Customer Reviews

Dead After Dark

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I bought this book for Fury's story and I was really disappointed. I couldn't stand Angelia and how quickly Fury forgave her just didn't seem right. The only redeeming thing about this story were the secondary characters....Bride, Vane and Zarek primarily but all the other wolves were great also. Like another reviewer stated already it seems like the heroines are becoming more unlikable as the series goes on.
"The Story of Son" was the best one out of the four.

The four stories in this collection are all highly entertaining. The best of the best is J.R. Ward's "The Story of Son." It's not part of her Black Dagger Brotherhood storyline, but it's excellent, with a truly engaging heroine and a darkly romantic, tragic hero, a bit like Z in the Brotherhood. (And he's my favorite.) This is the first I've read from the other authors, but I'll certainly be wanting more in the future thanks to this introduction. All of the stories could be themed "They came from different worlds." Very spicy, very diverse tales, all very good.

While JR's story was the best of the lot, neither story was really good. All the stories in this book suffered from one major problem. They were all too short. And as a result, they suffered. The plots were uninspired, the characters not "fleshed-out" and the storylines were dry. In other words, this book is a complete waste of time and money. Read at your own peril.

I usually don't care for short stories, but stories by 2 of my favorite authors (Ward and Kenyon) featured in this book so thought I would give it a try. Ward's story is very much inline with her BDB series and was a sweet, romantic short story even if there was no depth to it. Surprisingly, Kenyon's story of Fury was horribley disappointing. Fury and Angelina as a couple? Not at all beleiveable and NO romance whatsoever. Squire's story was the first of anything I have read by her. It was nothing great, but an ok short story. Love's story was just as awful as the one other book by her that I have read. No shocker there. In summary, if you can borrow this book do so as Ward and Squire write good shorts. Don't waste your money buying it.as torn.

1. Shadow of the Moon by S. Kenyon. Any fan of Kenyon's will know Fury, the wolf brother of Vane from Night Play. Here he finds his mate, and he had, as promised by Acheron, "already met her". I loved Fury, but Angelia was one of my least favorite Kenyon heroines. But it was pretty good and worth the read. Plus you get to see a little of some of your other favorite characters. (Side note on Kenyon's Dark Hunter series, which I started from the beginning after reading this short. It's a series I mostly enjoyed; however, it is quite formulaic. I stopped after Acheron (the 13th book), the first half of which made me ill due to the amount of abuse and molestation suffered by the character. But all in all, it is a good series of inter-related characters and romances, and I have recommended them to other fantasy fans. I also tell them where I stopped and advise not to read too many in a row.)
2. The Story of Son by J.R. Ward. I've never read any other Ward stories or books, but I really enjoyed this short, and it makes me want to read more by this author. The heroine was modern, smart and kick ass in her own way (she actually reminded me of a friend, also an attorney). The hero had a wounded past, but was a kind-hearted character. A bit unbelievable that he didn't have any bitterness, but then again, he was terribly insecure and there wouldn't have been much time to successfully negate such bitterness in a short story.
3. Beyond the Night by S. Squires. Also an author I'm not familiar with, but I liked the story. The idea that female vampires are used as sexual energy trainers to help male vampires harness their powers was not appealing to me though (so I probably won't bother looking at this author's books). But with that aspect removed, the story had nice romance elements as well as some decent sex scenes.
4. Midnight Kiss Goodbye by D. Love. I did not like this story at all, nor did I care about the characters. I will not bother looking for more from this author. Maybe it was just a bad short and she's good normally, but I've "discovered" some of my favorite authors by reading one of their shorts. Authors should really be careful when submitting a short. I know many other readers like myself who use these as samples and base our next series reads on them.

Two stories out of the four were awesome. J.R. Ward her usual incredible self. She has always had an ability to transport you to the world she writes about no matter how short the story.

In may opinion JR Ward story is the best and that is where my 5 stars goes.