Review: Excellent Value for the Money
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 15, 2014
I absolutely LOVED three books in this collection:SM Reine-Sacrificed in ShadowMarie Hall-Crimson NightKate Danley-Maggie for HireAll three were fantastic, fun reads that I was thrilled about. I will be buying future books in these series.Sacrificed in Shadow was really engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the plot was fast paced. Lincoln was kind of a dud IMO but in the series he will be a person of interest, certainly. Can't wait to read more about Elise and the wolves. I like the relationships developing in this world, especially since Elise is not used to being warm and fuzzy with anyone and doesn't trust easily. I feel like I missed a bit of info going into this book. It's like I should have known some of the characters already. With some research, I did find out that Reine has written other books with these characters featured prior to this so that explains it. I'll have to read up to fill in the gaps.Crimson Night was my favorite of the bunch. Really good, dark urban fantasy reading here. I couldn't put it down. Pandora is an interesting, dimensional character. The Priest was GREAT. Love him! I am chomping at the bit to get my hands on book 2. Very dark, seedy, and pretty racy too.Maggie for Hire had a lighter tone than the other two. If you like snarky humor and a fast paced action packed story, this is the one for you. There are some truly unbelievable parts (which, if you are reading urban fantasy, you are used to suspending disbelief anyway) but it was such a fun read. I loved her elf partner too. Good story.I was not in love with these three:Deanna Chase-Influential MagicDanielle Monsch-Fairy Tales and Ever AftersDannika Dark-SterlingI found that Influential Magic was just goofy and not my thing. Too silly! I ended up skipping parts of it just to get to the end. Here you get a bakery that serves up magic food, a winged fairy who is inexplicably working for an enforcement agency without any skills or knowledge of the field to speak of, a wicked Aunt, a day walking vampire ex boyfriend, and a snarky best friend. Overall I was really "meh" about this one.Fairy Tales and Ever Afters was steamy in some parts, but not my thing either. Three simple stories based on fairy tales in one book. I liked the last story the best, but I could have done without this book in the collection. The first one is very clearly Cinderella, but focuses on the fairy godparents. The second one was a take on Beauty and the Beast. The third was a new look at Sleeping Beauty. I felt this was a forced fit into the collection because it was romance, not urban fantasy.Sterling has potential, but the writer really needs to expand the world and do away with the love square. It was like Silver was working on collecting a man harem! I might check out future installments if reviews tell me the next books are getting better.Overall this collection is a great buy! Six books for 99 cents? Can't beat it! I found three writers I will be reading in the future, and found three writers that I know I should probably avoid. It stinks to pay $3 for a book on the Kindle just to find out you don't like it. I'd rather spend 99 cents for a collection like this, get a good feel for the writers, and spend my hard earned money on future installments that I KNOW I will enjoy. Highly recommended.