A recent re-read for me, though I dare not try to add the dates, as I'm afraid BL will blow my original dates out.

I love these stories and continue to love them every time I read them.  They remind me of my home, and their eccentric and quirky.  What I didn't remember from previous re-reads was the Australian thread that runs through both the book and many of the stories.  Buffett opens with a quote from Bruce Chatwin's The Songlines, in an introduction titled "Walkabout", and at least one - two? - stories include references to aboriginal myth.  A small thing, but a nice parallel for a Florida girl on a decade-plus walkabout down under. 

This is an anthology of 6 books by 7 incredible authors.  FREE to you for a limited time only. I will choose one short story to write my review.  My review will be on Sarina Bowen's Lucky Shot.

Bess is new employee working for an established sports agency.  With her birhday coming up, her boss invites her to dinner with some new clients.  She figures it will give her experience, so why not go?

Mark AKA "Tank" is excited to be chosen to work with the team in New York.  He was more than pleased to meet such a sexy woman at dinner too.  Maybe they should get to know one another?

This was a quick jaunt into the lives of some very talented characters.  I was pleased to get to read their "meet cute."  Right from the beginning they are attracted to each other.  The fact they are intelligent only adds to the attraction.  We see these amazing characters again in the current book Sure Shot.  This anthology brought some serious fun reads to me.  I was very grateful to get this collection for FREE also.  Link for you to get your copy is below.  I give this anthology a 5/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

For your #FREE copy CLICK HERE!

Edited by Laura Perry

I enjoyed this collection very much. It's a compilation of fantasy short stories and poems about magical settings or characters written by writers involved in Wicca or Paganism in some form. I won't comment on the poems because I've never been a fan of poetry, but the stories were well worth the nominal price I paid and all proceeds go to a literary charity, Books for Africa, so I bought it on pre-order, only recognising a couple of the authors, knowing my money was well spent whether the stories held up or not.

I would say only three stories were really professional quality, but there were no duds. All of the stories were reasonably well-written and the editing was pristine. There was just a certain self-indulgence in the plotting of some of them that is common with Pagan writers turning to fiction, though thankfully not universal.

Overall the really good stories made it worth far more than I paid, so I can't complain. At least I've discovered at least one new good author and the first story, by one of the names I recognised (Nils Visser), has piqued my interest in a series connected to his story. A good result as indie anthologies go.

by Edward Lorn

This collection includes all three Christmas stories by Edward Lorn.

The Naughty List

In which we learn that Santa's elves have their evil counterparts at the North Pole, called Naughties.

Deck the Halls

In which we work out that these three stories are a continuing story and several Christmas myths are woven together to create an original alternative world where Santa, or Sinter Klaus, deals with Krampus, the Naughties, and a host of toys gone bad in Toyland. This one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but in the combined volume, the story continues!

Beyond the Gates of Toyland

Completes the series. I found believability stretched a little in this one but the mythology added to the mix was certainly an original idea.

The writing in these was good and the stories drew me in despite my trepidation of reading an author who is known for extreme Horror. While the content was undoubedly Horror, there was nothing in this to squick my boundaries so it was a good first Lorn read for me.

As alternative Christmas stories go, I would actually recommend this for fans of Horror fiction. Don't expect a nicey-nice Holiday story though, that's not the goal here.

edited by Neil Gaiman

This is a collection of mostly excellent stories edited by Neil Gaiman. Naturally the quality of writing is set to a high bar and I enjoyed most of them very much. Except for Gaimans own contribution, they are all previously published somewhere, one as far back as 1909! Many are by known authors, though I'm not familiar with a lot of them.

Ironically, the first one I thought was a little slow was Gaiman's own story, which was number 12 and followed by a werewolf story that was a favorite of his, but I couldn't get into it. The theme of the anthology is strange and mythological creatures. Each story has at least one of these unnatural beasties. Or something close to it. The second to last one was a stand-out for an original approach to this theme and very well written.

As anthologies go, this was very high quality, but what else could you expect from Neil Gaiman?