of the Lost Night Files trilogy stars Amelia Rivers and Gideon Sweetwater. Amelia is a photographer who has found a way to take pictures of auras and does real estate and corporate headshots to pay the bills. When she believes that she has attracted a stalker, she goes to Gideon Sweetwater who works as a private investigator.

Gideon has been recently injured on one of his cases but is intrigued by Amelia and her problems. He quickly determines that she does have a stalker. The two decided to go back to the abandoned hotel that was the scene of Amelia's lost night to see if any clues have been missed.

Their visit confirms that Amelia and her friends had been kidnapped and had illegal experiments performed on them. The experiments were designed to enhance their psychic talents, and the experimenters have been watching them to see if the experiments were successful.

Unfortunately, Amelia and her friends were all psychic before being experimented on and were used to hiding their psychic abilities making them less than useful for the experimenters. Gideon has psychic talents of his own which doesn't come as a surprise to Amelia since she chose him because his name appeared on the same list she and her friends were on. The list indicates those tested for presumed psychic powers.

This episode also had portions from the viewpoint of the man who set up the experiments and who is eager to see what results they had because he has been playing around with his own psychic abilities. He is going insane because of his experiments.

This was an entertaining finale to the trilogy with lots of doors left open for further explorations in the world Krentz created. 

I bought this one from Audible November 11, 2025. You can buy your copy here.