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A review by adelebuck
Sight Unseen: A Collection of Five Anonymous Novellas by Emma Barry, J.A. Rock, Erin Satie, Sherry Thomas, Meredith Duran
3.0
Sight Unseen is an ambitious, exciting project. Five well-known romance authors with established reputations and readers (who also have established expectations of their work) each write a novella that stretches them outside their comfort zone, or into a new subgenre.
The trick is, that for three months after the anthology's official release, all the novellas' author names are a secret. Think you know a particular author (or all of them) so well that you can pick their work out of a line-up even if their name isn't on it? Good luck.
Overall, this was one of the better anthologies I've ever read. I don't read a lot of them, because I find that they are frequently populated with stories that would have been better served if they had been allowed to stretch and breathe into at least a category-length romance. That was certainly true of three out of the five. However, the quality of the writing and the ideas in the stories made this collection much more enjoyable.
"Lost that Feeling," a fantasy romance with an interesting take on the amnesia trope, had wonderful world-building. I found the bond between the hero and heroine to be tenuous, though. And the ending was rushed. This was a romance that didn't feel like a romance until the last few paragraphs.
"A Clear View of You" is another fantasy - urban fantasy this time. There was almost too much packed in here. Mother/daughter relationships, learning about the existence of fae, bonds with nature...too much story in too little space. The romance was interwoven more organically into this story, however.
"Free" was my hands-down favorite out of all of these stories. Set in a small town, with a heroine who was a believable small-town tough girl heroine (I grew up in a small town and I've known girls like Wren). A hero who is the accountant to a biker gang (no lie - sounds like crack, but no. It just works). Just enough story to fill the space (and the only explicit one in the bunch)
"Chariot of Desire" - it took me a bit of time to figure out when this was set - the story ends up telling you (early to mid 80's). It features a band that made it big in the 70's with cock rock, but is now playing smaller gigs and trying to find its way now that the lead singer has found God (or a cult) and won't sing those old songs again. A friends-to-lovers tale about him and his drummer, this was another one that could have used a bit more space. Not even necessarily a full short novel. But the ending felt rushed.
"The Heart is a Universe" is a science fiction love story with a 16 day expiration date. I won't spoil it, but this was the one that I liked second best. Like "Free" it actually fit the space it was allotted. It's the only one I even have a guess about the author based on the ambitious puzzle-like quality of the conceit. I won't spoil the story itself, because its fascinating to see it play out, but I think this might be the Sherry Thomas novella.
Despite my criticisms of anthologies in general and this one specifically, I enjoyed it and would recommend it, especially to people who are interested in sampling a bunch of sub-genres in a small package.
I received an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.
The trick is, that for three months after the anthology's official release, all the novellas' author names are a secret. Think you know a particular author (or all of them) so well that you can pick their work out of a line-up even if their name isn't on it? Good luck.
Overall, this was one of the better anthologies I've ever read. I don't read a lot of them, because I find that they are frequently populated with stories that would have been better served if they had been allowed to stretch and breathe into at least a category-length romance. That was certainly true of three out of the five. However, the quality of the writing and the ideas in the stories made this collection much more enjoyable.
"Lost that Feeling," a fantasy romance with an interesting take on the amnesia trope, had wonderful world-building. I found the bond between the hero and heroine to be tenuous, though. And the ending was rushed. This was a romance that didn't feel like a romance until the last few paragraphs.
"A Clear View of You" is another fantasy - urban fantasy this time. There was almost too much packed in here. Mother/daughter relationships, learning about the existence of fae, bonds with nature...too much story in too little space. The romance was interwoven more organically into this story, however.
"Free" was my hands-down favorite out of all of these stories. Set in a small town, with a heroine who was a believable small-town tough girl heroine (I grew up in a small town and I've known girls like Wren). A hero who is the accountant to a biker gang (no lie - sounds like crack, but no. It just works). Just enough story to fill the space (and the only explicit one in the bunch)
"Chariot of Desire" - it took me a bit of time to figure out when this was set - the story ends up telling you (early to mid 80's). It features a band that made it big in the 70's with cock rock, but is now playing smaller gigs and trying to find its way now that the lead singer has found God (or a cult) and won't sing those old songs again. A friends-to-lovers tale about him and his drummer, this was another one that could have used a bit more space. Not even necessarily a full short novel. But the ending felt rushed.
"The Heart is a Universe" is a science fiction love story with a 16 day expiration date. I won't spoil it, but this was the one that I liked second best. Like "Free" it actually fit the space it was allotted. It's the only one I even have a guess about the author based on the ambitious puzzle-like quality of the conceit. I won't spoil the story itself, because its fascinating to see it play out, but I think this might be the Sherry Thomas novella.
Despite my criticisms of anthologies in general and this one specifically, I enjoyed it and would recommend it, especially to people who are interested in sampling a bunch of sub-genres in a small package.
I received an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.