Customer Reviews

Charming the Snake

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Ms. Davidson is the headline on this futuristic anthology that was entertaining. Still, with this said, Ms. Davidson's contributuion was shorter than short...was a continuation to a story that I haven't read...and was unsatisfiying for this reader.

Melissa Schroeder's "Seducing the Saint" was a story about two people getting a chance to get it right the second time around...while looking for Libby's dad who is looking for the legend of the Snake King. This trip though will be more than either Libby or Brady dreamed it could be.

Camille Anthony's story "Carte Blanche" is a debut effort and my favorite out of the three. Chastity lives a life of privilage and has to marry. She won't go quietly giving her heart to any man. But than again Darian isn't just "any man."

Again this was an entertaining read. My only complaint...Ms. Davidson's read was less than satisfying. In fact it was the shortes of the three. All three offer fun futuristic backdrops, and of course plenty of steamy chemistry between the main characters. Overall, I wouldn't buy this book simply because of the headline author...but I wouldn't recommend that you skip it either. Bottom line. This is an easy read that is portable.

Seducing the Saint by Melissa Schroeder is the only reason to buy this book. Her story has heart and soul. The characters are 3 dimensional and wonderfully quirky. Saint and Libby are old friends and old lovers. Libby needs Saint to help find her father who has disappeared searching for a famous emerald. The journey takes them to another planet, they meet strange people with even stranger customs. They learn about the people they are now rather than the people they were, along the way and discover that the old feelings are still there. The story was hot but still had heart.

The story by Mary Janice Davidson was very unsatisfying. It was too short, only 49 pages. It has a beginning and an end, but no middle, nothing in it to make us care about the characters. It was a continuation of one of her previous stories but one I hadn't read, so I could not really relate or get into this one before it was over.

Camille Anthony's story was also unsatisfying to this reader. I like hot reads, but I like them to have a story too. This one was mostly just sex with little story. The end ties things up, but you are told what every thing was about rather than seeing it happen. The only thing we saw was the sex and after the first couple times, it was old. I wanted to know the characters and wasn't given the chance.

If you're like me and you bought the book based on MaryJanice Davidson's name, you've got a treat in store, because the other two reads are just as much fun. I've been a fan of MJ's writing for years so, of course, this was an auto-buy for me. The big surprise was finding out that I liked the other two stories just as much.

Melissa Schroeder writes with a light hand and a deceptively smooth style. You're laughing along with the heroine and sympathizing with her urge to crown Brady so much that the heat sneaks up on you. When she does let loose with a love scene -- look out.

Camille Anthony's story was a total blast, too. Hot, sexy and bristling with energy. Do yourself a favor and pick up Charming the Snake for the Davidson, but stay for the Schroeder and the Anthony.

I have to say I was a little hesitant to purchase this book, at first. I'm not an anthology reader. I prefer to sink my teeth into a good book and hang on for the long haul with the characters. But, that said, I am a HUGE MJD fan, so I had to have it. MaryJanice Davidson's SAVAGE SCAVENGE was a fun albeit short story. I wish there had been more, but SAVAGE SCAVENGE was a delectable read. SEDUCING THE SAINT, truly the meat of the anthology, is written by a new author to me, Melissa Schroeder. I'd not seen her work before, but I will be looking now. This mouth-watering yummy short grabbed my attention. Humor, action, and sensuality all blended together into a perfect mix in SEDUCING THE SAINT. CARTE BLANCHE by Camille Anthony rounded out this power-packed anthology offered by another newcomer I'd not head of Loose Id, LLC. Ms. Anthony's characters Chastity and Dare were very unique and enthralling. All in all, I truly enjoyed this anthology and will not be hesitant to purchase another in the future. If you enjoy short stories with strong characters, lots of laughs, well then, this is the compilation for you!

"Charming the Snake" can be seen as the sequel of "Romance at the Edge: In Other Worlds" because MaryJanice Davidson's novella 'Savage Scavenge' is also set in the Minneapolis of 2072 that MJD first presented in 'Beggarman, Thief'. Dr Gladys Loder is hoodwinked by purple-haired, cherry-eyed mutant Jasper Savage, but it's okay, because she gets to take her own payback... much to Jaz's outrage. Very funny story (too short though), it makes the book worth buying all by itself.

Camille Anthony's 'Carte Blanche' is also pretty good. The background story is not really believable - it seems clumsily tacked together to serve the protagonists' story... and the prologue is so irrelevant, what the heck is it doing there! - but the bumps in Chastity and Darian's relationship make for a good read.

As for 'Seducing the Saint' by Melissa Shroeder... bof. Liberty and Brady are boring, and there is this big build-up about the recluse and savage Funkai with their strange sexual practices but the fall really comes short. This story, you can skip.

This is an three-author collection of alien futures with a too-short, short story by MaryJanice Davidson which is set in a story-line with references to characters first introduced in a previous book's short story. All the characters and the plot are fun, the sex is hotish, and it is over way too quickly. The second short story by Melissa Schroeder found the usual intrepid girl, searching for her father, through dangerous alien jungles with a former lover. Sex-filled plot was predictable, but the story was a good read, albeit with no real surprises. The third story by Camille Anthony was a fun read, with somewhat more depth and story to the characters, but still a little bit simplistic. It did, however, have a bit more plot than the other two efforts, and had some hot scenes.

Nonetheless, few of the people or settings in the three stories were particularly well fleshed-out, with the possible exception of a couple of the background people and setting in the MaryJanice Davidson story, and that might be because we already had met some of them in an earlier story.

All in all, still a fun, very quick read, but not the best from any of the authors. The sexual encounters were just fine, not super hot, but enough to keep one's interest for a while. I wish the ratings included a + and a -...I would prefer to give this book a 3+ rather than a 4, but, why quibble? End result, I don't regret buying the book.

I have to say I was a little hesitant to purchase this book, at first. I'm not an anthology reader. I prefer to sink my teeth into a good book and hang on for the long haul with the characters. But, that said, I am a HUGE MJD fan, so I had to have it. MaryJanice Davidson's SAVAGE SCAVENGE was a fun albeit short story. I wish there had been more, but SAVAGE SCAVENGE was a delectable read. SEDUCING THE SAINT, truly the meat of the anthology, is written by a new author to me, Melissa Schroeder. I'd not seen her work before, but I will be looking now. This mouth-watering yummy short grabbed my attention. Humor, action, and sensuality all blended together into a perfect mix in SEDUCING THE SAINT. CARTE BLANCHE by Camille Anthony rounded out this power-packed anthology offered by another newcomer I'd not head of Loose Id, LLC. Ms. Anthony's characters Chastity and Dare were very unique and enthralling. All in all, I truly enjoyed this anthology and will not be hesitant to purchase another in the future. If you enjoy short stories with strong characters, lots of laughs, well then, this is the compilation for you!

I feel that my readerly trust has been violated. When I pick up a book, I EXPECT it to be better than what my amateur writing group throws out. If it isn't, someone has failed to do their job.

Sadly, the first short story by Mary Janice Davidson, is actually quite good. A clever world, well-expounded and the emphasis is on humor. An obvious sequel/side story, the sort of thing that really ought to be free on an author's website, but good writing nonetheless.

The other two were horrid.

Camille Anthony's "Seducing the Saint" suffered primarily from 1) a setting that was clearly made up as-we-go-along-- pages of "As we all know" and lengthy expositions of things that should have been worked in earlier in the narrative, 2) gratuitous sex using words like "flowing" to describe various bodily fluids 3)cardboard characters whose chemistry is cliche.

Schroeder's "Carte Blanche" was the worst of the lot. Example:

"Heart pounding from the double rev of exertion and fear she exploded around the last corner and skidded to a halt. Lungs laboring, she frantically dragged in enough air to shout 'Father!' as she burst through his bedroom door . . . Beneath one screenless opening, her father lay sprawled, his bloodied chest draped half out of the low marble sash. [What?] ... Recalling a bit of medical trivia, she made sure not to grip [his wrist] with her thumb. A faint, thready beat pulsed against her forefinger and she collapsed in a weak huddle, thankful tears raining down her face."

It-- kinda just goes downhill from there. The protracted sex had dialog like: "Oh, gods! You are so responsive!" "I shall explode!" This is preceded by referring to champagne as "bubbly" and followed by the statement "I'm going to slurp you up."

The setting is supposedly a sci-fi version of regency England, but there are plentiful modernisms thrown in, making the overall effect not a clever melding of disparate worlds, but a garbled mess. There's a bit of a mystery-- who shot the father and why? What really happened between Dare and his family? These questions are answered. In the epilogue. After an inexplicable fade to black during the middle of an action sequence.

Unless you're very easily aroused, (as in, aroused by reading the thesaurus' "sex" entry), you'll probably find yourself cured of all erotic feeling for some time after reading this one.

Loose Id has truly found a smash hit in this all-star anthology. MaryJanice Davidson's wickedly sensational writing again tempts us with the follow up to her Beggarman, Theif in her Savage Scavange. Melissa Schroeder, an author known for her biting wit and ability to weave heafty doses of sexual tension into her tales will caputure the reader with her Seducing The Saint. The third contributing author Cammille Anthony, yet again sweeps her readers away from their worries. For a short time you, me, the reader, are taken away and we can experience a world we never knew.

If you are a fan of one or all three this is a must! It's just a must all around.