Dead After Dark [Mass Market Paperback]

Sherrilyn Kenyon (Author), J.R. Ward (Author), Susan Squires (Author), Dianna Love (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2, 2008

SHERRILYN KENYON-Shadow of the Moon-Angelia has fought her entire life to make herself strong. Now, with her patria under fire, she has to protect her people from Fury and his werewolf clan. Vowing to bring him to justice, Angelia sets out alone-until t

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

With these four tales of paranormal romance, it’s never been hotter to be close to death…

SHERRILYN KENYON

“Shadow of the Moon”

Angelia has fought her entire life to make herself strong. Now, with her patria under fire, she has to protect her people from Fury and his werewolf clan. Vowing to bring him to justice, Angelia sets out alone…until the hunter becomes the hunted, and the only way for her to survive is to trust the very wolf she’s sworn to kill.

J.R. WARD

“The Story of Son”

Claire Stroughton is a beautiful lawyer who would rather spend the night with a legal brief than the man of her dreams. Then a routine client meeting turns dangerous—and deeply sensual—when she is held captive by a gorgeous man with an unworldly hunger…

SUSAN SQUIRES

“Seize the Night”

When Drew Carlowe returns home to win back a lost love, he is quick to dismiss rumors that his estate is haunted by a stunning young ghost...until one passionate encounter leaves him mystified—and aching for more. 

DIANNA LOVE

“Midnight Kiss Goodbye”

Trey McCree possesses an insatiable desire for Sasha Armand—and supernatural powers that could endanger her life as a human. But when they team up to stop an evil warlord, Trey discovers that Sasha can do way more than drive men wild…

About the Author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon has more than fourteen million copies of her books in print, in twenty-nine countries. She is the author of the Dark-Hunter novels, which have an international cult following and have appeared on the top-three lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today.  Writing both as Sherrilyn Kenyon and Kinley MacGregor, she is the author of several other series, including: Lords of Avalon, BAD, and the Dream-Hunter series.

Near Nashville, Tennessee, Sherrilyn Kenyon lives a life of extraordinary danger . . . as does any woman with three sons, a husband, and a collection of swords on which all of the above have a major fixation.

J.R. Ward is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of erotic paranormal romance. She lives in the South with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. After graduating from law school, she began working in healthcare in Boston and spent many years as Chief of Staff of one of the premier academic medical centers in the nation. Writing has always been her passion; her idea of heaven is a whole day of nothing but her computer, her dog, and her coffee pot.

As part of one of many mid-life crises, New York Times bestselling author Susan Squires began writing professionally while still working as an executive at a Fortune 500 company. She  still uses tales of romance and adventure to escape budgets and projects. She researches and writes her books at the beach in Southern California, supported by two Belgian Sheepdogs, a warmblood mare, and a wonderful husband named Harry who writes occult mysteries as H.R. Knight.

Dianna Love loves the outdoors and has a passion for fishing and motorcycle riding. She has even water-skiied, scuba divied, snow-skiied, and skydived. She received a RITA award for Best Long Contemporary in 2006. Dianna lives near Atlanta, Georgia with her husband.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; First Edition edition (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312947984
• ISBN-13: 978-0312947989
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #142,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Anthologies
  • #15 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Anthologies
  • #38 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Anthologies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dead after dark falls 'short' - These Enjoyable Shorts Would Have Made Great Novels, December 9, 2008

By 

melindeeloo (sb,ca) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dead After Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

Dead After Dark is sure to attract a lot of fans with its inclusion of stories by paranomal romance heavyweights J. R. Ward and Sherrilyn Kenyon. Rounding out the author quartet is Dianna Love, Kenyon's writing partner for her B.A.D. series, and Susan Squires who authors a long running vampire series.

My favorite story out of the four stories was "Story of Son" by J. R. Ward, though I have enjoyed her Black Dagger Brotherhood I am not a fangirl (well, not an extreme fangirl), so it wasn't a problem that the story was not connected to that series. Here Ward tells the story of a workaholic lawyer Claire who finds herself kidnapped and trapped with the inhumanly beautiful vampire son of a client. The son has been imprisoned alone in the basement for decades except for three days a year when mom provides a woman to feed upon, this time Claire's dinner. --- I loved Ward's hero, whom Claire names Michael. Michael is beautiful, tragic, shy and vulnerable, and alternately, powerful and dominating as Claire's acceptance stirs his passion in addition to his hunger. The story was both sweet and steamy, and I liked it so well that I went back for a second read. (5 stars)

Also enjoyable was Dianna Love's "Midnight Kiss Goodbye". Trey returns home to find Sasha, the woman he spurned but still loves, in danger from one of his magical enemies. Drew made the difficult decision to leave in order to spare Sasha the burden of his secret magical heritage, but Sasha has her own magical secrets and the attraction between them still burns bright. Now Drew must again choose and this time the fate of the world hangs in the balance, but how can he possibly give Sasha up again? --- Though I do admit that this story was stuffed to the gills with world building, but (mixing my metaphors I know) author Love sows the promising seeds for what I hope is the start of a new series with magical warriors, gods/goddesses and witches. I liked Trey a lot but I definitely want more of Lucien. -- (4 stars)

Susan Squires' "Beyond the Night" - Andrew was framed for a crime as punishment for loving a women above his station, and left to rot on a prison ship, but fate stepped in and Andrew made his fortune as a pirate. Now as the gentleman `Drew' he returns to pursue vengeance. Acquiring a manor for his base of operations, Drew finds his new home haunted, but he is overcome not by fear, but by lust for the bloodsucking ghostly beauty who hides from her past. --- I am not a fan of Squires' `Companion' vampire romances in general, but this one was pretty good, even though the Drew's transition from his lifelong purpose of vengeance to acceptance of eternal love was a bit rushed. (3.5 stars)

"Shadow of the Moon" is Kenyon's story of were hunter wolf Fury - one of Vane's long suffering brothers - who had a significant supporting role in Night Play. When an attack leaves a lion shifter mysteriously trapped in his animal form, Fury sniffs out that the attackers were members of his old clan - including the best friend, Angelia, whose betrayal nearly cost him his life. Having learned his lesson the hard way , Fury has used his sarcastic attitude as protection to keep everyone at a distance, but now the acceptance by his brothers has put a chink in his armor, and memories of the woman he once trusted and loved again put his heart and life in danger. --- I have loved Fury since Night Play - poor Fury, fate really played a cruel joke on him - and it was fun to see old favorites Fang, Bride and Vane,( and Zarek) one more time. Fury himself held up his end of the story here just fine. In fact, the parts with Fury and his sniping verbal games with the Bears at Sanctuary and the bits with Bride and Fury's pack at dinner made the story worth reading for Fury fans. But as far as the story in general and the romance between Fury and Angelia in specific, "Shadow of the Moon" was screaming to be a full length novel. There is a great deal of back-story - for Katagaria (animals that shift to human) and Acadians (humans that shift to animal) and for Fury's family in particular - that even fans may have forgotten. And while Kenyon did do a great job of working Fury up to the peak of disgust for Angelia's ignorance and cruelty, the middle was missing from Fury's reconcilement with Angelia. I never got to the point where I liked Angelia and felt she was worthy of a second chance with Fury and that, along with her abrupt change in attitude and Fury's too easy forgiveness, meant that the story wasn't really satisfying from a romance standpoint. -- For maximum enjoyment read/reread Night Play before reading this one - after reading this the first time I reread Night Play and I enjoyed the story so much more on the second read. (3.5 stars the 1st read, 4 stars the second)

Out of the four stories here, only Ward's was truly satisfying as a short story and romance, the rest of the three had very detailed build-ups but the resolutions felt rushed - Love's and Kenyon's had so much going on in the background that they really needed to be full length novels. Additionally, Squire's (along with Kenyon's) relied on the reader having knowledge of a long running series to understand all that was going on in the story. Overall I enjoyed Dead After Dark, but if you are not a fan of short stories, even if you are a Ward/Kenyon fan, this may not be the anthology to win you over.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great story by Ward, the rest are OK, December 5, 2008

By 

Jackie (Pawleys Island, SC, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead After Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

The stand-out in this anthology was J.R. Ward's contribution, "The Story of Son." That alone was worth the money to me. It's not part of the Black Dagger Brootherhood series, but fits into that world and is written more in the style of the first few books, before Ward started transitioning from romance to urban fantasy.
"The Story of Son" is about a workaholic lawyer, Claire, who pays a home visit to one of her wealthiest clients. The client mentions wanting Claire to meet her son and Claire thinks the old woman is matchmaking. As it turns out the client has something else in mind. Claire is drugged and wakes up in a windowless room with a strange man, who keeps hidden in the shadows. The next thing she knows, he's apologizing and making a meal of her neck. As Claire gets to know the stranger, she finds out he's the vampire son of her human client and has been kept a prisoner in the room for more than 50 years, since he was a young boy. It's almost all he knows. Michael turns out to be kind, smart and handsome, though terribly shy, and it doesn't take long for Claire to fall for him and start planning a way to get them both out of their prison.
Claire is a smart, resourceful heroine and Michael is an endearing, tortured hero.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's contribution is "Shadow of the Moon," Fury's story. Normally, I think Kenyon does short stories very well, but this one didn't live up to my expectations. First off, I really loved Fury in "Night Play," Vane's book, and I'd hoped he'd have a full length novel, so that might have colored my opinion, but he didn't seem to have quite the same prickly, awkward charm he had in other books. As for the heroine, Fury forgave her much more easily than I did. I think this was a story where a lot of character development was needed, but there just wasn't room for it in the space allotted in an anthology. The story has Fury investigating an attack on a pair of katagaria lions when he discovers a woman from his past is behind it. Angelia was his childhood friend, but betrayed him when he needed her most. When Fury takes her prisoner, she starts to question if she did the right thing.

Susan Squires' story, "Seize the Night," is a historical about a young man, Drew Carlowe, who has transformed himself from a groom to a gentleman. He returns home to win back the woman he loved and lost 15 years ago, only to find there may be some truth to rumors that his new estate is haunted by a stunning young ghost with a taste for blood. After a passionate encounter with the mysterious trespasser, he learns what real love is. I'd never read Squires before, but this was a good story and after reading it, I'm interested in reading some of her other works.

The last story, Diana Love's "Midnight Kiss Goodbye," is that of Trey McCree who has long loved Sasha Armand, but keeps his distance because of his dangerous (and supernatural) work. What he doesn't know is that Sasha has a secret of her own. I can't really name a reason why, but I just couldn't get into this story and wound up skimming most of it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not all good, but one was to die for, January 23, 2010

By 

Vixhen "Piggy's Girl" (United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Dead After Dark (Mass Market Paperback)

I enjoyed Sherrilyn Kenyon's story about Fury. Shadow of the Moon had the usual alpha male hero that I so enjoy. However, the Story of Son by J.R. Ward just captured my heart and never let it go! I wanted that story to go on forever. The tortured story of "Michael" was just FABULOUS. I felt the sadness running through him on every page. He wasn't the usual throw you down and ravage you type of man. He was shy, which is so not typical of a vampire, and at some points he was even afraid of Claire. And when he erased her memory to ease her pain of leaving him behind, OMG I was in love with this character. Please, Please, Please - if J.R. Ward could write an entire book just for him - I would be in heaven.