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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.- Mark Overby, August 14, 2008
This review is from: First Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a paranormal anthology containing 4 stories by 4 authors about vampires, demons, werewolves and a few others.
Cave Canem by Suzanne Sizemore - Someone has stolen a hellhound. A vampire enforcer and a witchy werewolf team up to find the dog.
This story is part of a series and I admit to being a little lost and confused at times. It wasn't written so a newbie could easily follow along.
3 Stars
Russian Roulette by Erin McCarthy - Once a vampire slayer, newly turned vampire, Sasha, finds herself in trouble in New Orleans. She is rescued by a vampire named Alistair and together they try to keep Sasha safe.
This is a story that is linked to a series, Vegas Vampires, but written in a way that the reader would not be lost. I am a huge Erin McCarthy fan and I was loving every minute of this story...until the end. The ending was extremely rushed and very anticlimactic.
3 stars
Double the Bite by Chris Marie Green - Trying to find answers to his brothers death, police deputy Ben Tyree finds himself in New York city and at the mercy of two twin vampires, one good and one a little evil.
This is also apparently part of a series, but written in a way that I was not lost at all. A dark and sensuous tale, this sexy book was emotionally deep and very entertaining.
4 stars
Thicker Than Blood by Meljean Brooks - Annie is a vampire and is looking for a missing human child that is in her care. She finds unexpected help from the man she had to leave behind when she was made vampire.
Definitely the highlight of this book, this story was by far my favorite. The characters are well developed and the storyline captivating. Watching Annie come face to face with the human life she had to leave behind was heartbreaking and very real.
5 stars
Erin McCarthy is the reason I bought this book as I have never read anything by the other authors. The book was good, not great, and the last two stories were the best of the bunch, to me. There weren't any stories that I didn't enjoy but like all anthologies definitely stories I enjoyed a lot more than others. This is a decent collection of stories about our blood thirsty friends.
Cherise Everhard, August 2008
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Take a quick trip to the vampire worlds of Brook, Green, Sizemore and McCarthy, August 9, 2008
This review is from: First Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
This quartet of vampire `quickies' take advantage of the authors' established universes. My favorites were the stories by McCarthy and Brook. I admit I might be a bit biased because I follow both McCarthy's Vegas Vamps and Brook's Guardian series, but I thought that they did the best job of telling their stories in the novella length space.
"Cave Canem" - when two Hellhound pups are stolen, Dan, who for centuries has been the protector of the Hellhounds after making a vow to their mother, will need his skills as vampire enforcer to find the pups. Werewolf Tess' duty is also tied to the missing hounds, it is the job of her clan to make sure their full demonic potential is never unleashed on the world. Though at odds on how to resolve the hellhound problem -- at least one of the pups is living up to its evil potential and killing humans and drinking their souls -- Dan and Tess experience an unexpected connection even though werewolves and vampires are normally not attracted to each other and they do not become mates. 3.5 stars - This was an okay story, the hellhound history was interesting though some readers may find it squicky. But Dan and Tess' hookup and a secondary romance worked into the story really would have benefited from a bit more space than what's allotted here. I haven't read Susan Sizemore's Laws of the Blood series, but I suspect that fans may recognise Valentine and Olympias who have cameo roles -- they have the feel of characters that the reader is expected to know -- which will likely make this story more fun for you if you follow the series.
"Russian Roulette" - New Orleans vampire musician and bar owner Alistar, takes a risk to rescue a kidnapped newbie vampire Sasha from certain death. A vampire slayer before her turning, Sasha is slated to be given over to her former allies. Alistar soon discovers that he's not getting any gushing gratitude for his efforts to save Sasha. Sasha has not had a easy or pleasant life and doesn't trust easily but Alistar is a truly nice and decent guy and takes care with this damaged, attractive, intelligent survivor. 4.5 stars - A spin off from Erin McCarthy's Vegas vampire series, I really liked this story. The relationship between the pair is grown nicely and I loved both Sasha and Alistar. But I do wish it had been a bit longer because the extremely short time frame, only two days, is really too short for Alistar to have overcome the weight of Sasha's abusive past.
"Double the Bite" - Disillusioned police detective Ben heads to the Big Apple to try and get closure on the exsanguination murder of his idealized older brother. Ben is haunted by the final image of his dead sibling and the blissful expression so out of sync with the violent death. Ben's search for the killer leads him to twin vampiresses and knowledge of a world that he never expected existed. Ben fascinates the eldest twin Ginny who is drawn to his noble core as she invades his innermost thoughts and he is equally enchanted by her and the dark promise of her bite. But her twin Geneva won't tolerate any one challenging the bond with her sister and Ben may not survive her jealousy. 3 stars - This was my least favorite of the stories. The twins are refugees Green's Vampire Babylon Hollywood and though these books are in my TBR pile I haven't gotten to them yet. I didn't really care for the stereotypic debauchery of the vampires in this universe and the darker undertones of Ben's desire kept me from being pulled into his relationship with Ginny, though I liked the ending.
"Thicker than Blood" - Annie and a Jack were in love and on the verge of being lovers before Annie's death. But Annie didn't stay dead, she became a vampire but her shame with the unavoidable side effects of her blood hunger kept her away from Jack until she follows a stranger that reminds her of her beloved and the broken man actually turns out to be Jack. Jack lost everything when he lost Annie, and now that he has her back he will let nothing neither her bloodlust or the demon who is try to wipe out every vampire in the city keep him from Annie ever again. 4.5 stars - Meljean Brook's Guardian series tie-in was my favorite of the four stories. Her story actually makes the most effective use of this short format mostly because she takes advantage of an established connection between her leads. This one works so well because of the depth of Annie and Jack's previous history and love they already had for each other. I am not sure whether a reader new to the series will pick up on everything that the fans bring to the story, because Annie lets Jack figure out her secrets for himself. Fans will also appreciate the cameos by Lilith and Guardian Jake (who's up next in Demon Bound).
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bloody Boring, June 24, 2009
This review is from: First Blood (Mass Market Paperback)
Before I go any further let me just say that I purchased this anthology because it featured four authors I had not yet read but had an interest in sampling before commiting to buying their series books. I know many other readers purchase anthologies for that same reason and because of that I have given this one a pretty low rating. Why? Because every one of these stories fell into a series that the author already writes without offering enough info about said series to be helpful to someone in my never-read-it-before situation.
Fans of these series will probably love these stories as all were well written and though I've not read these authors outside of other anthologies I feel confident saying these are decent examples of what one can expect in their work.
[CAVE CANEM] by Susan Sizemore is set in the world of her Laws of the Blood series. When a hellhound pup is stolen a vampire and a werewolf partner up to get it back -- I'll admit... after a couple of chapters I had to skim a lot of this one because I didn't understand who the characters were and what was going on half the time. It was intriguing but impossible to enjoy without knowing more about this world/series. 3/5 stars
[RUSSIAN ROULETTE] by Erin McCarthy is a Vegas Vampires tale... set in New Orleans. Sasha Chechikov has had a really unpleasant life made worse by being a newly turned vampire. When she is rescued by Alistair Kirk she's ready to keep on running but her safety depends on his protection. -- I might have liked this one if I had liked the characters even a little bit. They felt one dimensional and that really took away from the story since they spent most of the story dancing around their attraction to one another. 2/5 stars
[DOUBLE THE BITE] by Chris Marie Green is stated to take place in the scope of her Vampire Babylon series. When Ben hits NYC in search of the truth about his brother's mysterious death he tangles with a pair of beautiful twins who seem to know information he needs. Ginny and Geneva might look alike but they give a whole new meaning to the concept of good twin and evil twin. -- I did like the general idea of this story but it was really weak and didn't play out in a fashion that was particularly entertaining. 2/5 stars
[THICKER THAN BLOOD] by Meljean Brook doesn't actually state that it ties into her Guardians series but I'm pretty sure it does loosely as Guardians make a cameo. Annie is a vampire in search of a missing young girl she has sworn to protect but when her need for blood leads her back to the man she deserted six years ago things get more complicated before they get better. -- I liked this one best of the four because it didn't feel as series oriented as the others. I didn't really care for the characters much but the story moved along decently enough I didn't hate it. 3/5 stars
Overall this one just doesn't work for a reader looking to get to know a new author as I was trying to do. The stories all have good potential to entertain but unfortunately seem to all require some knowledge of the series they tie into. Fortunately I'm still interested in these authors based on the quality of writing so I hope that fans of these series will find the stories to be a treat.
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