Thursday, January 12, 2012

ENTHRALLED by MELISSA MARR and KELLEY ARMSTRONG

Title:   Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions
Authors:   Multiple
Editors:   Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong
Pub./Pub. Date:   HarperCollins/September 20, 2011
Print:   443 Pages


A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between duty and desire.


Sixteen of today’s hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new land-scapes and characters. But whether they’re writing about vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and resilience of the human heart.


Suspenseful, funny, or romantic, the stories in Enthralled will leave you moved.



THE FAERYS VIEW


Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions edited by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr was such a treasure! So many terrific authors doing what they do best and it’s all rolled into one fantastic book that was so very difficult to put down. Can you say: Wonderful Writers Writing Wondrously 10 times? C’mon I dare ya! Whether you can say it or not, that’s what you’ll get!


Every author presented a short story; many based on previous characters from their novels/series while others deviated away and offered up something a bit different. Either way, there’s something here for everyone! In fact, I’d bet my sparkly Faery wings that there’s enough to keep each reader more than delighted with the awesomeness of Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions.


Giovanni’s Farewell by Claudia Gray - is about twins Cairo and Ravenna who are on a trip to Rome. When something happens to one of the twins, the other doesn’t believe until something makes a believer out of them. This is a wonderful ghost story and I loved the dynamics between the twins.


Scenic Route by Carrie Ryan – Carrie sets the scene for two sisters trying to survive a world taken over by zombies while adding a complex love interest! It’s no secret that I’m a zombie lovin’ fool!


Red Run by Kami Garcia – I’ve never been a fan of ghost story’s until the last 6 months or so. Red Run is another reason why my opinion of them has changed. This is a fantastic ghost story set in the south that is full of intrigue, mystery and sent chills up my spine-throw in a local urban legend and I’m in love! I truly hope that Kami expands on this story-it’d be a best seller!


Things About Love by Jackson Pearce – I am probably the last person to jump on the Jackson Pearce train but when I did, it was a one way trip! I couldn’t stop reading her work until I’ve absorbed everything she’s written. Things About Love is kind of a companion to As You Wish and the Jinn mythology. In this ‘Sweetly’ romantic story, a Jinn wants to learn about love and believes it can be done with one single kiss!


Niederwald by Rachel Vincent – Sabine and Emma from The Soul Screamers series are featured in this short story. Emma and Sabine go off together for a project or so Emma thinks but Sabine is really off to Niederwald to see an Oracle and the next thing Emma knows there’s Harpies and chaos… If you haven’t read The Soul Screamers series by Rachel yet, I highly recommend that you do!


Merely Mortal by Melissa Marr – The Wicked Lovely series characters, Donia and Keenan are going on a vacation. I’ll leave it at that for those who haven’t finished Darkest Mercy yet!


Facing Facts by Kelley Armstrong – This one comes from The Darkest Powers series which is another series I adore! Chloe, Derek and Tori are fantastic characters; In this short story, Derek’s character opens up a bit, Chloe gets into trouble (of course!) but shows her courage and Tori discovers a shocking family secret.


Let’s Get This Undead Show on the Road by Sarah Rees Brennan – This was the most humorous of all the stories! I’ve never read anything by Sarah but I will now. This one is about a rockin’ Vamp named Chris and his rather interesting band. Chris has his share of troubles-he doesn’t like being a vamp, nobody likes him all that much and he really doesn’t even like being in the band but when he and his band are kidnapped all of that changes!


Bridge by Jeri Smith-Ready - From Jeri’s Shift/Shade books, this is written in verse from Logan’s point of view to his brother, Mickey. It makes sense that it would be in verse since Logan was an amazing song-writer and this was his way of communicating to Mickey. The brothers were extremely close and the guilt, grief and depression that Mickey is feeling over Logan’s death are destroying him. It’s just written in such a beautiful way; both brothers feelings are exposed and raw, I’m not embarrassed to admit that more than a few tissues were used.


Automatic by Rachel Caine - I love the Morganville Vampires and bringing Michael, Eve and Oliver together in this scenario was a great story.


Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions brought together a group of talented authors and offered fantastic stories of both well-known characters and some new ones; each story was unique and entertaining, not one story in the book was disappointing enough that I didn’t finish it. In fact, almost every story was like coming home to me. I knew many of the authors work and many of the characters that were written about, I couldn’t have asked for a better anthology!


THE FAERY SAYS: CHECK IT OUT! I LOVED IT, I BET YOU WILL, TOO!

7 comments:

  1. I have this on my bookshelf waiting to be read. Thanks for the review!



    Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
    bookluvrmindy

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  2. Oh I am so getting this one. I really enjoy anthologies and with the caliber of authors and your review of the stories, this looks so good!

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  3. Oh sweetie, I have this one on my want list. :) Sounds wonderful! So glad to hear you enjoyed this one, and to learn a little bit about each book. :) Thank you!

    I do hope you are doing well. Take care. *hugs*

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  4. OMG! That is an amazing list of authors in one anthology. I'm gonna have to try this one because there are some authors whose work I've been meaning to try but haven't had a chance to yet. I love that feeling of being reunited with characters you've grown to love. Glad you got a bit of that with this collection.

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  5. While I haven't been impressed by many of the UF or PNR books that I've tried I have found that I've enjoyed short stories by those same authors, so I think this would be a book I'd enjoy.

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  6. Oooh I was wondering about this one!!! I'm not usually a fan of anthologies... But with that list I bet I would be!!

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  7. I've been eyeballing this one for a long time - so glad to hear there were so many great stories. I already love a lot of the authors and love discovering new ones as well!
    - Jessica @ Book Sake

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