I don’t think The Liar’s Dice enhances Gambled Away. The slow pace, the setting, and ambiguous ending struck a discordant note with me and for me, it is the least successful novella in the anthology. A murder and the ensuing search for the killer drives the plot and unfortunately, Ms. Lin sacrifices the romance in…
I’m still sorting out my feelings about Raising the Stakes. I don’t read a ton of fantasy, but I like the genre and the way it challenges my imagination. I was initially wary of a love match between a con artist and an elven warrior but Ms. Cooper makes it work. The story opens in…
The first thing I do to kick off the Christmas season (besides, of course, cranking up the season debut of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You) is get out my old anthologies and read a Carla Kelly Christmas short story. The last thing I do on Christmas Eve before I turn out…
At the Duke’s Wedding is a set of linked novellas, each one written by a well-known author in the world of historical romance. Each of the stories takes place in and around the two weeks leading up to the wedding of the eponymous Duke, and one of the things I particularly liked was the way…
When I want to be introduced to a writer I’ve never encountered, I like to read anthologies. If the compilation has a story I enjoy by a new author, it’s like an extra cherry on a sundae. Fortunately, that sums up this anthology for me. Most Wanted by DeWanna Pace I’d never read anything by…
The Lady Most Likely… is not really an anthology so much as one story about the same house party, written by three different authors. But since each author focuses on a different couple – and writes one section of the book – I’ve reviewed it as an anthology. If you like Brockway, Quinn, and James,…
Truth be told, I mostly got my copy of Songs of Love and Death because it features a story by Linnea Sinclair, an auto-buy author for me. There are stories by a lot of other authors in it that I admire or have heard good things about, so that was an added inducement. All in…
Initially, I thought It Happened One Night was a Christmas anthology. It isn’t. Though the cover is snowy, the four stories each take place during a different season of the year. The premise of the book is quite fun and original: Each story has the same basic plot elements. All concern couples who get stuck…
I started reading this anthology right after reading Laurie’s fantastic ATBF column on urban fantasy. It even got me out of lurkerdom on the AAR boards to comment. I spent a good deal of time contemplating why I like urban fantasy so much, because it’s one of the few genres in which I have auto-buy…
The Mane Event features two novellas set in New York with shapeshifter heroes. Most books I’ve read featuring shapeshifter characters are very serious, dark and angsty, but this one is humorous. The plots are loosely constructed to non-existent, but the characters are funny and likable as can be. When I have as much fun reading…