After Glow by Jayne Castle – That’s What I’m Talking About…
Audiobook review: After Glow by Jayne Castle
Not long after the events of After Dark, After Glow returns to the story of para-archaeologist, Lydia Smith, and her mob boss boyfriend, Emmet London, negotiating a new relationship and working together when another body turns up.
After Glow is the second of the Ghost Hunter series which is a sub-set withing the greater Harmony series of paranormal-futuristic sci-fi Romances set on the alien world of Harmony now colonized by humans.
After Dark introduced the situation of humans in the future settled on a new, alien world and isolated from the rest of humanity where they start to form their own culture and society based on the psychic gifts that emerged and the issue with the planet being not too accepting of tech.
Against this backdrop, Lydia is disappointed to be working at a third-rate museum rather than following her trained career to unearth old alien artifacts and be considered a prestigious scholar. A mishap on a dig down in the tunnels beneath Cadence City did her in. After joining up with Emmet to figure out a murder and the plot around the artifact he’s looking for, they partner in work and love, but were constantly brangling and she couldn’t and wouldn’t trust him completely because he comes from a mob-like guild and her kind of psychic consider themselves better.
Now, in After Glow, Lydia does better about dropping her snobbery and really buying into their relationship. So much so, that she leans hard into using her status as the boss’ woman. He’s still keeping things to himself, but eventually he cops to the secrets because Lydia’s not having any of it. Especially when, yep, they stumble over another dead body.
All right, so, I was of two minds whether I wanted to listen in to After Glow because I was really put off by Lydia with her snobbery and seeming to pick fights and cause drama. I know, I get it, Emmet isn’t helping with his whole stoic, secret-keeping, but he didn’t earn her contempt and issues. Fortunately, in After Glow, she toned all that way down and decided to really embrace the relationship and found the confidence to maturely call him on it when he was keeping secrets she needed to be in on.
Again, the best part for me was the alien world of Harmony that got further explained and made even more sense to me as I settled into the world. Love the mystical suspenseful bits and the addition of how they used the psychic gifts side. And, yay, there were answers to the personal mystery surrounding Lydia and what was going on down in the glowing caverns.
Laural Merlington continues to shine as the voice of the series. After getting familiar with her voices and narration work in the first book, she continued to tell the book well and enhance my ability to see it with my mind’s eye and feel I was right there with the characters.
All in all, After Glow was a much better outing for me and made me anticipate what is coming next for the Ghost Hunters series. Those who love a blending of speculative fiction genres should give the series a go.
My Ratings
Story: B+
Narration: A
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
Life is complicated for Lydia Smith. She’s working at that tacky, third-rate museum, Shrimpton’s House of Ancient Horrors, trying to salvage her career in para-archaeology – and dating the most dangerous man in town. Just when she thinks she might be getting things under control, she stumbles over a dead body and discovers that her lover has a secret past that could get him killed. Just to top it off, there’s trouble brewing underground in the eerie, glowing green passageways of the Dead City.
Of course, all of these problems pale in comparison to the most pressing issue: Lydia has been invited to the Restoration Ball and she hasn’t got a thing to wear.
Author: Jayne Castle
Narrator: Laural Merlington
Series: Harmony / Ghost Hunters #2
Genre: Sci-Fi Paranormal Romance
Audiobook Release Date: March 17, 2026
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Length: 10 hours 21 minutes
Source: publisher
Audio Speed: 1.2x
