ENTHRALLED edited by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

Enthralled
Edited by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

Rating: C+


Description from goodreads.com:

A journey may take hundreds of miles, or it may cover the distance between duty and desire.

Sixteen of today's hottest writers of paranormal tales weave stories on a common theme of journeying. Authors such as Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, and Melissa Marr return to the beloved worlds of their bestselling series, while others, like Claudia Gray, Kami Garcia, and Margaret Stohl, create new landscapes and characters. But whether they're writing about vampires, faeries, angels, or other magical beings, each author explores the strength and resilience of the human heart.

Suspenseful, funny, or romantic, the stories in "Enthralled" will leave you moved. 

My thoughts on the book:

Let me start off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of short stories, so this rating is probably a bit more subjective than I'd like to admit. That being said, when I saw Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr teamed up to edit this, and there were stories from many of my favorite authors in the book, I thought I'd give it a try. I checked it out from the library just in case I didn't like it, and I'm glad I did.

Authors that I usually love wrote stories that I wasn't too fond of. Rachel Caine's story bored me, as did Jennifer Lynn Barnes' (that really surprised me. I usually love her work). Melissa Marr's short story fell flat as well. None of these were terrible, just not the quality work that I'm used to from these authors. However, I know that writing a short story is a bit different, and sometimes more difficult, than writing a novel. So it's not like I'm judging their writing abilities based on these stories.

The one bright spot in the book was Kelley Armstrong's short story, "Facing Facts." That story grabbed me and didn't let me go until the end. My only complaint was that it ended too soon. Kelley Armstrong is my favorite author, though, so I'd probably say the same thing if she'd written a book of limericks. Basically, to me, anything Armstrong writes is golden. 

Armstrong's story is set in the world of the Darkest Powers series, and it deals with Chloe, Derek, Simon, and Tori. I love that series and these characters, and this adventure was incredibly suspenseful. She really had me convinced one thing happened when something else had happened. Armstrong has an amazing way of doing that, though. She always keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to you if you enjoy short stories because then you'd probably like more of the stories than I did. If you're not the world's biggest fan of short stories, but you like the authors, then check the book out from the library first. 

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