Sleep No More by Jayne Ann Krentz (Review by Courtney Koscheka)

Rating: 4 stars

As a lover of true crime and paranormal podcasts, I was instantly drawn to Jayne Ann Krentz’s Sleep No More. The first of the Lost Night Files trilogy, Sleep No More details an experience in which the main character, Pallas Llewellyn, loses her memories of an entire night at the Lucent Springs Hotel—a night which has led to her enhanced ability to read auras.

Pallas connects with Ambrose Drake over their similar experience and discovers Ambrose believes he witnessed a murder at the Carnelian Sleep Institute. Though (surprise!), he’s lost most of his memories from that night as well. Ambrose asks for Pallas’ help investigating the murder under the guise of her cold case podcast, the Lost Night Files. Pallas and Ambrose form a bond while attempting to uncover what happened on that fateful night at the Carnelian Sleep Institute. Many members of the Carnelian community are eager to share what they know, but someone else is willing to do anything to keep the truth covered up.

The book starts off a bit slow and the details feel difficult to piece together, but the story quickly picks up and the details fall into place as Pallas and Ambrose begin their investigation in Carnelian, California. It picks up so much that I found it difficult to put down. Not being a regular reader of romance, I enjoyed that the relationship between Pallas and Ambrose was a minor storyline compared to the suspense of the major plot: what happened at the Lucent Springs Hotel and the Carnelian Sleep Institute?

I especially liked the setting of Sleep No More. Krentz paints a vivid picture of the small, spooky California college town, complete with cemetery and abandoned asylum. I also found the characters to be believable. Pallas initially comes off as slightly standoffish, but eventually warms up to the sleep-deprived, struggling author, Ambrose. Though this was my first Jayne Ann Krentz read, it will most definitely not be my last. The twists and turns throughout Sleep No More easily tees readers up to anxiously await the next two books of the Lost Night Files trilogy.