Hit and miss. I found "Galatea and Pygmalion" by Kate Danley to be a rather interesting take on the Greek myth. The story makes good use of gender roles and storytelling. "Princess Charming" by Yasmine Galenorn was the best tale in the collection. I love the use of letter writing and the solutions to the problems. "Soot and Stone" by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson was a really cool retelling of Cinderella. While I thought "A Small Magic" by Devon Monk was a bit longer than it had to be, it was also creative and unique.

 

Danley's, Galenorn's, and Johnson's tales would be worth the .99 price tag for me.

I picked up this Anthology to listen to the novella Magic Dreams (Kate Daniels #4.5) only. I LOVE the Kate Daniels series and have been listening to the books and loving them all over again. Instead of just listening to Magic Dreams I went ahead and listened to all four novellas; Magic Dreams, Ice Shards, Double Hexed, and Blood Debt. This Anthology was interesting and each novella was different and enjoyable to listen too.

Magic Dreams - 5 Stars

Here we get Jim & Dali, two shapeshiftes in the Cat Clan. If you are familiar with the Kate Daniels series then you have an idea of who these two are. Jim shows up in the first book and Dali shows up in the third book, but here we get to see more into them, their insecurities, and mating dance. Lots of fun to listen too and learn more about these two.

The Narrator: Renée Raudman did a superb job with the narration. The audiobook brings out the emotions, characters, mystery, and adventure.

Ice Shards - 4 Stars

Ice Shards takes place in the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon #9.5 series. I haven’t tried this series yet, but do have book one on my TBR. This novella has made me want to bump up trying out Yasmine Galenorn. Iris has to face her past. I like how her past is weaved into the now. I found this novella interesting and entertaining.

The Narrator: Cassandra Campbell did a wonderful job. I really enjoyed the Irish accent given to Iris and all the other different voices for the other characters.

Double Hexed - 3 Stars

Double Hexed is part of the Stormwalker #2.5 series. This one I felt lost and like I was missing something. The familiar connections between the characters just wasn’t their for me. All the people introduced are friends, acquaintances, or a lover. This novella focused on Janet the main character in the Stormwalker series. We also get Coyote the God, Mike a dragon, Cassandra a witch, Ansel a Nightwalker, and a few others. Theirs a cute/hex on the inn that Janet runs. Their more dark primal instances are coming out. This novella wan’t working so well for me. It didn’t make me want to go out and pick up the Stormwalker series.

The Narrator: She did a good job. The voices where unique and you could distinguish between the different characters.

Blood Debt - 4 Stars

Blood Debt is Anna Strong Chronicles #6.5 series. We meet Anna a bounty hunter/vampire. Something in her past is coming back to bit her in the butt. We learn about her, her past, and how she was turned. She’s got to defend her actions in an otherworld court. Not just her life, but another’s is on the line. It’s interesting. Anna is determined to protect those who can’t defend themselves. I’m curious to try the Anna Strong Chronicles series. It sounds like it has adventure, mystery, and fun characters.

The Narrator: She did a wonderful job. All the voices where alive and unique. The story came alive.

Maddy is busy preparing for her grand opening of her bed and breakfast. She has a lot to do - and she does not need the spiteful machinations of Ralph Greyhoof - a local satyr and fellow hotelier - who is looking to sabotage the competition.

 

But no-one expected the rivalry to turn to actual murder - when a witch body turns up in Maddy’s back garden. Maddy doesn’t buy it, there is far more going on  here than a business rivalry - and hotel guests are not worth killing over

This book is a lot of fun - the characters are fun, the world is fun, the story is fun. But it’s not just fun, it has a lot of decent depth to it, especially in the characterisation and it all has a lot of substance to it which makes it fun, but definitely not fluff

 

Most of the other characters are excellent - Maddy’s history, her past relationships, her moments of running wild, her charging around as a vampire hunter - all of that is very present with Maddy and with Sandy who both shared this history. Franny, the frustrated ghost who cannot interact with the world but oh so badly wants to. Having someone who genuinely dislikes Maddy and is definitely a rival but having the characters recognise that  just being an enemy doesn’t make them completely evil. I like the levels there, the fact we don’t have enemy=completely irredeemably evil or that anyone who opposes the protagonist must be completely without any positive qualities. I like that

 

This applies to a fair amount of the plot - I like the whole complexity around the vampires, I like that the most obvious target gets questioned repeatedly. I like that we also have Linda, the head of their coven and mayor of the town who has also a lot of levels in her involvement of the plot which is hard to simply say good or bad. It’s not that everything is complex or elaborate - it isn’t convoluted at all. It’s not hard to follow, or difficult or following unnecessary twists for the sake of it. But more the characters simply are not simplistic, even enemies are multi-dimensional and as such so is the plot line, discerning actual motives and the investigation around that.

If I wanted more from the plot, it would be more of Maddy showing her Mad Maudlin days and not being a little damsel-ish around the edges. But at the same time I appreciate Maddy’s own history and her equal conflicted feelings about that.

 

I also feel that with all the wonderful nuance we see in the characters and plot, there are some elements of the politics of the world building that feel simplistic - like how easily Maddy and Sandy can set the agenda and successors for the Council and their coven.

 

 

 

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Lily is a succubus who staves off the hunger and makes her living by running a sex salon. The book opens when she discovers one her best werewolf clients dead in a bed, drained of blood and missing a hunk of flesh. 

The vamps in this book are not of this ilk.



They are mean, they are hungry and some of them are batshit crazy. These vampires are monsters, just as it should be. Sadly, they do not make much of an appearance. There are a few dead bodies here and there but we don’t get to spend any time in their heads. Such a missed opportunity. I love being in a madman’s head, if only for a short time.

Because of the dead guy in her bed, Lily’s life is turned upside down and inside out. She loses her livelihood, is targeted by a madman and an angry widow bent on revenge and she’s getting dangerously hungry for some chi and sexy time. When she realizes her best friends are also in danger, they enlist the help of a chaos demon who is a most excellent PI and handily enough, very good at the sexy times.



This started out as a whole lot of murderous and sexy fun but somewhere along the way it lost me. It became dull. Nothing much happened for chapters on end. There was much talk about sigils and security and blah, blah, blah. At this point, I even began to start longing for one of these guys to pop in and woo somebody to death just so something would happen.



Really the only thing keeping me reading was the sexy chaos demon. I kept waiting for him to create some major, you know, chaos but I may have to wait until the next book for that happen. It wasn’t even what I’d call a paranormal romance because there was no romance development here either.

There was an engaging story of Lily’s enchanted cat. If the rest of the book had been as interesting as the cat’s backstory I would’ve gobbled this book up. But as written, most of the characters were a little flat and not fleshed out nearly enough for me. There was no emotion, very little action and there wasn’t even any humor. It was all just a bit too tepid for my liking. I tried another of this author’s books years ago, Witchling I believe it was, and I didn’t like that one very much either so maybe it’s me and my atrocious taste again. 

Ah well, I may pick up book two because I do realize this book was the first in a series and much setup needed doing. Hopefully it has more sizzle and less fizzle than this one.

Narration Notes: This audiobook was read competently by Cassandra Campbell who she gives each character their own distinctive voice, none of them cringy, and I always appreciate that because I’m sure it’s not easy. 

I received a copy of this audiobook from Tantor Media. Thanks Tantor!

2.75 stars