by Rhonda Parrish

I like the idea of theme anthologies and the concept of this one really appealed to me. All the stories involve some sort of creatures of fire.

I hadn't heard of any of the authors so it was a bit of a gamble, and like most anthologies with a collection of unfamiliar authors, some stories appealed to me more than others.

We had an Ifrit, a fire sprite, demons, including one who fought an Angel, dragons, gryphons, genies, an elemental magician, a tribute to Jim Morrison (though the author didn't seem aware that he didn't write Light My Fire), a host of mythological fire gods, Phoenixes and an Aitvara.

Unfortunately five and a half of the twenty-one stories were written in present tense, which I detest and find difficult to read (one kept switching between past and present tense).

Four of the stories stood out as particularly good. These were:

The Second Great Fire by Laura VanArendonk Baugh, Breath of the Caldera by Wendy Nikel, The Midwife and the Phoenix by J.G. Formato and especially Double or Nothing by Mara Malins, which involved a game of cards that brought to mind Magic the Gathering, but with real creatures. This one made the book worthwhile on its own.

While I can only give the collection as a whole three stars, these authors I'll be looking to see what else they've written.

Amber is a young woman with a sad and shady past.

She envies the life of the wealthy Mrs. Daphne Parrish and sets her sights on acquiring her life. 

Amber befriends the daft and guileless Daphne by pretending that she, too, had a sister who died of cystic fibrosis and volunteering to assist with Daphne's charity to benefit cystic fibrosis.  Amber learns everything about Daphne's life that will help her move into Daphne's shoes . . . including how to win over Daphne's handsome and powerful husband, Jackson.

Amber deceives and manipulates both Daphne and Jackson in her quest for life that she has always wanted. But, will she be happy when she finally gets the life she deserves?

A fast-moving story that is told from both Amber and Daphne's perspectives.  

Ratings aside, I truly liked Raze, and as I've come to expect from Parrish, the writing is great with those terrific lines that jump out at you. Raze gives us a May/December romance, which is one of my favorite tropes, and we get those wonderfully flawed characters that Roan Parrish does so well. That said, I just couldn't help but feel like something was missing in this one. Maybe it's because the author has set the bar so high with this series, but I didn't feel like Huey and Felix's story sucked me in the way the first two in the series did. Part of that could be my feelings about Huey for a lot of this one. I waffled back and forth with him from the beginning. He would do something so completely sweet one minute, and check out of the relationship the next. I get the reasons why, but Felix is just so darn lovable that I couldn't help but want to shake the stuffing out of Huey at times - no matter his size. I also feel like he's a little too closed off, so much so that I had a hard time getting to know Huey. Whatever the reasons for my feelings about this third book in the series, I would still recommend it. The whole series is full of fantastic writing and wonderful characters with real problems. The romances bring out all the feels and while they are angsty, it's angst that we can understand and empathize with.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did.  The author may live in Philly, but they are clearly a transplant, or just the most out of tune Philadelphian ever.  But that's not really all that important to the plot/story.  It was just little things that bugged me because it's my home town and I wanted this book to be great.  It's written in.....wait for it.... First. Person.  Sigh.  

The protagonists were good.  Daniel was a little jaded and paranoid, but once the story delves into his home life and experience with romance, it kind of makes perfect sense.  And Rex was a big teddy bear; definitely fits the cliche too good to be true.  There were some fun characters and some really annoying characters and I wanted to murder all of Daniel's family--they were the absolute worst. 

Daniel, a gay man from Philly, takes a position as a professor at a college in Michigan.  He met Rex after his interview after hitting a dog with his car and trying to walk the injured animal to help while he was injured himself.  The run into Rex who immediately helps them.  After caring for the dog and making her as comfortable as possible until she could be taken to a vet in the morning, Rex tries to care for Daniel who doesn't realize that he's pretty banged up from the accident.  They have an instant connection and kiss, but nothing much happens beyond that.  The duo don't see one another again until Daniel has accepted the position and has been working in Michigan for a while.  Rex had kept the dog, and that kind of endeared him even more to Daniel.  There is some miscommunication, lack of communication, and general stupidity that's kind of aggravating, but not so much that I wanted to rage quit the book.  There was a lot of fluff and romance and sweetness.  And angst.

This was just okay.  I liked it, but did not love it.  I don't know that I will check out the rest of the series, as I read that the next book focuses on one of Daniel's jerk brothers.  Don't really want to see a redemption arc for any of them, especially Collin.