Review: A lot of dogs! A lot of magic! A lot of fun!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2012
Like most anthologies I found some stories I felt more drawn to than others but I think that's a fundamental part of multiple authors' work all piled together.I got a little tired of how many stories were a part of the author's other work. Many feature the adventures of side characters or something a heroine was up to between novels.  This might not have bothered me if it hadn't been the rule rather than the exception or if I had read most of the novels in question rather than this being my introduction.I felt that Debroa Geary's A Samhain Surprise was a little too abrupt, especially for those of us who are not familiar with Geary's fictional universe. I felt like I was missing part of the narrative but in spite of this I still liked it.  Camilla Chafer's The Trouble with Spells seemed a little flippant and I spent more time feeling sorry for the character who caused the drama than I probably was supposed to.Even with these annoyances I enjoyed most of the stories. I loved how many had dogs in them! Not something you normally find in a story about witches and Halloween. Wren Emerson's The Hazards of Desire was sad but fascinated me, something I encourage in my short stories! Riana's Revenge by Dale Mayer presented a magic society I was curious to learn more about. I felt it ended on a weird note though others might not agree with me but I think the strength of the rest of the story outweighs that complaint.But my two favorites had to be Edie Ramer's The Kiss and Terri Reid's Orion's Moon. The Kiss suffered a little from my first issue, it's a glimpse of larger story, but the characters were vibrant and I liked the mythology sitting alongside aliens. Orion's Moon was a perfect balance of a world that's too big to be contained in such a small setting while not making the reader feel as though they should have read at least one, if not more, books before stepping into the narrative.All in all I would say it's a fun read. It would probably be more appreciated by pre-established fans of the authors but I think the fact that the proceeds are going to a charity more than makes up for that!