A decent read. I liked Gena Showalter's the best, though my one complaint would be that it wasn't long enough. The ending felt rushed, but I find that true of most of Showalter's writings. I think what made this an effective story for an anthology (for the most part) is that it didn't get too ambitious. The heroine gets abducted by an angel but we know she is never in any real danger and so the focus remains almost solely on the ensuing romance. The idea of soulmates got the lovers together quickly but I would have liked Lysander's realization that he was in love and willing to sacrifice his dignity for Bianka, to be a little more fleshed out before they rode off into the proverbial sunset together. It just felt like too much of a 180 from where he is for most of the story to be flippantly decided in the space of a couple of pages. Honestly I really wish this story had been a full novel. Then it would have been perfect.

Maggie Shayne was my favorite romance writer once upon a time due to her fabulous witch and vampire series and her one shot Miranda's Viking. Her writing style is still more effective and better than most authors in the genre but though her storylines are strong, I now find her romance lacking. Such is the case with her contribution to this anthology, "Love Me To Death." It's an interesting story with a suspenseful, flowing plot and intriguing characters--at least for the first half. It all goes downhill once our hero and heroine meet. As their attraction relies heavily on the premise of reincarnation, they fall into love (and bed!) within hours of meeting each other. I believed their past love more than their current love and that is a problem. It doesn't help that the ending is unrealistically (and maybe haphazardly) thrown together after they get together and then it's all happily ever after from there. This would have been a stronger read if Shayne could have written another fifty pages to flesh out the romance and murder mystery some more.

"Lady of the Nile" by Susan Krinard was my least favorite. I didn't find anything redeemable about this story and I fell asleep twice while attempting to get through its mere 85 pages. I was really bummed about this as I am fascinated by ancient Egyptian mythology and history and I wanted this anthology particularly because it married romance with those elements. However, this story is a muddled mess and relies detrimentally on the reincarnation premise--even more so than Shayne--and it really needed to be either a longer story or given a tighter plot. As it is it reads more like caricatures of a bad penny novel. The bad guy doesn't have an oily mustache to twirl, but he's about as subtle as Snidley Whiplash. The heroine's cluelessness is obnoxious particularly because she is supposedly a daring and powerful eccentric in London society. And our main hero is stereotypical and bland.

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Gena Showalter's story was great. Lysander and Bianka fit together. Wish there was more of the Lords. The ending seemed a little rushed.

Maggie Shayne's was okay. I had a nice ending.

Susan Krinard's story was very hard to follow which made me loss interest. There were too many "people" in each of the characters, I could never really figure out what was present day and what was one of the previous lives.

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I only ended up being able to finish Gena Showalter's story. I have a hard time with Shayne and Krinard's writing styles and eventually stopped reading their stories. It's a personal preference and it doesn't mean the authors suck or anything.

Showalter's story is deliciously fun. I love naughty Bianka, especially the naked oil wrestling scene with Paris and Lysander. I wish it was longer but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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This is one of the better anthologies that I've read in some time. Gena's story is the longest (and in my opinion the best, but I'm a huge Showalter fan) of the three. It's a Lords of the Underworld story of Lysander the angel and Bianka the harpy. Two potential stories are touched on as well (I can't wait!). Maggie's and Susan's stories are also well done. An all-around 5-star book.

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Summary:From the masters of paranormal romance, three brand-new tales of seduction....

The Darkest Angel by Gena Showalter
A Lords of the Underworld tale
An iron-willed demon assassin, the angel Lysander has never known lustâuntil he meets Bianka. Spawned from the bloodline of Lucifer, the beautiful but deadly Harpy is determined to lead the pure-hearted Lysander into temptationâ¦.

Love Me to Death by Maggie Shayne
Twenty-two years ago four teenage boys were convicted of a young girl's murder. Now, in the form of a beautiful woman, the "victim" is seeking vengeance. And only one man dares to dig into the past to uncover its secrets⦠and set her free.

Lady of the Nile by Susan Krinard
Lady Tameri believes herself to be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian princess, and Leo Erskine has set out to prove her wrongâ¦never dreaming that the two of them are about to discover a prophecy that will bind them together forever.

The Darkest Angel
I have been feinding for a 'Lords' story for awhile now, and I definitely was not disappointed. Gena Showalter has a very specific writing style, I could recognize it even without knowing she wrote it, and that's an awesome thing, in my opinion. I loved this story, it was sweet, sizzling hot and just cute. I am glad Gena Showalter is expanding her characters as well...we now have sexy angels, and probably more demons to play with. Great story, loved the entire thing. â â â â â

Love Me To Death
This was the first time I had read anything by Maggi Shayne. I think I definitely found a new author to read, this story was great. It wasn't easily predictable and was incredibly sexy and drawing, I was in for the long haul from page one. The characters were well developed for such a short story and I can't wait to read the series that is related to it, when the author starts putting them out.
â â â â â

Lady of the Nile
This was a short sweet and spicy historical/paranormal-ish romance story. I quite liked it, I really like Leo's character, even if he is a bit stubborn for his own good. I liked these two together as well. I will have to find more books by Susan Krinard. I like her writing style.
â â â â â

Received from: Netgalley

For more information or for purchasing visit Gena Showalter, Maggie Shayne, or Susan Krinard on their webpages.

I give this book 5/5 stars. â â â â â

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darkest angel - part of the lords of the underworld - before darkest passion but after darkest whisper - the angel lysander has just found the one creature in all of creation that could cause him to become a fallen angel, and there is only one way in which he knows how to deal with such a threat - destroy it. the problem? how can he do so, when the the distracting harpy has done nothing in which to justify her death? nothing except to drive him to distraction? so what does he do in order to solve the problem? why kidnap her and try and teach her how to live just and right. Right? Wrong! the only way a harpy can even survive is by either stealing her food, or earning it. Needless to say thing don't go quite as planned for our chaste and celibrate angel. Now what sane harpy could resist such a delicious challenge?

love me to death - five young men pay the price for an unfortunate accident. but one young man in particular is haunted by the memory of what happened that night. enter a young girl who has never even been to these boys' home town and who has never even met them. yet somehow she is having haunting visions of a tragic accident that inspire her art work. and she doesn't know how or why she's having the visions. but when a roommate sees her paintings and tells her the story about five boys from her hometown, the young artist bravely decides to investigate her own dreams, and to discover the truth once and for all.

lady of the nile - hard to explain. so i won't try.

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I got the book for Gena Showalter's story, but all were fantastic!

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Gena Showalter's story was really good - both of the others are crap (Just plain not good!). Read at your own risk!

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The only story in the book that was worth reading was Gena Showalter's

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I bought this book only really caring about Gena Showalter's story, Darkest Angel, so that's the only story I can reasonably review. I was fairly pleased with it.

For an approximately 140 page long story in manages to accomplish a lot. The premise is that Lysander, who belongs to a high class of angels, identifies Bianka, a harpy, as his one temptation. He chooses to try to deal with this by kidnapping her and teaching her to be like him--good in every way. She in turn tries to seduce him.

I can't really say the characters were deep or well developed. But they were likeable enough. And I feel this book will tie in well with the next full novel. It introduces the angel Olivia, the next leading lady, and comments a lot on the rules and duties of the angels. I really wish the story had been a bit longer, so that more developement could take place. But, I think that if you are a fan of the Lords of the Underworld series, you should make an effort to read this story.

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The last story fell flat otherwise I would have given this 5 stars.

The Darkest Angel. I started out hating Lysander for his high-handedness by kidnapping Bianka and trying to change her to suit his needs. But as an angel, I guess it is expected that he would try to reform someone. The power struggle between them was great. Let's hear it for the harpy. Short but sweet.

Love Me To Death. Oh this is a good one. Accidental death, reincarnation and revenge. Yummy.

Lady of the Nile. Wasn't enamored of this one. The characters were stiff and unfriendly but supposed reincarnated lovers. I just didn't feel it here.

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I got this book for the Lords of Underworld story and it did not disappoint. I tells of half-harpy Bianka and warrior angel Lysander. Overall a very enjoyable and steamy story. I would recommend reading the other Lords story prior to reading this one.

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Good anthology - I really liked the Gena Showalter story and the Susan Krinard story was a good read-once - but the Maggie Shayne story [although well written] was not one I enjoyed.

The Darkest Angel is the story of the harpy Bianka [sister of the heroine in the last book] who finds her consort, Lysander, who is a warrior angel. He sees Bianka as 'evil' since she does bad things - without realizing that she ONLY does them to bad people. Bianka sees him [correctly] as a sanctimonious prig. They fight their mutual attraction madly but the eventual conclusion is inevitable. This is an offshoot of the Lords of the Underworld series.

Love Me to Death is well written but I found it a bit depressing.

Lady of the Nile combines reincarnation, the eternal battle of good vs evil, Egyptian Gods and Victorian England. The heroine is a widowed Duchess who believes she is Lady Tameri, an Egyptian princess. She has memories and flashbacks to ancient Egypt.

Leo Erskine is an Egyptologist who thinks she nuts but finds himself attracted to her. He intends to 'save her' by proving her claim her wrong. Eventually he becomes convinced that she is NOT, and that the past touches him as well.

The author mixes flashbacks, dream sequences, and multiple viewpoints in this story leading to a few 'hmmm moments' but it all ties together nicely in the ending.

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As anthologies go, this one was a decent read. I enjoyed both the Gena Showalter (The Darkest Angel) story as well as the Maggie Shayne (Love Me to Death) story. The first goes along with Showalter's Lords of the Underworld series, while the latter Shayne story seems to be a stand alone story. Both stories had good plots, characters, and kept me invested in the outcome. The last story by Susan Krinard (Lady of the Nile) was not so good. I stopped reading it by the 2nd or 3rd chapter - I just could not get into it. I didn't care about the characters or the writing. I would recommend this anthology for the first 2 stories.

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I enjoyed reading this book.

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I got this book mainly for the Gena Showalter story, as I'm a fan of her Lords of the Underworld series. Once again, I enjoyed her work... I love her spunky heroines. This is the story of the older harpy sister, Bianka, who was introduced in The Darkest Whisper.

I didn't really like either of the other two stories in the book, though. (I'm glad they were short!) Maggie Shayne's story was the better of the two, (if I HAD to choose one), but I didn't really care for the reincarnation theme in either story. It was just strange.

Susan Krinard's story was just plain weird, IMO... it felt like I was reading a very badly written Stargate episode set in a Victorian era. I don't know why they paired these two stories with the Showalter one, they really didn't work together as a paranormal anthology.

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liked this book

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The only story I remotely enjoyed was by Maggie Shayne. I couldn't get through the other 2 at all.

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i loved the story by gena! maggie's not so much. i 'm reading the third story now, i'll finish that in a couple of hours of less. posting now to mail out on monday.
glenna

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