Whitney C. (CollegeKid0010) -
Helpful Score: 3
All four stories are good reads, though there are parts in each that bug me. So Im just gonna go through them in order. Ironically enough, I rate them backwards, with Red Angel my favorite and Ever Night my least favorite.
Ever Night by Gena Showalter
This little story is a play on the old real-person-in-a-fantasy world tale. Rose gets sucked into the world she calls Nightmares every year on her birthday and the first time this happens she encounters Vasili, this dark and powerful man. I loved his character right awayhes vivid and develops well as his feeling for Rose change. The story stays focused on the two of them to the exclusion of much development outside of them. I wanted Vasili to be a prince, to have to navigate power plays and politics and kingdom relationship problems, so in that regard I felt the story was lacking.
Rose is a cool chick. I like that she takes the initiative and learns to fight and takes care of herself throughout the whole thingnone of the hesitant, faint-heartedness that too many novel heroines have.
Despite nice characters and a decent world description, the ending is lackluster; it feels random. When she comes back to Nightmares and asks him to gather his people in 24 hours I thought it was a trap and the whole thing just felt off. I still want to know what she was doing after she returned to her world those few days before the finale, where everyone lives happily ever after trying to bridge their differences.
The Collector by Shannon K. Butcher
First I want to say that I like the concept of a lifemark, and that Neal being only 450-something years old rather than some kind of immortal is cool. It gives him more depth because even though hes long-lived, hes still gonna die at some point. As much as I liked Neal though, I disliked Viviana even more. The real woman under a prim and proper façade just doesnt work for her.
I like the hierarchy set up and little bit of development for the Theronai thats presented, but it feels incomplete, so thats a definite area for more exploration.
I was not impressed with the ending at all. The sgath killed Vivianas professor friend to get the artifact but then got cornered in a cave? Its anti-climatic. And then confusing on top of it when Viviana seemingly passes out for, what? Touching the artifact? I still dont know what happened.
Crystal Skull by Jessica Anderson
I love both of the main charactersand even the secondary onesin Crystal Skull. JTs got that dark alpha male down and Natalie is a take-no-prisoners kind of gal. Even better, JT is well rounded and has a past that propels him forward. I wont provide any spoilers, but hes not what you think at the beginning, and I love that twist; its brilliant because its so simple and obvious but I never would have thought of it.
This story progresses well and comes to an ending thats reasonable and not melodramatic. I would have liked more doomsday stuff, more mythology about crystal skulls and such, and also what JT and Natalie think will happen in the next couple of years. But I guess since the characters dont know then we shouldnt either. Definitely loved this short story; Im going to keep any eye out for Jessica Anderson from now on.
Red Angel by Deidre Knight
Right away, I could tell this story was gonna be sweetthe characters were good and the way the world was set up felt so easy, real and normal for these characters. It helps that the hero, Jamie, is smoking-hot! The perfect alpha male with the right mix of humanity. Not to mention I have a thing for hunters. I like that Sunny is an angel but at the same time Jamie has never heard of guardian angels in human form. That lack of knowledge on his part also helps the reader question other things s/he might know about angles and the supernatural. Using what Sunny knows about her own kind, what we gather from third-party sources and Jamies glimpses of angels, Knight illustrates how important Jamie and his siblings are, and that makes them even cooler.
I have to stop right now and say that I think its awesome that Sunny is African American and Jamie is white, and even more so that his brother Mason is gay. It brings another real-world dynamic to the story.
The ending was a little predictable but it is more than compensated for by a good time getting to that point. I would have liked to see more of Jamie as the hunter, though thats my only real complaint.
www.whitneycarter.wordpress.com
Ever Night by Gena Showalter
This little story is a play on the old real-person-in-a-fantasy world tale. Rose gets sucked into the world she calls Nightmares every year on her birthday and the first time this happens she encounters Vasili, this dark and powerful man. I loved his character right awayhes vivid and develops well as his feeling for Rose change. The story stays focused on the two of them to the exclusion of much development outside of them. I wanted Vasili to be a prince, to have to navigate power plays and politics and kingdom relationship problems, so in that regard I felt the story was lacking.
Rose is a cool chick. I like that she takes the initiative and learns to fight and takes care of herself throughout the whole thingnone of the hesitant, faint-heartedness that too many novel heroines have.
Despite nice characters and a decent world description, the ending is lackluster; it feels random. When she comes back to Nightmares and asks him to gather his people in 24 hours I thought it was a trap and the whole thing just felt off. I still want to know what she was doing after she returned to her world those few days before the finale, where everyone lives happily ever after trying to bridge their differences.
The Collector by Shannon K. Butcher
First I want to say that I like the concept of a lifemark, and that Neal being only 450-something years old rather than some kind of immortal is cool. It gives him more depth because even though hes long-lived, hes still gonna die at some point. As much as I liked Neal though, I disliked Viviana even more. The real woman under a prim and proper façade just doesnt work for her.
I like the hierarchy set up and little bit of development for the Theronai thats presented, but it feels incomplete, so thats a definite area for more exploration.
I was not impressed with the ending at all. The sgath killed Vivianas professor friend to get the artifact but then got cornered in a cave? Its anti-climatic. And then confusing on top of it when Viviana seemingly passes out for, what? Touching the artifact? I still dont know what happened.
Crystal Skull by Jessica Anderson
I love both of the main charactersand even the secondary onesin Crystal Skull. JTs got that dark alpha male down and Natalie is a take-no-prisoners kind of gal. Even better, JT is well rounded and has a past that propels him forward. I wont provide any spoilers, but hes not what you think at the beginning, and I love that twist; its brilliant because its so simple and obvious but I never would have thought of it.
This story progresses well and comes to an ending thats reasonable and not melodramatic. I would have liked more doomsday stuff, more mythology about crystal skulls and such, and also what JT and Natalie think will happen in the next couple of years. But I guess since the characters dont know then we shouldnt either. Definitely loved this short story; Im going to keep any eye out for Jessica Anderson from now on.
Red Angel by Deidre Knight
Right away, I could tell this story was gonna be sweetthe characters were good and the way the world was set up felt so easy, real and normal for these characters. It helps that the hero, Jamie, is smoking-hot! The perfect alpha male with the right mix of humanity. Not to mention I have a thing for hunters. I like that Sunny is an angel but at the same time Jamie has never heard of guardian angels in human form. That lack of knowledge on his part also helps the reader question other things s/he might know about angles and the supernatural. Using what Sunny knows about her own kind, what we gather from third-party sources and Jamies glimpses of angels, Knight illustrates how important Jamie and his siblings are, and that makes them even cooler.
I have to stop right now and say that I think its awesome that Sunny is African American and Jamie is white, and even more so that his brother Mason is gay. It brings another real-world dynamic to the story.
The ending was a little predictable but it is more than compensated for by a good time getting to that point. I would have liked to see more of Jamie as the hunter, though thats my only real complaint.
www.whitneycarter.wordpress.com
Katherine M. (TheSmartKat34) reviewed On the Hunt: Ever Night / The Collector / Crystal Skull / Red Angel on + 68 more book reviews
I give this one a 3 1/2 out of 5 only cause a couple of the stories are not that memorable.
The angel story is played out like any other odd ball romance. The type of "why am I reading this, when I know what is going to happen and it's not really worth my time reading it".
I bought it for the Shannon Butcher story, which I thought was way to short, but it was pretty good. I am eager to get the next one "blood hunt" in this series :)
Love it..
The first story wasn't too bad either. Not something that is normal or like anything else. "Ever Night" kept you reading...
The crystal skull just didn't fly with me though. Just something about it seemed, hokey you could say.
The angel story is played out like any other odd ball romance. The type of "why am I reading this, when I know what is going to happen and it's not really worth my time reading it".
I bought it for the Shannon Butcher story, which I thought was way to short, but it was pretty good. I am eager to get the next one "blood hunt" in this series :)
Love it..
The first story wasn't too bad either. Not something that is normal or like anything else. "Ever Night" kept you reading...
The crystal skull just didn't fly with me though. Just something about it seemed, hokey you could say.
Karen G. (KarenGalal) reviewed On the Hunt: Ever Night / The Collector / Crystal Skull / Red Angel on + 36 more book reviews
Shannon K. Butcher, the collector was amazing, I didn't want it to end, if you like the sentinel Wars serie, you'll love this one. Viviana's manifested power seemed to me to be a combination of the other females Theronai powers, I hope shannon will be more creative in her next book. But it was still great!
Gena Showalter, Ever night, was a good read, dark hero, strong female (I love her lords of the underworld serie, nothing else she writes compare to that!) but this short story kept me reading and entertained.
Gena Showalter, Ever night, was a good read, dark hero, strong female (I love her lords of the underworld serie, nothing else she writes compare to that!) but this short story kept me reading and entertained.
Yvonne L. reviewed On the Hunt: Ever Night / The Collector / Crystal Skull / Red Angel on + 929 more book reviews
This is a pretty good anthology. I originally picked it up for Showalter and Butcher's stories but was glad to discover Andersen's. I have never read her before but I will definitley read her again. This was also my first time reading Knight.
"Ever Night" was a typical Showalter story with awesome characters that suck you right in. It is a little reminiscent of the Atlantis series but it was still lots of fun with great scenes and dialogue. I hope she expands the series so I can find out what happens to Jasha and Gregori. It has the usual twisted Showalter humor as well. The ending was slightly abrupt and a little too forced but I enjoyed it anyway.
"The Collector" was a slight disappointment for me. Neal and Viviana didn't quite work for me and I thought the story dragged on a bit. I think the problem was that you don't know how they fell in love with each other. It was almost a cop out that they fell in love after the necklace showed them each others' lives. There was no build up to it. It's still a nice read if you are into the Sentinels series. This story happens in the middle of "Living Nightmare." Out of all the stories I might have liked this one the least.
"Crstal Skull" was a great surprise. It was intriguing with great characters and I really want to find all the other books in the Doomsday 2012 series. There was also a nice bit of action. I look forward to reading more of her stuff.
"Red Angel" though a nice story was a bit too long. The ending was also kind of lame. I did find that I was more curious about the side characters and their stories (like Jamie's siblings). So I will most likely look for one of Knight's other books in the series to detemind if I like her or not. I did like both Sunny and Jamie. They are a good match with some fun scenes.
Overall, a good read.
"Ever Night" was a typical Showalter story with awesome characters that suck you right in. It is a little reminiscent of the Atlantis series but it was still lots of fun with great scenes and dialogue. I hope she expands the series so I can find out what happens to Jasha and Gregori. It has the usual twisted Showalter humor as well. The ending was slightly abrupt and a little too forced but I enjoyed it anyway.
"The Collector" was a slight disappointment for me. Neal and Viviana didn't quite work for me and I thought the story dragged on a bit. I think the problem was that you don't know how they fell in love with each other. It was almost a cop out that they fell in love after the necklace showed them each others' lives. There was no build up to it. It's still a nice read if you are into the Sentinels series. This story happens in the middle of "Living Nightmare." Out of all the stories I might have liked this one the least.
"Crstal Skull" was a great surprise. It was intriguing with great characters and I really want to find all the other books in the Doomsday 2012 series. There was also a nice bit of action. I look forward to reading more of her stuff.
"Red Angel" though a nice story was a bit too long. The ending was also kind of lame. I did find that I was more curious about the side characters and their stories (like Jamie's siblings). So I will most likely look for one of Knight's other books in the series to detemind if I like her or not. I did like both Sunny and Jamie. They are a good match with some fun scenes.
Overall, a good read.
Holly J. (zhollywood) -
I enjoyed all the stories, though not as much as other anthologies. Gena Showalter is always a good read, and it introduced me to 3 authors I don't believe I've read yet. All the stories were good enough to make me check out more from those 3, though not good enough to assume I'll buy them or swap for them.
