All Night Long

Jayne Ann Krentz

Ms. Krentz has sev­eral pen names and you may know her as Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick/Stephanie James. I’ve read maybe one or two titles under each name. Why all the pen names, you ask? I can’t answer that ques­tion for you but will say that most fans know what to expect when they read a Krentz, Cas­tle or James title.

For instance, under the Jayne Anne Krentz name, she writes roman­tic sus­pense and with the Amanda Quick name, it’s his­tor­i­cal romance. Jayne Cas­tle is more para­nor­mal romance and Stephanie James fea­tured more of your series romance titles.

Most fans view Ms. Krentz as a com­fort read. The author tends to stick to for­mula and her char­ac­ters are usu­ally stock char­ac­ters with zany names/quirks. When­ever I get into a read­ing funk, I pull out a Krentz/Quick novel. Just what is it about her work that makes her a com­fort read? The famil­iar h/h inter­ac­tion, the zani­ness of her char­ac­ters. Plots. There’s a famil­iar­ity to her work. Alas, I haven’t really read many titles under her con­tem­po­rary name of Krentz but have read var­i­ous titles under Quick. His­tor­i­cals tend to be my favorites and I love her snappy dialogue.

My Favorite Quick titles:

  • Scan­dal (1991)
  • Sur­ren­der (1990)
  • Rav­ished (1992)
  • Mis­tress (1994)
  • Seduc­tion (1990)
  • The Paid Com­pan­ion (2004) *the last good read for me*

Have in my TBR pile:

  • Dan­ger­ous (1993)
  • Reck­less (1992)
  • Mis­chief (1996)
  • Mys­tique (1995)

Despised:

  • Desire (1994)

Favorite Jayne Anne Krentz titles:

  • Absolutely, Pos­i­tively (1996)
  • Trust Me (1995)
  • Gift of Fire (1998)
  • Gift of Gold (1989)

Read and unsure if it’s still any good and too lazy to reread them to find out:

  • Per­fect Part­ners (1992)
  • Sil­ver Lin­ings (1991)

Favorite Cas­tle titles:

  • Shield’s Lady (1989)

What are some of your favorite and least favorite Quick/Krentz/Castle titles? Any feed­back on the ones that I’ve missed or haven’t read? What would you rec­om­mend to some­one who’ve never read Quick/Krentz/Castle? Is she a com­fort read for you or do you find her con­stant use of for­mula off-putting? How does her work today com­pare to her ear­lier nov­els? Is she burn­ing out or is she still on top of her game? Curi­ous minds would like to know what her current/former fans think of best-selling author Jayne Ann Krentz.