Scan barcode
Reviews
Charmed Destinies: An Anthology by Rachel Lee, Catherine Asaro, Mercedes Lackey, Mercedes Lackey
kathydavie's review against another edition
3.0
An anthology of three short romantic stories, which end in a charmed life. Unfortunately, it's not so charming for the readers.
Series:
"Moonglow" (Lost Continent, 0.5)
The Stories
Mercedes Lackey's "Counting Crows" is the best of the bunch although it is a bit confusing at first. I kept thinking it was a Valdemar story. It's simply a peek into the life of an unfortunate young woman being used to protect her father's lands by allowing the king to use her as a bargaining chip to encourage a Border Lord to support and defend his royal realm. Naturally the Border Lord is a major asshole but Gwynn gets her own back beautifully!
Rachel Lee's "Drusilla's Dream" is so incredibly bad that for a bit I almost thought she was pulling a Xanth. Except, I then realized, Lee was so uneven in her bad writing that she wasn't really trying to be horrible. Which made it so much worse. On the whole, there are two stories occurring at the same time. In the Real World, Miles is a sysop for a corporation and refers to the computers under his care as Behemoths while Drusilla is a data entry clerk. In Drusilla's Fantasy World, she is a princess who meets Miles, the Behemoth Tamer. All of which leads to the one cute bit in the fantasy side where Drusilla and Miles find the Behemoth and must force it to give up the key by feeding it crackers that have a hole in it. Miles decides he must feed Behemoth the boot so he "tickles" the Behemoth until it sticks its tongue out to accept the boot cracker. Hey, I told you it was bad…!
Catherine Asaro's "Moonglow" is simply bad. I don't even know how the title relates to this story of magic determined by shapes and showing as colors. A young prince is orphaned and left blind, deaf, and dumb in an attack that kills his parents leaving a doubly grieving grandfather behind for the prince is taken away and raised by one of his parents' murderers. Years later, the King dies and a cousin will be king. A cousin who does not want it and is weirdly happy when Iris finds the supposedly-dead Prince Jarid through her mind. Yeah, it goes on with all these issues and, I'm sorry, but the issues just don't make sense. It's like Asaro was on a deadline and didn't get past the synopsis stage.
The Cover and Title
The cover is very charming with its gradation of color from oranges to pinks. There's a huge circular stained glass window at the top with an intricately-draped woman posing with a sphere and a rock. She must be standing on a pedestal for the swirling Deco-ish floor is far beneath where her feet should be.
The title, Charmed Destinies, is indeed accurate for each story ends charmingly. Actually I think the title, the cover, and Lackey's story are the best of this particular collection. It's certainly the only reason I gave it a whopping "3".
Series:
"Moonglow" (Lost Continent, 0.5)
The Stories
Mercedes Lackey's "Counting Crows" is the best of the bunch although it is a bit confusing at first. I kept thinking it was a Valdemar story. It's simply a peek into the life of an unfortunate young woman being used to protect her father's lands by allowing the king to use her as a bargaining chip to encourage a Border Lord to support and defend his royal realm. Naturally the Border Lord is a major asshole but Gwynn gets her own back beautifully!
Rachel Lee's "Drusilla's Dream" is so incredibly bad that for a bit I almost thought she was pulling a Xanth. Except, I then realized, Lee was so uneven in her bad writing that she wasn't really trying to be horrible. Which made it so much worse. On the whole, there are two stories occurring at the same time. In the Real World, Miles is a sysop for a corporation and refers to the computers under his care as Behemoths while Drusilla is a data entry clerk. In Drusilla's Fantasy World, she is a princess who meets Miles, the Behemoth Tamer. All of which leads to the one cute bit in the fantasy side where Drusilla and Miles find the Behemoth and must force it to give up the key by feeding it crackers that have a hole in it. Miles decides he must feed Behemoth the boot so he "tickles" the Behemoth until it sticks its tongue out to accept the boot cracker. Hey, I told you it was bad…!
Catherine Asaro's "Moonglow" is simply bad. I don't even know how the title relates to this story of magic determined by shapes and showing as colors. A young prince is orphaned and left blind, deaf, and dumb in an attack that kills his parents leaving a doubly grieving grandfather behind for the prince is taken away and raised by one of his parents' murderers. Years later, the King dies and a cousin will be king. A cousin who does not want it and is weirdly happy when Iris finds the supposedly-dead Prince Jarid through her mind. Yeah, it goes on with all these issues and, I'm sorry, but the issues just don't make sense. It's like Asaro was on a deadline and didn't get past the synopsis stage.
The Cover and Title
The cover is very charming with its gradation of color from oranges to pinks. There's a huge circular stained glass window at the top with an intricately-draped woman posing with a sphere and a rock. She must be standing on a pedestal for the swirling Deco-ish floor is far beneath where her feet should be.
The title, Charmed Destinies, is indeed accurate for each story ends charmingly. Actually I think the title, the cover, and Lackey's story are the best of this particular collection. It's certainly the only reason I gave it a whopping "3".
jkfugitt's review against another edition
4.0
I was drawn to this book because of Mercedes Lackey, and she delivered a great short novella that I highly enjoyed, with a strong female character and a happy ending, which I have an addiction to. The other two stories in this collection were good in their own right, but the second one didn't enthrall me quite as much as the first did, or the last one, "Moonglow" by Catharine Asaro. "Moonglow" was beautiful and I was very much happy with how the story turned out, and the path the author took to get there.
Overall, I highly enjoyed this book.
Overall, I highly enjoyed this book.
jwells's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
I've never clicked "dark" and "light-hearted" for the same book before. lol There's a range of tones in this collection.
Counting Crows: This story pulled me in, though I'm not sure that it's strong as a romance exactly. Maybe "fantasy/women's fiction" if that were a thing. The male lead is barely sketched, except as a nice alternative to the terrible husband. The husband's eventual fate is such a classic Mercedes Lackey twist that it gave me fond flashbacks to the 1990s. haha
Drusilla's Dream: The story that earned "light-hearted." Honestly, not my favorite. So fluffy that I had to turn my brain off to finish it.
Moonglow: I was glued to this one to find out how it ended. I even checked my library's catalog and discovered that they have the sequel...
Counting Crows: This story pulled me in, though I'm not sure that it's strong as a romance exactly. Maybe "fantasy/women's fiction" if that were a thing. The male lead is barely sketched, except as a nice alternative to the terrible husband. The husband's eventual fate is such a classic Mercedes Lackey twist that it gave me fond flashbacks to the 1990s. haha
Drusilla's Dream: The story that earned "light-hearted." Honestly, not my favorite. So fluffy that I had to turn my brain off to finish it.
Moonglow: I was glued to this one to find out how it ended. I even checked my library's catalog and discovered that they have the sequel...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Death of parent
dwager's review against another edition
3.0
Of the three stories in this book, I enjoyed two of them. The first story, Counting Crows, is the story of a woman who deals with an abusive marriage using magic. I felt that it was creative and interesting. The second story, Drusilla's Dream, didn't work for me. It's set in a modern tech corporate world, in part, and I didn't feel like the author really understood the jobs and people she was writing about. The third story, Moonglow, is the reason I read this book, as part of my quest to read books with deaf characters. I felt that the deafness and the magic in this story worked well together.
nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like it took me way to long to get through this book. Out of the three stories, I like the third one, Moonglow by Catherine Asaro, the best.
When reading this books I felt like I was dropped in the middle of a series. Like the mythology and characters were already established, but I missed the beginning.
Book one for #tomeinfinityandbeyond readathon
Ship C: a short jump to a neighboring planet, read a book of short stories.
When reading this books I felt like I was dropped in the middle of a series. Like the mythology and characters were already established, but I missed the beginning.
Book one for #tomeinfinityandbeyond readathon
Ship C: a short jump to a neighboring planet, read a book of short stories.
cleverbaggins's review against another edition
4.0
This book contains three short stories (probably more novellas by the length but whatever) and I'm going to talk about them out of order because the last one in the book is one of my absolute favorite things.
So the third one in this book is by a Catherine Asaro who is one of my favorite science fiction writers, but this was her first little foray into fantasy. I adore it. The magic concept is (or was at the time) so unique and unusual and somehow simple that it fascinated me. Different types of magic are colored and different shapes focus it. It was fascinating and she wrote so visually that it was just wonderful. The story itself is a cute fantasy story of a lost prince gone deaf, blind and mute who is discovered again and because he's the last in the family line, crowned King. Iris is a country orphan who is training badly at magic and turns out to have the most powerful known magic in the land. So of course she has to marry the found prince and be Queen. Its such a sweet story and for its length a lot is going on. I adore both Iris and Jarid (the prince) and the whole world. Asaro wrote a series in this world after the story, but I remember little about it and I honestly think it followed characters I didn't like as well as Iris and Jarid. I might look it up again eventually.
Now the other two stories.
The first in the book is by Mercedes Lackey who is another favorite author but this story is very different. Its very detailed and historical about a woman getting married by glove and hopes that it'll turn out well. Its good, but definitely something you have to be in the mood for. There's a magical plot that comes out at the end and it ends well, but I don't want to spoil it. It's a good story and one I enjoy but not my favorite type of thing.
The second story is by Rachel Lee who I don't know if I've ever read anywhere else. Its a fun little romp of a magic tale about a woman at a night job entering data. She day dreams to get through her shift but it's much more real than she realizes. I always enjoy this story even if it is a simple little silly thing just because it's something I'm sure we've all imagined and can relate to.
This book is excellent simply for the Asaro story and the other two are good as well. I'd definitely recommend it if you want something to pass the time between other books (which I am. Stupid postal service.)
So the third one in this book is by a Catherine Asaro who is one of my favorite science fiction writers, but this was her first little foray into fantasy. I adore it. The magic concept is (or was at the time) so unique and unusual and somehow simple that it fascinated me. Different types of magic are colored and different shapes focus it. It was fascinating and she wrote so visually that it was just wonderful. The story itself is a cute fantasy story of a lost prince gone deaf, blind and mute who is discovered again and because he's the last in the family line, crowned King. Iris is a country orphan who is training badly at magic and turns out to have the most powerful known magic in the land. So of course she has to marry the found prince and be Queen. Its such a sweet story and for its length a lot is going on. I adore both Iris and Jarid (the prince) and the whole world. Asaro wrote a series in this world after the story, but I remember little about it and I honestly think it followed characters I didn't like as well as Iris and Jarid. I might look it up again eventually.
Now the other two stories.
The first in the book is by Mercedes Lackey who is another favorite author but this story is very different. Its very detailed and historical about a woman getting married by glove and hopes that it'll turn out well. Its good, but definitely something you have to be in the mood for. There's a magical plot that comes out at the end and it ends well, but I don't want to spoil it. It's a good story and one I enjoy but not my favorite type of thing.
The second story is by Rachel Lee who I don't know if I've ever read anywhere else. Its a fun little romp of a magic tale about a woman at a night job entering data. She day dreams to get through her shift but it's much more real than she realizes. I always enjoy this story even if it is a simple little silly thing just because it's something I'm sure we've all imagined and can relate to.
This book is excellent simply for the Asaro story and the other two are good as well. I'd definitely recommend it if you want something to pass the time between other books (which I am. Stupid postal service.)
More...