Jeanne C. SteinBesprekingen

I tried several times to get into this book over the last few weeks. At first I thought I was fed up with urban fantasies (but then I read Greywalker, so I knew I wasn't). Then I thought it was vampires in general (but then I re-read Once Bitten, Twice Shy and knew I wasn't). Finally I decided that I must just have other things to read that are more pressing, except I don't really. I've had a lot of free time on my hands lately, so I should have had the time if I wanted to really read the book.

So, after finishing Sea of Shadow (for the third time), I sat myself down and told myself to read the book. From what I read on other reviews I was expecting something...different I suppose. Not something worse, or better, but different. Every reviewer is different right?

Unfortunately I found myself disliking the book. Not completely, I did want to know more about the Vampire society that Stein was setting up for the future books and despite myself I was wondering if Anna would have an emotional epiphany about Avery and David sooner rather than later (I like soap operas). The rest falls flat for me. I never quite believed Anna--she felt unreliable at best, admitting to raging hormones and apparently a new sex drive that clouded her 'intense' feelings for her serious boyfriend David whenever Avery was around. The mystery angle confused me and I wanted to stake Avery, a more self-serving man I have yet to read in a novel series!

Anna's apparent infidelity (multiple times) with Avery left a sour taste in my mouth as well. And I didn't even get the sense she did it because she felt like she was drifting from David, or that her feelings had shifted or anything--pretty much Avery came on the scene, Anna waxed poetic about David for a hot second and the next in the bed with Avery. Even after she realized she was being used for whatever reasons. Though even this I couldn't get too worked up about because neither Anna nor David nor Avery seemed to be 'whole' characters. Bits and pieces thrown together with potential that never blossomed.

I wish I had better things to say, but I don't. I will likely give this series another chance with book 2, since sometimes the freshman book in a series is so busy trying to establish itself the book suffers for it, but after that we shall see.

Magic Dreams - Yes!! I love Dali and Jim!! Dali totally nailed the insecure, plain heroine thing for me. I adore the Kate Daniels books and this story was one I was excited to see. A bit of good angst from Dali who thinks she is unattractive and is pining after Jim, who she thinks doesn't even notice her. LOVE THIS STUFF. (4.5 stars)

I'll come back to the other stories later.

Ilona Andrews is one of my favorite authors and the Kate Daniels series is my favorite of all the books that the husband/wife duo write. The writing style is fast paced and engaging and the characters are completely believable despite the fantastical elements that surround all the books. These books are a must read for me and I eagerly devour them and count the months until the next one arrives. I love that despite the occult and romance leanings of these books there is still a generous dose of humor. I highly recommend the Kate Daniels series.

The few reviews I read about this book were quite contradictory and since they picked up my curiosity I went and read it.
One of those reviews was quite negative saying that the plot and the characters were dull and it was clear from the start who was the bad guy that kidnapped David. I don't think it was that clear! Maybe it's just me but, till the bad guy in question was revealed, I still had my doubts about who was the responsible of the kidnapping so I enjoyed the story and, while one can't say it outright differs from the ones on the genre, I particularly like these settings so I'll continue to read about Anna Strong's adventures.

Blood Drive (1/08)
The Watcher (1/08)
Continues to be pretty good.

This was pretty good.

I only read the Ilona Andrews story out of this book - haven't yet read books by any of the other authors, and I didn't feel like reading short stories in worlds I am not yet familiar with. But I enjoyed the story I did read very much.

Ilona Andrews Story: 5/5 The Dali and Jim story we've been waiting for. ;-) Dali is almost my favorite minor character - almost! Worth buying the whole book if you're a Kate Daniels fan!

Yasmine Galenorn Story: 2/5 This isn't an author I'll read. Didn't enjoy the narrator, although I realize she's not the series narrator but I didn't like that character either - what's with all the hubands?!

Allyson James Story: 3/5 Haven't read this series. Definitely a paranormal romance story vs. UF but enjoyable and I did end up buying the first book of this series because of this story.

Jeanne Stein Story: 2/5 Okay story. Nothing that made me want to read more. Didn't really like the world building.

I started reading these because I found a short story from the later part of the series and was intrigued. That short story was much better than this book. I kept reading because I hoped the books would get better, and they do eventually, but there's a lot of bad book between here and there.

The four stories in this anthology are all good, though my personal favorite was Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews. I love everything this team writes, but this story is one of their best. Of the rest I liked the Allyson James story Double Hexed, I have not read anything else by her, but I intend to check out her other books.

A vampire reminiscences about her time with Doc Holiday. Great read! Pulled me right into the story, would have liked more.

Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews - 4
Dali must figure out what is killing Jim before he dies. We learn more about her, her family and another segment of the Kate Daniels world as well as a dragon. Lots of fun moments along with the tension of saving Jim and herself, as well as these two finally getting together.

Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn - 4
Iris's backstory, she was suppose to be the High Priestess, but something happened and she was accused of murder but they couldn't prove it so she was banished and cursed to be barren. She returns to either clear her name or confirm her guilt. Was great to hear Iris's story.

Double Hexed by Allyson James -4
Okay read, Janet and friends are hexed, which traps them in Janet's hotel. No one can enter or leave, and the curse is bringing out the worst in everyone and Murphy's Law is running rampant. I wish I had read the other books in the series before I got to this one, I might have enjoyed it more.

Only read "Magic Dreams". I like the white tigress and it was nice to see Kate's fav. black panther hook up.

Magic Dreams - Yes!! I love Dali and Jim!! Dali totally nailed the insecure, plain heroine thing for me. I adore the Kate Daniels books and this story was one I was excited to see. A bit of good angst from Dali who thinks she is unattractive and is pining after Jim, who she thinks doesn't even notice her. LOVE THIS STUFF. (4.5 stars)

I'll come back to the other stories later.

This is a book of urban fantasy/fantasy stories. I took the book out because I like Ilona Andrews writing. The one story, in the book, Magic Dreams is quite good, focusing on Dani Harriman and Joe Shrapshire. I tried the other three stories and just couldn't get into them. I made more of an effort on one of the three that seemed more promising and stopped halfway through -- just couldn't be bothered with finishing it. Maybe if you were familiar with the those authors other writing, the stories might have been interesting.

I'm a bit disappointed with this book. Anna is a very strong character, but she did some pretty stupid things. The plot was decent though. I liked reading more of how the witches interact in this world. The main thing that annoyed me was the animosity between her and Williams. It got on my nerves and I couldn't decide who I wanted to slap more. Anna resists fully embracing her supernatural side and Williams is very resentful of that. I can't say I enjoyed the ending. I don't like where the story seems to be heading.

Anna Strong used to be a bounty hunter, until the night she is attacked and wakes up as a vampire. Struggling to live in both the human world and the vampire one, Anna hunts for the rogue who turned her and finds herself in a struggle to survive.

I borrowed this book from the library to read on the kindle, because since Sookie ended, I'm looking for a new vampire/witchy type of series to read. As much as I love the genre of paranormal, I don't really read a ton of it. Unfortunately I didn't realize this book jumps in the middle of a bunch of series - anyone who reads my reviews regularly knows that's a personal pet peeve of mine, both with books, and tv/movies. So that dimensions my feelings of the book.

That being said, I did enjoy all of the books, or really shorter shorties within the book. Enough that I will mostly likely read more by the authors, though none of them overwhelmed me so much that I had to get another book by any one of them right now. You can certainly read any of the these stories as a stand alone book, but I felt like I was missing something in each one of these stories.

I only read the Ilona Andrews story as it goes with the Kate Daniels series.

Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels #4.5)
In this one Dali and Jim fight together to bring down a Japanese demon. Dali is not a scary shifter, but she does know her magic. Jim is an alpha and they have always been at odds. That is you know they both like each other but never get together. So therefore I looked forward to reading this book knowing it would finally happen. Interesting mythology and in a way I did not feel like you had to have read the Kate Daniels series to understand the novella. Of course by having read them you would have met these two before and wanted the same thing I wanted. I enjoyed this novella.

Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn (Sisters of the Moon #9.5)
I never ever come across Finnish mythology and here I did. Iris Kuusi is a housesprite from Finland and she is going to the Northlands to find out if she killed someone 600 years ago. Ok I was a bit lost here at times, not really lost, but it was the fact that there have been 9 books in this series about three sisters. And this character who I guess is a minor character there. Also, they would not have had last names that far back and some names in it would not have been used. Still it was interesting in it's rich mythology. There seems to be a lot going on in that world (worlds).

Double Hexed by Allyson James (Stormwalker #3.5)
This one was my favourite because it really made me want to read the series behind it. Janet and her friends are trapped in her hotel because someone has put a hex on it. I found myself wanting to read more about Janet and her dragon lover Mick. Coyote was funny, the vampire seemed nice (when not crazed) and the rest of the cast interesting. It's a world I want to read about and book 1 made it to my wishlist.

Blood Debt by Jeanne C. Stein (Anna Strong Chronicles #6.5)
Yes 6 before this one but I never felt at loss. I got a bit of explanations what Anna was and what she had been through. In this book she stands trail for something she has done. And that made me know about her history. I would definitely be interested in reading her story from book 1. The writing and story was good and I do like kick-ass UF heroines.

Conclusion:
Interesting novellas that made me want to read more about the worlds presented. And as always some better than other.

Anna has finally found happiness and love in her romantic life with her shifter husband Frey. Unfortunately life often delivers the good with the bad and for Anna this means mourning the death of her mother. When Frey and her step son John-John return to the America, Anna decides to stay behind and help her father and niece adjust to their loss.

Someone has been kidnapping young girls and even after the parents pay the ransom the girls are still murdered. This new story goes from something awful to something close to home when Trish's best friend is abducted one day. Deciding that poor Trish has suffered enough loss for someone so young, Anna decides that no matter she is going to find Cecily but to do that she has to enlist the aid of one the world oldest vampires - Vlad. With time quickly running out Anna learns that there's much more to this rash of kidnappings than what the human authorities think.

Anyone new to the Anna Strong Chronicles will really not have a hard time following this story though it is 9.5 in the series. Stein does a good job of telling her story without requiring readers to have a lot of knowledge about her world; however, this means that for longtime readers, there's really not much on offer except the fact that Anna has settled into married life which we knew at the end of Blood Bond. That's not really a lot to offer readers after a three year hiatus, particularly when we were lead to believe that Blood Bond would be the last in the series. I understand that a short story is meant to be a vignette but this just felt shallow particularly given that Anna got her HEA at the end of the last book.

It really is not helped that at least a good portion of the plot is recycled. Once again we were given the specter of vampires seeking to take over the earth and use humans as blood bags and servants. This issue was already settled so the only reason to go over this territory again is perhaps a shortage of ideas on the part of Stein. Fortunately, because this is a short story, it didn't last long enough for me to be completely bored but it reading it was about as exciting as watching we paint beige paint dry bland...bland...bland.

Where Stein did go right was the discussion of France's xenophobia and it's treatment of migrant workers. Given recent world events like the murders at Charlie Hebdo, the Paris attacks, and the UN calling out France for its failure "to curtail the soaring trend of violence, hate and xenophobic speech against foreign communities", the plot line of Anna and the Vampire is at least on point when it comes to current events. The problem is that something this series cannot even remotely begin to be discussed in one book, let alone a short story. It's reductive at best and fails to give the subject matter the seriousness that it deserves. I don't object that Stein went there, I object to the fact it felt like she barely committed to the point she was trying to make, particularly when the last part of the book is filled with Vlad's abdication of power and his declaration of love for Anna.

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Fast read, new things learned but still left thinking that we could have learned a bit more before it was over. Have the third installment requested with the library.

The first person at first threw me off and I was going to give up on the book but it lured me in. The cover I have is different than the one showing here too. Need to check to see if the library has the others in or not. the library does.

I figured out what it was about this book. It didn't require a lot of thinking. Sure there is a mystery but it wasn't difficult to figure out. So just figure out what the author had for the 'why'. There's more to her world, just have to find out what it is.

I tried to get into this book, I really did. I even tried jumping through the book to see if it would catch more of my interest. It didn't. I just found the writing difficult to read, I couldn't find sympathy/empathy/interest in Anna's character. So this is the end of this series for me.

I read Ilona's and Yasmine's stories. Enjoyed learning Iris' story and how they are bringing her forward. Cool side story in Kate's world too.