Review: A Mixed Bag of Good and Horrible
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 5, 2012
I liked the concept of several authors building a story upon one shared intro, unfortunately that opening wasn't strong enough to support many story lines.  The first story by Nancy Warren is the best of the bunch and I rated it a solid B.  Ms. Warren diffused the ungainly opening in a solid way and the story unfolded smoothly.Catherine Spencer's entry did not address the shared opening very well.  The heroine's picture is probably in a dictionary next to the word "gullible."  I rolled my eyes to a C- grade.Margaret Moore gave her entry a historical setting, but still stumbled on the shared opening.  She employed the tried and true identical twins take, which was OK, but I was disturbed by the way a character's suicide was handled.  I don't believe for a minute that a couple could move forward that easily with that event in the mix.  I gave it a C grade.Maggie Shayne's offering was strong and gave a plausible explanation for the revelation mentioned in the opening paragraphs.  The story was fast paced, but the heroine bordered on clueless when it came to her family.  I still gave it a B.The final story by Michele Hauf was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.  Unfortunately, I thought it was finger-down-throat.  Let's just say zombie sex is not my cup 'o tea.  This one got a D-.Christine Bell's steampunk entry mentioned in the forward was not in my kindle version.  That's probably a good thing because I can't imagine that she could have handled the premise better than the others before her.In my opinion, give this one a pass.