Brekke K. (sfvamp) - , reviewed on 2/4/2010 + 108 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

A decent read. I liked Gena Showalter's the best, though my one complaint would be that it wasn't long enough. The ending felt rushed, but I find that true of most of Showalter's writings. I think what made this an effective story for an anthology (for the most part) is that it didn't get too ambitious. The heroine gets abducted by an angel but we know she is never in any real danger and so the focus remains almost solely on the ensuing romance. The idea of soulmates got the lovers together quickly but I would have liked Lysander's realization that he was in love and willing to sacrifice his dignity for Bianka, to be a little more fleshed out before they rode off into the proverbial sunset together. It just felt like too much of a 180 from where he is for most of the story to be flippantly decided in the space of a couple of pages. Honestly I really wish this story had been a full novel. Then it would have been perfect.

Maggie Shayne was my favorite romance writer once upon a time due to her fabulous witch and vampire series and her one shot Miranda's Viking. Her writing style is still more effective and better than most authors in the genre but though her storylines are strong, I now find her romance lacking. Such is the case with her contribution to this anthology, "Love Me To Death." It's an interesting story with a suspenseful, flowing plot and intriguing characters--at least for the first half. It all goes downhill once our hero and heroine meet. As their attraction relies heavily on the premise of reincarnation, they fall into love (and bed!) within hours of meeting each other. I believed their past love more than their current love and that is a problem. It doesn't help that the ending is unrealistically (and maybe haphazardly) thrown together after they get together and then it's all happily ever after from there. This would have been a stronger read if Shayne could have written another fifty pages to flesh out the romance and murder mystery some more.

"Lady of the Nile" by Susan Krinard was my least favorite. I didn't find anything redeemable about this story and I fell asleep twice while attempting to get through its mere 85 pages. I was really bummed about this as I am fascinated by ancient Egyptian mythology and history and I wanted this anthology particularly because it married romance with those elements. However, this story is a muddled mess and relies detrimentally on the reincarnation premise--even more so than Shayne--and it really needed to be either a longer story or given a tighter plot. As it is it reads more like caricatures of a bad penny novel. The bad guy doesn't have an oily mustache to twirl, but he's about as subtle as Snidley Whiplash. The heroine's cluelessness is obnoxious particularly because she is supposedly a daring and powerful eccentric in London society. And our main hero is stereotypical and bland.

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