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bunnerz's review
3.0
I had originally picked up the anthology because paranormal romance stories are my jam. None of the authors were super familiar to me other than some other stories I may have incidentally read in other anthologies.
Overall, I found the anthology easy to read, but I was really only interested in exploring more from a couple of authors and series. Quite a few stories had editing issues and were poor samples of the author's works if they usually weren't so typo-ridden.
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Far-Seer's Gamble by J.A. Cummings
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: demons, magic, vampires, clairvoyants
This short story was a part of the author's series Catarain Chronicles that followed the clairvoyant witch FMC Sibela as she traveled to warn the vampire prince Daxon of a serious danger. It had an interesting world and overarching plot, but wasn't it fully resolved by the time the story ended. The insta-love capitulation was a little unsatisfying, and mates were suddenly thrown in with no warning. I am undecided if I want to explore the rest of the series.
---
Moth's Beacon by Beth W. Patterson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: magic, amnesia, shifter, animal-sidekicks, vampires, f-f-romance, gods
This was a novella that followed two FMCs - a bat-shapeshifting vampire Amaryllis and an amnesiac author-sorceress Shayla with a moth familiar. Nothing from the characters to their backstory or world was explained gradually but info dumped. I didn't understand the features of a vampire or sorceress at all, and the twists came out of nowhere. The romance between the two was a bit sudden and not well introduced. The ending was unsatisfying and hand wavy, and I didn't understand the moral it was trying to teach.
---
Grave Secrets by Andra Dill
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, ghosts, magic
This story followed the medium Priya and her problematic relationship with the vampire Miles. The writing and basic character development were good, but everything was very shallow and not very satisfying. Experiences that the characters went through were unclear if good or bad, and there was no confirmed HFN.
---
The Beginning by Beth Hale
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: vampires, mercenaries, magic
This story was advertised as book one in the author's new Dixon's Fall series. It followed the vampire mercenary MC Dixon has he was hired to guard the witch princess Ophelia that had an unwanted engagement arranged by her power-hungry father. I loved the characters and setup; it was very tantalizing sneak peek. I would be interested in reading the full-length novels.
---
Ain't Love a Witch by L.E. Holloway
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: magic, animal-sidekick, sentient-houses, telepaths, vampires
This story was a sneak peek of book two of the author's new Witch for Hire series. It was a great introduction to the witch FMC Amelia and her hectic life away from her overbearing and evil family. I would love to check out full books if they're ever released.
---
Heresy by Ever Avarice
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, magic, animal-sidekicks, necromancers
This story followed the witch FMC Audrina as she was sent off to marry the vampire Sebastian due to unexplained family history. There were typos with randomly inserted and uncapitalized words. Nothing about their arranged situation was explained. The physical abuse and non-consensual intimacy was not sexy. The plot jumped from place to place, and it was hard to follow. This writing sample does not encourage me to check out the rest of the author's work.
---
Fire & Fangs by Faedra Rose
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: phoenixes, vampires, shifters, magic, fae, m-m-romance
This story followed the last phoenix/fae shifter MC Farren as he was just reborn and encountered the ancient vampire MC Daevos in a nearby forest. It was interesting premise, but the romance was dry and clinical. It had insta-love and insta-lust to the max with fated mates and was a very surface-level relationship.
---
City Girl Watching by Kat Parrish
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: magic, vampires, hunters, telepaths, ghouls
This story was book one of the author's Hawk & Swann series and followed the witch MC Muriel as she inherited the coven leader position and tried to solve her mother's murder. In the process, she had to work with the local vampire leader Sebastian.
There were so many typos - uncapitalized words, using "hear" instead of "here," missing quotations around dialogue, and even pages/sections missing? People appeared in scenes without being introduced, and it was super confusing and hard to follow. Overall, there was lots of telling that made the storytelling very dry. While the world was interesting, I don't think I'm interested in checking out more of the author's writing based on this poorly-edited sample.
---
The Last Petal Falls by E.J. Powell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: magic, gargoyles, fairy-tales, retelling
DNF at Chapter 9 of 20 when the Beast helps Bella recover from her fainting spell due to lack of eating.
This story was book one in the author's Twisted Pages series. It was a retelling of the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, and followed the FMC Ravonette (Bella) after her village was burned down for an unexplained reason (at least to the point where I stopped reading). Ravonette found a witch in the magical forest that claimed to be able to bring back her family if she could get a sacred magic rose back from the Beast.
Seemed to be heavily inspired by Disney version of fairy tale with the description of beast, location of rose and its container, brutish interactions, love of books etc. TSTL naive FMC was too much and personalities were all too shallow.
---
Blacknight Academy by Karine Saint Jacques
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: academy, vampires, magic, new-adult
DNF in middle of Chapter 2 of 5.
This story followed the witch FMC Blakely as she was forced to attend a new coed vampire-wizard school in an attempt to encourage positive relations between the two species.
The immature bullying from the prince of the school, Arthur Blacknight, wsa very juvenile, and his threat to fuck her was totally not my cup of tea. The "irresistible" insta-lust was also something that I was not interested in.
---
We Dance at Midnight by Natillie Painter
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, f-f-romance, magic
This story was advertised as a Club Knox Tale and seemed to be a sneak peek that followed the female vampire Animay coming across another vampire Guiles in a bar who was struggling to survive without his Renfield master as he had killed her. A whirlwind of scenes then occurred before the story ended abruptly with the words "To Be Continued." Nothing much was explained with regards to witches and vampires in the world at all, and nothing was resolved with Animay's unexplained duties or Guiles' unexplained future life with the vampire clan he found. Based solely on this writing sample, I am not interested in reading more from the series.
Overall, I found the anthology easy to read, but I was really only interested in exploring more from a couple of authors and series. Quite a few stories had editing issues and were poor samples of the author's works if they usually weren't so typo-ridden.
---
Far-Seer's Gamble by J.A. Cummings
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: demons, magic, vampires, clairvoyants
This short story was a part of the author's series Catarain Chronicles that followed the clairvoyant witch FMC Sibela as she traveled to warn the vampire prince Daxon of a serious danger. It had an interesting world and overarching plot, but wasn't it fully resolved by the time the story ended. The insta-love capitulation was a little unsatisfying, and mates were suddenly thrown in with no warning. I am undecided if I want to explore the rest of the series.
---
Moth's Beacon by Beth W. Patterson
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: magic, amnesia, shifter, animal-sidekicks, vampires, f-f-romance, gods
This was a novella that followed two FMCs - a bat-shapeshifting vampire Amaryllis and an amnesiac author-sorceress Shayla with a moth familiar. Nothing from the characters to their backstory or world was explained gradually but info dumped. I didn't understand the features of a vampire or sorceress at all, and the twists came out of nowhere. The romance between the two was a bit sudden and not well introduced. The ending was unsatisfying and hand wavy, and I didn't understand the moral it was trying to teach.
---
Grave Secrets by Andra Dill
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, ghosts, magic
This story followed the medium Priya and her problematic relationship with the vampire Miles. The writing and basic character development were good, but everything was very shallow and not very satisfying. Experiences that the characters went through were unclear if good or bad, and there was no confirmed HFN.
---
The Beginning by Beth Hale
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: vampires, mercenaries, magic
This story was advertised as book one in the author's new Dixon's Fall series. It followed the vampire mercenary MC Dixon has he was hired to guard the witch princess Ophelia that had an unwanted engagement arranged by her power-hungry father. I loved the characters and setup; it was very tantalizing sneak peek. I would be interested in reading the full-length novels.
---
Ain't Love a Witch by L.E. Holloway
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: magic, animal-sidekick, sentient-houses, telepaths, vampires
This story was a sneak peek of book two of the author's new Witch for Hire series. It was a great introduction to the witch FMC Amelia and her hectic life away from her overbearing and evil family. I would love to check out full books if they're ever released.
---
Heresy by Ever Avarice
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, magic, animal-sidekicks, necromancers
This story followed the witch FMC Audrina as she was sent off to marry the vampire Sebastian due to unexplained family history. There were typos with randomly inserted and uncapitalized words. Nothing about their arranged situation was explained. The physical abuse and non-consensual intimacy was not sexy. The plot jumped from place to place, and it was hard to follow. This writing sample does not encourage me to check out the rest of the author's work.
---
Fire & Fangs by Faedra Rose
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: phoenixes, vampires, shifters, magic, fae, m-m-romance
This story followed the last phoenix/fae shifter MC Farren as he was just reborn and encountered the ancient vampire MC Daevos in a nearby forest. It was interesting premise, but the romance was dry and clinical. It had insta-love and insta-lust to the max with fated mates and was a very surface-level relationship.
---
City Girl Watching by Kat Parrish
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: magic, vampires, hunters, telepaths, ghouls
This story was book one of the author's Hawk & Swann series and followed the witch MC Muriel as she inherited the coven leader position and tried to solve her mother's murder. In the process, she had to work with the local vampire leader Sebastian.
There were so many typos - uncapitalized words, using "hear" instead of "here," missing quotations around dialogue, and even pages/sections missing? People appeared in scenes without being introduced, and it was super confusing and hard to follow. Overall, there was lots of telling that made the storytelling very dry. While the world was interesting, I don't think I'm interested in checking out more of the author's writing based on this poorly-edited sample.
---
The Last Petal Falls by E.J. Powell
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: magic, gargoyles, fairy-tales, retelling
DNF at Chapter 9 of 20 when the Beast helps Bella recover from her fainting spell due to lack of eating.
This story was book one in the author's Twisted Pages series. It was a retelling of the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, and followed the FMC Ravonette (Bella) after her village was burned down for an unexplained reason (at least to the point where I stopped reading). Ravonette found a witch in the magical forest that claimed to be able to bring back her family if she could get a sacred magic rose back from the Beast.
Seemed to be heavily inspired by Disney version of fairy tale with the description of beast, location of rose and its container, brutish interactions, love of books etc. TSTL naive FMC was too much and personalities were all too shallow.
---
Blacknight Academy by Karine Saint Jacques
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ / DNF
Tags: academy, vampires, magic, new-adult
DNF in middle of Chapter 2 of 5.
This story followed the witch FMC Blakely as she was forced to attend a new coed vampire-wizard school in an attempt to encourage positive relations between the two species.
The immature bullying from the prince of the school, Arthur Blacknight, wsa very juvenile, and his threat to fuck her was totally not my cup of tea. The "irresistible" insta-lust was also something that I was not interested in.
---
We Dance at Midnight by Natillie Painter
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Tags: vampires, f-f-romance, magic
This story was advertised as a Club Knox Tale and seemed to be a sneak peek that followed the female vampire Animay coming across another vampire Guiles in a bar who was struggling to survive without his Renfield master as he had killed her. A whirlwind of scenes then occurred before the story ended abruptly with the words "To Be Continued." Nothing much was explained with regards to witches and vampires in the world at all, and nothing was resolved with Animay's unexplained duties or Guiles' unexplained future life with the vampire clan he found. Based solely on this writing sample, I am not interested in reading more from the series.
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