Fired Up

By: Jayne Anne Krentz
Genre: Mystery with paranormal elements
Grade: C

This is the product description from Amazon:

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsessionfueled competition with alchemist and Arcane Society founder Sylvester Jones. Driven to control their psychic abilities, each man's decision has reverberated throughout the family line, rewarding some with powers beyond their wildest dreams, and cursing others to a life filled with madness and hallucinations.

Jack Winters, descendant of Nicholas, has been experiencing nightmares and blackouts-just the beginning, he believes-of the manifestation of the Winters family curse. The legend says that he must find the Burning Lamp or risk turning into a monster. But he can't do it alone; he needs the help of a woman with the gift to read the lamp's dreamlight.

Jack is convinced that private investigator Chloe Harper is that woman. Her talents for finding objects and accessing dream energy are what will save him, but their sudden and powerful sexual pull threatens to overwhelm them both. Danger surrounds them, and it doesn't take long for Chloe to pick up the trail of the missing lamp. And as they draw closer to the lamp, the raw power that dwells within it threatens to sweep them into a hurricane of psychic force.

I found the woo woo factor in this book highly distracting. While the characters seemed amiable enough, the paranormal abilities element permeated every aspect of the book from the romance to the mystery. Much of the romance element revolved around how Jack was the first person who could overcome a particular side effect of Choe's ability. Many conversations, such as the one below, had me rolling my eyes :

She turned her head and looked at him. "You appear to have grasped the big picture here, Mr. Winters."

"My other (pychic) talent is for strategy, remember? I get big pictures and bottom lines."

The big picture being talked about here is that a professor is concerned about being fired because he has been sleeping with many of his students. It doesn't take a paranormal ability to know that a university will frown on this, so I didn't understand why the paranormal ability was brought up. If it had happened a time or two that would certainly be understandable but to utilize their powers as reasons for everything that happened was a tad too much for me. Perhaps that was meant to be tongue in cheek but the humor totally bypassed me if that was the case.

There was also a sense of impatience with the idea that there are people out there who don't believe in the paranormal. I gave up reading Kay Hooper because of her outrage at the "intolerance" of nonbelievers in psychic phenomena and I will probably be doing the same to this author. If your beliefs can't withstand scientific scrutiny or questioning the problem is with you or your beliefs, not the questioner.

Krentz is a good writer so the book didn't lack readability just credibility. I wouldn't spend your time on it if you aren't already following this series. If I can help myself (and sometimes I just can't) I will not read the rest of the series. Not worth my time.

Tea: Anything done with leaf rather than bag should work. Then you can tap into your paranormal side and read your leaves. ;-)