Fired Up by Jayne Ann Krentz

Publisher: Putnam Publishers, Imprint of the Penguin Group

Pages: 354

(Release Date: December 29, 2009)

From the Cover: The New York Times-bestselling author presents her latest Arcane Society novel and introduces the first book in the Dreamlight Trilogy-the story of a curse that spans generations, and the love that can heal it. . . .

More than three centuries ago, Nicholas Winters irrevocably altered his genetic makeup in an obsession fueled 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.

Chloe Harper has read all the legends about the Winters family and their rivals, the Joneses. Old Nicholas Winters had been bent on finding an artificial way to enhance psi abilities through a device that came to be known as the Burning Lamp and Sylvester Jones, a chemical way through Alchemy, and became bitter enemies. Each driven by their needs, allowing for the madness that ensues. Had each succeeded? Who knows, but the legends remain and many believed they had.

Into her life walks Jack Winters, believing he has been beset by the Winters family curse, delusional nightmares have become his reality and he believes that only Chloe Harper with her unique ability to read dreamlight to be his only solution. He fears he will become the multi-talented being known as the Cerberus that all the old legends have threaten. Only she can control the Burning Lamp, if they can find it in time, before he loses tenuous grip on reality.

Chloe Harper has her own problems, her family has made it a life goal to stay off the radar of J&J, the Jones family Society and the Arcane, their governing body. By helping Jack Winters, she'll be putting herself out there in a way that's sure to garner notice. J&J would like nothing better than register and control all those with enhanced talents and Chloe doesn't want to live by anyone else's rules. She had enough of her own.

But she's drawn to Jack Winters in a way that has been previously unknown to her. Can she work the lamp to save him? Legend says that only a highly talent woman in dreamlight could turn the psychic key to the unleash the power of the lamp. Was she that key? As Jack and Chloe delve deeper into the world into the mysteries surrounding the lamp, another factor comes into play. Fallon Jones of J&J as discovered a clandestine organization called Nightshade that will do just about anything to possess the lamp and a strong dreamlight talent, and murder and mayhem are distinct possibility. An unease alliance forms in a triangle of Winters, Jones, and Harper, what has Chloe gotten herself into?

Fired Up by Jane Ann Krentz is a sweet ride through the world of the Arcane Society where psychic talent is the norm. By all appearances, Chloe Harper is a private investigator with a nonsense attitude and the ability to take care of herself. She also as a talent for exposing fraudulent pieces of art, everyone in the Harper family can spot a fake or reproduce one (not all aspects that the family is involved with a wholly legitimate). But it's that very expertise which brings her to Jack, that and the fact that when he hacked J&J, her name popped up as a strong dreamlight talent. He has to find the lamp that was taken from his family years ago, and he'll need help. Chloe's one weakness is a need to help, bring order to the chaotic mind, and Jack's is a mess. If she can bring the dreamlight and strat-talent of his psi abilities together, he'll be a force to be reckoned with.

Fired Up is romantic urban fantasy that zings when Jack and Chloe come together, heated up by the influence of the lamp and their own long denied desires. Chloe long ago decided the serial monogamy was she best choice (a love them and leave them type of arrangement) and when that doesn't work, she decides celibacy is the life choice for her. She can never sleep in the same bed with another person, their dream energy is too disturbing. Jack is too focused to have time for a relationship, his marriage soon ends in divorce, neither finding what they were looking for. Chloe may be his answer in more ways than one. I recommend this book for all lovers of romance, urban fantasy, or who just want a good fast read. It was excellent. For more information about Jane Ann Krentz or her books, please visit her website.

I received this book for review from Lydia at Penguin Books. All opinions expressed are my own.