ENTER THE NIGHTMARE by Jayne Castle

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Fresh Fiction for August Is Here

Cowboys, castles, and shifters—this month has it all.

ENTER THE NIGHTMARE
Jayne Castle

Reviewed by Annetta Sweetko
Posted August 7, 2026

Returning to the Hotel of Dreams, Alice Radstone was ready to ENTER THE NIGHTMARE that had become her life. A former teacher at the academy where the orphaned girl had been sent because her psychic abilities were considered dangerous and she needed extra training had gone back into the world after losing her mentor. Only ten months ago, she woke up in an insane asylum and was told she murdered her husband. With no memory of a wedding, husband, or murder, she manages to escape and reinvent herself again, but things are going downhill quickly. Back at the Hotel of Dreams, she finds a dead body in the shower and men wearing masks coming to kill her.

Thus enters the hero in the form of Owen March, who swears he is there to rescue her. He has his own reasons for dealing with her dilemma – it’s partly revenge and partly because something about Alice Radstone he finds intriguing. Even so far as going into a Marriage of Convenience to protect her.

ENTER THE NIGHTMARE is the 18th of author Jayne Castle’s Harmony series. The Harmony world is the perfect setting for this series as it makes it easy to accept all the psychic abilities the characters have. Also, where else can you find the adorable, funny, and dangerous dust bunnies?

The real star of ENTER THE NIGHTMARE is the dust bunny named Sebastian, and he is all that in his oversized sunglasses and later his tin helmet (you have to read the book to find out how this item comes into his hands).

The romance between Owen and Alice is inevitable but still well done as both of them are strong characters with mysterious pasts. The trust they share is almost thrust upon them as they at first must find a way out of the Hotel of Dreams – which is basically a reality show in itself as the guests are there to play a game and “escape” to safety. (We find later that it was a serial killer who designed this hotel, and at that time there was no escaping.)

The bad guys are rich and powerful and will do anything to get what they want. The truth comes out in bits and pieces at the perfect pace to keep you going to the next page to learn more. I think readers will feel really good when they get to the end and find that good wins over evil. The rather explosive finale will have you sitting back and enjoying the karma.

All in all, ENTER THE NIGHTMARE is the perfect escape read – see what I did there – for fans of this series and its dust bunnies and also a good read for those who just joined for the first time.

SUMMARY

Nightmares become real when a woman trying to rebuild her life enters the Hotel of Dreams in this exhilarating Harmony novel by New York Times bestselling author Jayne Castle.

Alice Radstone should have known not to return. Her life before the Hotel of Dreams had been the perfectly cloistered world of a teacher at the Ballantine Academy. When the death of her mentor forced her out, she was left to reinvent herself in the big city. Since then, things have not gone well. Ten months ago, after her first trip to the hotel, she woke up in the locked ward of a hospital for the criminally insane, told that she had murdered her husband on their wedding night. She has no memory of the husband or the wedding but after escaping the asylum, one thing is certain—she is never going back.

Unfortunately, Alice’s second reinvented life is also deteriorating rapidly, which is why she finds herself once again at the Hotel of Dreams—this time hiding in the shadows of her room, a dead body in the shower, and two men wearing masks creeping toward the bed to kidnap her. Again.

When the enigmatic and decidedly dangerous Owen March shows up, claiming he’s there to rescue her, she has no choice but to accept his offer—and hope that he doesn’t intend to kidnap her, too.

With Alice and now Owen in the killer’s sights, time is running out. Alice and Owen must trust each other and the electric passion between them if they are to make it out of this hotel alive.