Eye of the Beholder by Jayne Ann Krentz [Review]

Eye of the Beholder by Jayne Ann Krentz
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: February 20, 2024

Purchase Links: Paperback | Kindle

Jayne Ann Krentz
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Alexa Chambers has a flair for style, an eye for art, and a reputation in tatters after blowing the whistle on an employer who was selling fakes to wealthy clients. Now she runs a shop in her Arizona hometown, but she’s determined to rebuild her career even if it means taking risks. She begins secretly consults on an exquisite art collection being installed at the new Avalon Resorts. Her scheme might just work—if she can steer clear of the resort’s owner, the enigmatic and possibly dangerous J. L. Trask.

Alexa was a scared teenager the last time she saw Trask, the man who accused her stepfather of murder. Insisting his dad’s fatal car crash had been no accident, Trask vowed one day he’d come back to Avalon for revenge. Now, twelve years later, their meeting is inevitable. Their attraction is immediate. And their chances of bliss are infinitesimal.

Trask wants to piece together the past with Alexa’s help and get closer to this dazzling deco diva. Alexa wants to protect her family and figure out Trask’s real motivations. But when a killer emerges from the shadows, they have no choice but to team up to solve a deadly crime from long ago. As they trade sizzling sparks and snappy repartee, their trail leads to a trendy spa called the Dimensions Institute, whose flaky denizens and strange atmosphere suggest there is more hidden there than meets the eye. They don’t need a crystal ball to see that their survival—and relationship—depends on more than tantric breathing or a heavenly passion. They need a little help from a higher power: a true and trustworthy love.

Thoughts on Eye of the Beholder: This is a reread for me and I just DIG diving back into older JAK books. Because they're fun. So. Here we are. Rereading and having fun.

This time around, we have Alexa and Trask. Alexa is keeping a low(-ish) profile after being the whistleblower on a forgery scheme with a former employer and she's working to get her working reputation back up to where it was before (which is really unfair to her since she was the whistleblower, not the person creating the fakes, but there you go). Trask is the seemingly cold-blooded hotelier who is returning to Avalon to prove his father was murdered years before.

However, Trask isn't cold-blooded and he's very into Alexa from the start. Even though he knows she has a connection to one of the people he thinks might have been involved in his father's incident.

A little small town gossip, a lifestyle guru with a lot of pull, long nights, missing people,  more than a little danger, a man who wants answers, and a woman who is good at piecing things together. Good stuff!