Lace and Blade 2 (Paperback)

~ Deborah J. Ross (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Ross delivers a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentleman. Among the best are two sequels to stories from 2008's Lace and Blade: in Diana L. Paxson's The Crow, an old flame of Claude le Baron's has become entangled with a blood sacrifice cult, while in Robin Wayne Bailey's Trial by Midnight, Lady Elena Sanchez y Vega and her beloved highwayman, Ramon Estrada, enjoy an adventure with startling repercussions on their future together. Also outstanding are Sherwood Smith's amusing tale Miss Austen's Castle Tour, which suggests a mysterious gap in Austen's letters might have occurred when Jane visited Count Dracula, and Tanith Lee's eloquent Comfort and Despair. Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue. (Feb.)
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Product Description

"Just in time for Valentine's Day... a charming second anthology brimming with romantic fantasy tales of swashbuckling ladies and daring gentlemen.... Readers will be left starry-eyed and hoping for the series to continue."
-- Publishers Weekly

"Lace and Blade offers a banquet of adventure, intrigue and romance. There's something here to delight the palate of every reader's inner swashbuckler!"
-- Jacqueline Carey

LACE AND BLADE, an original anthology of elegant romantic fantasy, edited by Deborah J. Ross, appears every Valentine's Day...

In the spirit of classic period swashbucklers, Zorro, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and D'Artagnan, brimming with romantic courtly intrigue and dangerous liaisons, with cloak and dagger and perfumed handkerchiefs, the language of the fan and stolen glances, with the manners of Jane Austen and the sparkling rapier wit of Oscar Wilde, here are fantastic stories of adventure, derring-do, love, and glamorous yet subtle magic.

Don't hesitate another moment... step into a sophisticated other world where passion is a courtly mistress, mystery is moonlight on steel, and magic is the god of love.

En garde, mon amour!

LACE AND BLADE 2

Contributors in this volume:

Rosemary Hawley Jarman, Mary Rosenblum, Diana L. Paxson, Francesca Forrest, Robin Wayne Bailey, Daniel Fox, Sherwood Smith, Traci N. Castleberry, Pauline Zed, Elisabeth Waters, Tanith Lee, and Madeleine E. Robins.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Leda; 1 edition (February 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 193464899X
• ISBN-13: 978-1934648995
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #827,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars quite a good collection with a few gems, March 23, 2009

By	Margaret Johnston (Seabeck, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought mostly this for the stories by Sherwood Smith, Madeleine E. Robins, and Tanith Lee, three favorite writers of mine, and unsurprisingly, those three stories were my favorites. I especially loved Smith's "Miss Austen's Castle Tour", in which Jane Austen meets Dracula, which I don't think many other writers could pull off to my satisfaction.

A surprise standout was "Rent Girl", by Traci N. Castleberry (whom I've never heard of before), which is the story of cross-dressing Orossy, who feels more comfortable dressed as a girl but is trying to deny this in order to please his lover, Feisal, and Feisal's powerful father. It's a fascinating and sympathetic inquiry into gender roles, and I'll be looking for more by Castleberry.

I generally liked the rest of the stories, with the one exception of the lead-off story, Rosemary Hawley Jarman's "More in Sorrow", which I thought was thinly characterized and very overwritten. Overall, I'd say that like the first anthology in this series, _Lace and Blade 2_ is a good, solid anthology and a good read if you like your fantasy with more than a touch of romance.