Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A photographer and podcast host realizes she has a stalker in this follow-up toThe Night Island (2024). Seven months ago, Amelia Rivers was the unwitting subject of a paranormal experiment, one that left her with the ability to read people’s auras and the energy left behind in their footprints. Unfortunately, it also left her with a crippling fear of the dark, which is when people’s auras are most powerfully visible. Amelia uses her camera to capture the ghostly auras of a person who’s been skulking around her apartment building, hoping the photos will convince private investigator Gideon Sweetwater that she has a stalker. Gideon isn’t sure Amelia is telling the truth, but he’s determined to help her since he has secret paranormal talents of his own: He can send people into trance-like comas, trapping them in their own nightmares. After disrupting an attempted kidnapping, Gideon and Amelia find clues that lead back to the Lucent Springs hotel in the California desert. Since Lucent Springs was the site of the experiment that changed Amelia’s life, she hopes to discover why she was targeted and bring the mastermind behind the procedure to justice. With Gideon’s expertise as an investigator, the two interrogate townspeople and the hotel itself in search of more clues to solve the mystery. Gideon teaches Amelia to embrace the darkness that allows her to use her powers, while she teaches him that crystals can help hone his abilities. Krentz’s worldbuilding is interesting and compelling; their inventive paranormal abilities allow Gideon and Amelia to see the world in new, interesting ways. Their romance is perfunctory and even a bit tepid, though, compared to the hunt for the murderous villain. Another engrossing story about how people with heightened paranormal abilities experience friendship and love. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Krentz wraps up her Lost Night Files series (Sleep No More, 2023; The Night Island, 2024) with the story of the third friend whose loss of one fateful night enhanced their psychic powers. Podcaster Amelia Rivers thinks someone is stalking her. . . or is her recently acquired phobia of the dark getting the better of her sanity? Hiring someone to get to the bottom of things seems like a smart idea, but Amelia suspects that most private investigators will have trouble accepting her “proof” that someone is watching her: the energy footprints Amelia has been able to capture with her camera. While Amelia detects more than a smidgen of skepticism from Gideon Sweetwater, CEO and sole employee of Sweetwater Investigations, at least he is open to taking her case, which could have something to do with the fact that he himself possesses a unique set of paranormal skills. Krentz presents another addictively readable, highly successful marriage of dexterously plotted suspense and deliciously sensual romance enlivened with delectably delivered snark and infused with a generous dash of paranormal spookiness.