Kayote B. (kayote) reviewed on 1/2/2009 + 254 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

I was very excited when I happened upon this book: I like Nora Roberts (aka J. D. Robb) and Maggie Shayne, and I've been wanting to read Laurell K. Hamilton for a while.

The best story in the book was by Susan Kirnard, who I'd never heard of. I had some problems with the 5 kids in 5 years agreement (NOT good for woman's body, I'm sorry, and means no breast feeding, also bad. :P), but otherwise it was a good tale. Not the best I've read, but I enjoyed it.

Immortality...had its points, but something about the story grated on me. I think it was how much of an ass they had both been, but somehow....poof neither was one now. The ending was appropriate, but pat. I dunno...it didn't strike me as that good of a story, I just didn't manage to root for the lead characters. (Though the villain was a good villain. Ooh..was she evil!). I've read some Maggie Shayne but was beginning to wonder how much more I wanted to read. This was nice, in that it isn't the same repetative formula that I was spotting in her vampire romances, but I still wasn't that fond of it.

Interlude by J. D. Robb wasn't bad. I enjoyed; I don't think it's quite up to Robert's usual level, but I'm used to her novels. I am still interested in reading the series that Eve is the main character. Eve has a lot of potential as a character, and it was just beginning to show in this short story. Since characters are one of the reasons I enjoy Robert's, I'm hoping Eve fills her potential in the longer books.

And...then there is Hamilton. I was very excited to get a story by her, on Vampires. I was unimpressed. For one thing, it's a bloody novel excerpt, and the plot that the tale starts with (captured weres) isn't even resolved by the end. The ending sort of resolves some of it, then says "Come read the long book." And it wasn't that good. I'm not into S&M, which seemed to be most of the book. And what the ()*#$@ are "marks"? They seem to be a huge part of the book, and I'm sure are explained earlier in the Anita Blake series, but weren't all that great here There was some exposition tossed in to explain they are holes in the aura, but why these two fill'm..I dunno. I feel like I came in in the middle, watched a bunch of gorey sex, and then left in the middle. I might try a full length Anita Blake, but am not so excited about it. (NOTE: Since I read this book, I read Guilty Pleasures. I won't be bothering with another of hers).

So...despite an impressive list of authors, I was unimpressed with this collection of stories.

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