dollycas's review
4.0
Dollycas’s Thoughts
I was excited to get this because Lizbeth Lipperman is one of my favorite authors and her short story, Sweepers, was excellent but I want more. I want to know how MacKenzie deals with the trauma she has endured. I hope there is continuing story in the works.
I also really enjoyed Heartless by Tiffany Helmer. Roxie was quite a character and meeting up again with her crush from high school made for a very interesting story.
Some of the other stories were just not “my cup of tea”. Vampires and Dragonkind warriors are not my thing. But I found six of the eight stories enjoyable.
hstone's review
3.0
Since this is an anthology, I decided I'd rate all of the stories independently of one another. In an effort to give as honest a review as possible, I tried to be clear and concise about what I did and didn't like. Disclaimer: I am a tough reader.
HEARTLESS (4.5 stars): Tied with Unforgiven for my favorite story in the anthology, and a great choice to begin the collection. I liked the premise, which could easily have been mishandled, but wasn't. The writing was solid, the pacing good, and I found the main character, Roxie, to be the most relatable out of all the female characters in the anthology. She was interesting without being a cliche, and I liked her character arc, growing out of a place anger into someone more content and renewed. There is some suspension of belief necessary with the relationship, at least for me, given how quickly it progresses, but due to this being only a short story, I'm willing to forgive the haste. Fun, sweet, and sexy. A nice Valentine's Day read.
TANTRABOBUS (3 stars): I'm going to have to agree with one of the other reviewers on this one: the story was just so-so for me. I enjoyed the paranormal aspects to it, but couldn't really connect to the characters in the brief context of the narrative. I'd probably enjoy a longer story from this author.
JUST A LIE (2.5 stars): To be honest, I forgot about this one until I saw it in the table of contents section just now; it just wasn't very memorable. It had some interesting aspects to it, like the murder investigation, and the characters held my attention, but ultimately I felt the story ended prematurely and without any satisfying emotional resolution.
UNFORGIVEN (5 stars): Drool-worthy prose. Normally I would be skeptical of such heavy descriptive writing, but in the context of the setting and the narrator being a vampire, it really, really works. Every scene drips with sensuality, perfectly conveying the hunger and desperation of the main character. Speaking of the main character, I found her likable despite not fitting a moralistic vision of "good". The historical backdrop is just icing on an already delicious cake. One of the best pieces of vampire fiction I've read in a long time. I'd be up for reading more from this author.
SWEEPERS: A KISS TO DIE FOR (2 stars): This one was a downer, and kind of left me scratching my head by the end. The story lacked a certain verisimilitude, although I'm having trouble putting my finger on why that was precisely. I also felt like Petrovic's disguise was a breach of the principle of Chekov's Gun; when it was introduced, I assumed it would play a more significant role in the story than it ultimately did. It's a small issue, but one that contributed to that feeling of narrative artificiality. Your mileage may vary on this one.
SALT AND WATER (4 stars): A solid story that stands on its own. I'm amazed at how the author was able to create such a complete and well-envisioned world in such a short amount of textual space, and it definitely works to the advantage of the narrative. Plus, if you're sensitive to the explicit content in the other stories, this one is cleaner, with only subtle nods toward any violence and sexual content. My only issue was that this tale felt a little out of place compared to the others, given that (in my opinion) the story didn't deal with romantic love so much as with friendship and common humanity. I know there was supposed to be something romantic between Chellis and Ahad-dian, but to me it came across as more platonic than anything else. Which is perfectly fine! Just, as I said, different from the rest of the anthology. Still, one of the better written in the collection, and if you like fantasy, this one's definitely for you.
FURY OF FATE (1 star): I've gathered from other reviews that Ivar is a character from another book series, but as I haven't read any of them, I can't speak to whether that affects one's reading of this piece. As a standalone, it wasn't enjoyable for me. Neither character felt fleshed out, and the whole She's Not Like Other Girls trope which surfaces during Ivar and Sasha's sexcapades is something I feel is overdone, not only in the romance genre but generally speaking in fiction. My biggest issue, however, was with the writing itself. I felt like I was reading exposition half of the time, while the other half was spent wading through rambling inner monologue. Essentially, FoF is porn without plot. Not my cup of tea.
THE TRUE LOVE OF SHERRY PAPERS (1 star): Began very saccharine and then took a very strange tone shift near the end. Another author who focused too much on telling and not enough on showing, throwing in huge expository paragraphs. Didn't care for the narrator, especially as she raged against Nick's ex-girlfriend, referring to her as a skank and a slut, while constantly casting herself in the light of a saint. No, thank you. Nor was Nick a very compelling or sympathetic character. Slow read right up until the conclusion. If the purpose of the story was to showcase Sherry as an unreliable narrator, then it succeeds there; by the end, you definitely get the sense that Sherry is unhinged. But overall, it takes too long to get to the point.
For the entire anthology, I'm giving it 3 stars. Worth the ebook price for the 4 stars-and-up stories.
HEARTLESS (4.5 stars): Tied with Unforgiven for my favorite story in the anthology, and a great choice to begin the collection. I liked the premise, which could easily have been mishandled, but wasn't. The writing was solid, the pacing good, and I found the main character, Roxie, to be the most relatable out of all the female characters in the anthology. She was interesting without being a cliche, and I liked her character arc, growing out of a place anger into someone more content and renewed. There is some suspension of belief necessary with the relationship, at least for me, given how quickly it progresses, but due to this being only a short story, I'm willing to forgive the haste. Fun, sweet, and sexy. A nice Valentine's Day read.
TANTRABOBUS (3 stars): I'm going to have to agree with one of the other reviewers on this one: the story was just so-so for me. I enjoyed the paranormal aspects to it, but couldn't really connect to the characters in the brief context of the narrative. I'd probably enjoy a longer story from this author.
JUST A LIE (2.5 stars): To be honest, I forgot about this one until I saw it in the table of contents section just now; it just wasn't very memorable. It had some interesting aspects to it, like the murder investigation, and the characters held my attention, but ultimately I felt the story ended prematurely and without any satisfying emotional resolution.
UNFORGIVEN (5 stars): Drool-worthy prose. Normally I would be skeptical of such heavy descriptive writing, but in the context of the setting and the narrator being a vampire, it really, really works. Every scene drips with sensuality, perfectly conveying the hunger and desperation of the main character. Speaking of the main character, I found her likable despite not fitting a moralistic vision of "good". The historical backdrop is just icing on an already delicious cake. One of the best pieces of vampire fiction I've read in a long time. I'd be up for reading more from this author.
SWEEPERS: A KISS TO DIE FOR (2 stars): This one was a downer, and kind of left me scratching my head by the end. The story lacked a certain verisimilitude, although I'm having trouble putting my finger on why that was precisely. I also felt like Petrovic's disguise was a breach of the principle of Chekov's Gun; when it was introduced, I assumed it would play a more significant role in the story than it ultimately did. It's a small issue, but one that contributed to that feeling of narrative artificiality. Your mileage may vary on this one.
SALT AND WATER (4 stars): A solid story that stands on its own. I'm amazed at how the author was able to create such a complete and well-envisioned world in such a short amount of textual space, and it definitely works to the advantage of the narrative. Plus, if you're sensitive to the explicit content in the other stories, this one is cleaner, with only subtle nods toward any violence and sexual content. My only issue was that this tale felt a little out of place compared to the others, given that (in my opinion) the story didn't deal with romantic love so much as with friendship and common humanity. I know there was supposed to be something romantic between Chellis and Ahad-dian, but to me it came across as more platonic than anything else. Which is perfectly fine! Just, as I said, different from the rest of the anthology. Still, one of the better written in the collection, and if you like fantasy, this one's definitely for you.
FURY OF FATE (1 star): I've gathered from other reviews that Ivar is a character from another book series, but as I haven't read any of them, I can't speak to whether that affects one's reading of this piece. As a standalone, it wasn't enjoyable for me. Neither character felt fleshed out, and the whole She's Not Like Other Girls trope which surfaces during Ivar and Sasha's sexcapades is something I feel is overdone, not only in the romance genre but generally speaking in fiction. My biggest issue, however, was with the writing itself. I felt like I was reading exposition half of the time, while the other half was spent wading through rambling inner monologue. Essentially, FoF is porn without plot. Not my cup of tea.
THE TRUE LOVE OF SHERRY PAPERS (1 star): Began very saccharine and then took a very strange tone shift near the end. Another author who focused too much on telling and not enough on showing, throwing in huge expository paragraphs. Didn't care for the narrator, especially as she raged against Nick's ex-girlfriend, referring to her as a skank and a slut, while constantly casting herself in the light of a saint. No, thank you. Nor was Nick a very compelling or sympathetic character. Slow read right up until the conclusion. If the purpose of the story was to showcase Sherry as an unreliable narrator, then it succeeds there; by the end, you definitely get the sense that Sherry is unhinged. But overall, it takes too long to get to the point.
For the entire anthology, I'm giving it 3 stars. Worth the ebook price for the 4 stars-and-up stories.
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