This anthology contains four stories and I read it because it has an Ilona Andrews story in it form the Kate Daniels series.
The first story is by Nalina Singh. It's Secrets at Midnight.
A young woman discovers that she may be more than just human...
The second story is Magic Steals by Ilona Andrews.
An interrupted date night , turns into an ancient call of duty for Dali, and with the help of her boyfriend, Jim, they discover that a missing person case, is just the tip of the iceberg, of something much more sinister.
The third story is Lucky Charms by Lisa Shearin.
A first day, umm, night on the job, starts out cleaning up another teams mess and by the time dawn breaks, a "simple" snatch and return mission reveals so much more.
The fourth story is by Milla Vane. It's The Beast of Blackmoor.
A young woman is sent on a quest to tame a beast of a man...
Overall these stories were pretty good. I'm not sure but Secrets of Midnight felt like it was from a series of some sort. I was able to get into it, though and it was a decent enough romance.
I love Kate Daniels world and the characters in it. I also love getting to see some of the character stories that can't be covered in a normal novel. It didn't disappoint.
The third should have been titled The Trouble with Leprechauns, not Lucky Charms. This is actually a prequel to a series by Shearin. It definitely felt like that and I verified it on her site. This story gives the reader a nice glance into this world of magic and humans, and the characters are definitely interesting and a bit fun. I'm going to eventually check Shearin's series out.
The final story, The Beast of Blackmoor, appears to be the beginning of a series. One I have no real desire to pursue because even though this was a decent tale, I had trouble delving into this world.
I read a lot of fantasy, so swords and magic are fine with me. That wasn't the issue. I did think it had a tad bit more explicit sex in it, than was "needed". I can overlook that. But if you are going to create a mythos for your world, and from what I can tell, the gods and goddesses are made up, you need to add information for me to understand statements made from the characters that refer to the mythology. Think of it like this, to do addition, I need to know my basic numbers first... To get lost in a world, I need to understand about Vela, and the other gods and goddesses that exist in that world. Otherwise, when a god or goddess is mentioned, I'm a bit confused and pulled out of the story, because I don't know why that god or goddess is mentioned. I can infer to an extent, but I shouldn't have to.
Sorry, if that was a bit long. But overall the anthology is a real good read and worth checking out.
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