First up, The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance.
For starters, I really love this cover!
With anthologies I never sit and read all the stories straight through, so far I've read 2 of them, so I shall review them.
Grace of Small Magics by Ilona Andrews
Really enjoyable short story. New world for Ilona and it drew me straight it, and the length left me wanting a lot more from these characters. The story is about a girl forced in to helping a stronger supernatural, her family is tied to his as slaves. From which he quickly releases her after meeting. Grace is a strong character and not just accepting of her fate. The romance feels slightly rushed, but totally understandable with the length of the story, and it is still believable. Great story.
Paranormal Romance Blues by Kelley Armstrong
This story shows us a little of life for minor supernaturals in Kelley's Otherworld. The narrator is a girl who's only power is super hearing. She's had a really tough time in romance lately, with other supernaturals, but allows her friend to drag her to a bar, a vampire bar. There things get interesting when it becomes clear that there really is a vampire at this vampire bar. Was good to see Cassandra and Aaron as secondary characters, to really see them through new eyes. Enjoyable short story.
A Rush Of Wings by Adrian Pheonix
HIS NAME IS DANTE.
Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock
band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New
Orleans nightspot called Club Hell. Born of the
Blood, then broken by an evil beyond
imagination.
HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.
FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been
tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as
the Cross Country Killer...and the trail has led
her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But
the dangerously attractive musician not only
resists her investigation, he claims to be
nightkind: in other words, a vampire. Digging
into his past for answers reveals little. A
juvenile record a mile long. No social security
number. No known birth date. In and out of
foster homes for most of his life before being
taken in by a man named Lucien De Noir, who
appears to guard mysteries of his own.
HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.
What Heather does know about Dante is that
something links him to the killer -- and she's
pretty sure that link makes him the CCK's next
target. Heather must unravel the truth behind
this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young
man -- who, she begins to believe, may indeed
be a vampire -- in order to bring a killer to
justice. But what Heather doesn't know is that
Dante's past holds a shocking secret, and
once it is revealed not even Heather will be
able to protect him from his destiny...
In theory this is a book I would really like. Crime and the supernatural all mixed up together, something I normally really enjoy. But this book just didn't do it for me. I just didn't feel for the characters, the way the world is set out and the whole tone of the book didn't work for me. There are many Cajun words thrown in and having to flick to the glossary every couple of pages to check the meaning of things really ruins the flow of the book. I'm sure there are people who get on fine with it, but I'm not one of them. The book started out pretty well, made me want to keep reading it, but I very quickly got board. I didn't feel for the characters and ended up not caring at all what happened to them or if they were going to live or not. The book gets pretty graphic with torture scenes but because I didn't care about the guy being tortured, I winced only at the graphicness, but with little feelilng. A shame really, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Don't think I'll be picking up the second book.
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