Things Heat Up in This Smokin' Anthology

Burning Up

Meljean Brook, Virginia Kantra, Angela Knight, Nalini Singh

Paperback: 368 pages

Publisher: Berkley (Penguin)

August 3, 2010

Level — Adult

Blood and Roses — Angela Knight pairs a vampire warrior and his seductive captor in a battle against demonic predators.
Whisper of Sin — Nalini Singh returns to the world of her Psy-Changeling series as a woman in lethal danger finds an unlikely protector-and lover.
Shifting Sea — Virginia Kantra continues the haunting tales of the Children of the Sea in her story of a wounded soldier rescued by an enigmatic young woman.
Here There Be Monsters — Meljean Brook launches a bold new steampunk series about a woman who strikes a provocative-and terrifying-bargain for freedom.

 When I won this book I was happy because winning is always fun.  But, I don’t usually like anthologies so for the book itself I felt ambivalent. I get very involved with the characters when I read, and shorts usually leave me unsatisfied. I also feel that often the plot is rushed. I hadn’t read any of the writers, so I didn’t know if the four stories would be fine fare or dreck.

I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed reading each of these stories. I’ve been trying to decide which is my favorite and it’s pretty close:

I loved the fairy tale fantasy nature of Blood Rose, although I found the ending a bit pat. But I loved the relationship between Amaris and Raniero as she learned she could trust him. There were some very hot moments, some intense fighting, and a very interesting vampire origin.

Whisper of Sin was interesting in that it involved a close-knit Chinese family in the Psy-changeling series.  Were-leopards are very cool, and Emmet is a very protective were indeed. I really enjoyed Nalini Singh’s writing and will definitely welcome her into my To-Be-Reads. I would have liked a wee bit more backstory as the reader of an anthology shouldn’t be expected to be up on the rules and terms of the author’s world.

Shifting Sea was a bit Jane Austen and a bit of a darker Gulliver’s travels. I liked the two beings attracted to each other in an enigmatic way. The marketing copy is a bit misleading. Morwenna does save Jack but it’s not the most important thing in the story. The writer does an excellent job projecting the period and the feel of the seashore.

I loved Meljean Brook’s Steampunk world in Here Be Dragons. It was a very complete world set so strangely in the mores of Britain’s past. But this also feels like a post-apocalyptic world still dystopian and seemingly without rule of law and with plenty of villains. The love story starts quite mysteriously, and doesn’t get off on a good footing. I loved the various mechanical attachments and the creatures that the “Horde,” the major bad guys in the story invented. Very hot from the first tease to the consummation Okay, maybe this was my favorite story.

So, this was a great anthology and I would recommend it without reservation and even try to persuade you to read it.