Shield's Lady by Jayne Ann Krentz

I don't particularly like paranormal books, and although I read a lot of sci-fi when I was younger, I find it too involved for me now. (Plus, most sci-fi books, even the romance oriented ones, tend to focus on the world building and adventures over the hero/heroine intereractions.) But every now and then, I pick up a "futuristic" book. I like futuristics that are just a small step away from our current world - enough to be interesting, but not enough to be too involved. Alas, there aren't many of these around, and most of the time they aren't satisfying as romances even if the futuristic background is intriguing. Ah well.

Shield's Lady by Jayne Ann Krentz
(1989, Futuristic) 7/12/08
Grade: 3.5

Sariana is new to the Western continent, but she is determined to be a successful businesswoman by helping her employers get back a stolen prisma cutter. She has to deal with a Shield, whose clan is known to be rough and mercenary, but she had no idea how attractive he could be... or what would happen when he claimed her as his Shieldmate.

A fun futuristic adventure that had the typical Krentz touches. At first I really enjoyed the author’s trademark interactions between the hero and heroine, but then I realized that this was one of Krentz’s alpha heroes. He wasn’t as bad as some of her heroes, but I got tired of his alpha jerk tendencies pretty quickly. I also found the background of the colony to be interesting, but there were definitely some gaps in the world building. It had a lot of similarities to the Jayne Castle books that came out in the late 90’s. Overall, though, I found myself getting bored - too much running around and getting chased, not enough about the hero and heroine (once they finally got past the “I hate you but I lust for you” stage, the running around took over). A bit disappointing - I was hoping for another good Krentz book but this one was only OK.

Jayne Ann Krentz can be a frustrating author for me. On one hand, I have six of her books on my keeper shelf, more than any other author except Balogh, and I reread those books quite often. I've reread Grand Passion so many times the pages are falling out. But unfortunately, there was only one brief period when JAK wrote books that I enjoyed. Before that period, her heroes were too alpha. After that period, her books veered too far into romantic suspense for me. I haven't read her new books in a number of years, but I keep hoping that someday I'll find one of her books that's as satisfying to me as the ones on my keeper shelf. (Which are A Coral Kiss, Family Man, Perfect Partners, Wildest Hearts, Grand Passion and Trust Me.)