Ladies of Lantern Street Books In Order

Publication Order of Ladies of Lantern Street Books

Ladies of Lantern Street is a series of historical romance fiction novels written by Jayne Ann Krentz, a popular author of romance. These novels take readers into the lives of those mysterious men and women in Victorian England who can access special psychic powers.

+The Story
The Ladies of Lantern Street series is divisive. This is especially true for longtime fans of Jayne Ann Krentz. New readers rarely give the novels much thought. They commend them for being entertaining but admit that the series isn’t particularly memorable.

Longtime Krentz fans, on the other hand, are far harsher in their criticisms because they have a history with the author’s works. Their complaints typically revolve around the fact that Krentz doesn’t do anything new this time around.

She takes the same old themes fans have seen her use, the same old concepts and ideas and then she blends and reproduces them for the Ladies of Lantern Street series. It could be argued that it is only natural for anyone with dozens of novels in their bibliography to begin repeating themselves after a while.

Ladies of Lantern Streets takes place in Victorian England. When it first kicks off in ‘Crystal Garden’, the first novel in the series, readers are introduced to Lucas and Evangeline.

Evangeline is a writer struggling with writer’s block. Her decision to pursue a change of scenery brings her to the Crystal Gardens and their proprietor, Lucas. Lucas has a mystery on his hands.

He has heard the rumors. And he knows that the crystal gardens are indeed paranormal to an extent. But he is more interested in unraveling the conspiracy surrounding the death of his uncle, the man who owned the estate.

Lucas and Evangeline’s worlds collide when someone tries to kill Evangeline and she runs into Lucas’ arms. The pair has to get to the bottom of both of their mysteries even while fighting the urges that keep drawing them to one another.

The novels in the Ladies of the Lantern street series stand on their own. They are connected by one or two threads. But for the most part, you do not need to read anyone Ladies of Lantern Street novel to understand the books that came before or after.

Each novel introduces a new couple to readers, a man and a woman whose worlds are about to intertwine. The women are all hired companions of sorts. They work for an agency in England that employs competent, keen-eyed women.

They are rented out to wealthy women from time to time. Their job is to execute specific tasks, typically inquiries and investigations into sensitive matters. They are expected to operate within the shadows, to deliver results without arousing any suspicion.

As a result, they are not necessarily damsels in distress. Jayne Ann Krentz makes them strong, independent women that are more than capable of fighting their own battles.

The men are alpha males. They normally meet the heroine as they go about pursuing some urgent task. They are dark, mysterious and broody. The heroine has no real reason to like them.

If anything, the heroes are a little too strong in their personalities, manifesting a bullying attitude. They always endeavor to assert their control in every situation and it always falls on the shoulders of other people to accommodate their whims.

But that never stops the heroine from falling for them. The heroine is always the one person that can see the kind soul hiding behind the man’s armor.

The hero, for his part, finds the heroine captivating, but for reasons he cannot quite explain.

The plots of these novels kick off when the hero and the heroine meet, and they are forced to join forces to solve some puzzle or stop a foe. Krentz peppers the books with elements of the paranormal.

More often than not, the hero and the heroine will have special psychic abilities. Sometimes they know, understand, and accept their powers. Other times, one of them will struggle with the notion of accepting the paranormal.

Even though these books are categorized as historical romance, there is always an element of suspense at the center of each novel, manifesting in the antagonist the hero and the heroine must face.

Some readers hate the way the author writes her heroes. They think that she makes them a little too pushy, to the point that their interactions with the heroines feel abusive. They have also complained that, despite Krentz’ determination to make her heroines strong, she always undoes her own progress by making the women so subservient to the hero.

It doesn’t matter how far the male characters go in the way they act. The female characters never stop excusing their behavior.

The Ladies of Lantern Street books have a decent number of sex scenes.

+The Author
Jayne Ann Krentz is a bestselling American author that writes romance and suspense novels. She has a degree in history from the University of California and a Masters in Library Science from San Jose State University.

+Crystal Gardens
Lucas and Evangeline notice one another when they walk into the same local bookshop. Evangeline is a writer who has just escaped to a quiet, rural town in the hopes of beating her writer’s block and getting a few chapters of her book written.

Lucas, for his part, is going to his uncle’s estate to investigate the man’s death. When someone tries to kill Evangeline, she trespasses on Lucas’ estate and runs right into his arms.

Now the pair must join forces to get to the bottom of both of their mysteries.

+The Mystery Woman
Joshua North is a former spy who abandoned the espionage business a long time ago. He returns to the fold when a villain starts blackmailing his sister.

Determined to find the fiend, Joshua follows a trail all the way to Beatrice Lockwood, a member of the Ladies of Lantern Street.

Beatrice is on a case when Joshua forces his way into her life. At first, Beatrice is just another enemy that Joshua must break. But once they talk, he realizes that he is better off joining forces with Beatrice to solve both of their problems.