Bite Anthology

Feel the Touch of Darkness. . .

Follow a vampire who can be as deadly as her prey. Meet a down home southern girl who's found out, much to her chagrin, that vampires are her type. Feel the euphoria of fear in the shadow of a reluctant Queen of the Undead. Step closer to the hot-blooded edge of passion as a strange new mythology of the night is unveiled.

The bite is back in vampire fiction as today's most provocative authors of vampire fiction cast their irresistible spells on you . . .

The brightest and hottest authors --including New York Times best-selling authors Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris--tell all-new tales featuring their best known and loved characters.

I added this book to my TBR list because it was the only Sookie Stackhouse story that I hadn't read previously. I do have to say that when I read the book I was kind of surprised that Laurell K Hamilton and Charlaine Harris were the headline acts in the book because between the two stories by them, they covered only 58 pages out of the total of 294 pages in the book.

* From Laurell K. Hamilton, a never-before-published Anita Blake story in which Anita, temporarily separated from her vampire lover Jean-Claude, must go to him for help on a case. Where she finds herself once more falling under his erotic spell. . .

I haven't read any LKH before, so this was my first exposure to Anita Blake, and based only on this story I am not convinced that I need to read more from her. The story itself felt more like an epilogue and a first chapter than a complete story. Eventually I guess I will get to her, maybe after I finish catch up with all the Sherrilyn Kenyon books.

* A brand-new, Southern Vampire story by Charlaine Harris features Sookie Stackhouse and the vampires who have come to define her romantic life, and have ended her hope of a normal one. . .

You know, I don't recognise the story I read from the blurb above. Basically, this very short story fits in between the last two Sookie Stackhouse books,Dead as a Doornail and Definitely Dead and is about Sookie finding out that her cousin Hadley has died and left her a legacy. This explains a couple of things that happened in Definitely Dead a bit better.

* Newly crowned Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor reluctantly assumes her royal duties in Mary Janice Davidson's brand-new novella.

This is another new to me author that is pretty popular. I was actually pretty surprised when I looked on her website by two things - the first was how many different types of books she writes, and secondly how amateur the website looks. Anyway, Dr Sophie Tourneau has been the local vet in Embarrass, Minnesota for many years. If anyone realises that she is a vampire then no-one is saying anything. She used to have a special friend that she fed off, but he died some time before and she has been lonely for a long time.

Liam Thompson is one of her clients, but he has been secretly in love with her for years. The only problem he is human, but when Sophie realises that there is a rogue vampire on the loose killing young girls, he's there to assist her in anyway she can. Gradually she realises that maybe she could do with Liam's company.

Of course, in a novella 60 pages long, the romance was rushed, but it wasn't too bad. Overall, this book was okay. I might add some more of this authors books to my TBR list eventually. Any recommendations?

* Introduced in the anthology Hot Blooded and the romance Master of the Night, Angela Knight has created a fascinating universe melding Arthurian lore with erotic vampirism . . .


Whilst I enjoyed this one, I did feel a little overwhelmed with understanding the world that the story was set up in, given that haven't read any of the other books in the series. It is a kind of mix of several different stories. The above blurb tells you nothing, so I got the following off of Angela Knight's website.

When brand-new witch Caroline Lang has a vision of demons, evil vampires, and unholy grails, she finds an ally in Galahad, immortal knight of the Round Table.

Galahad is a veteran of the Magekind's magical battles of good against evil, but Caroline is like no partner he's ever had. Sexy, smart-mouthed, and irreverent, it doesn't take Caroline long to get under his skin.

But even as their partnership heats up, dark forces conspire to strip them of their power and kill them. If Galahad and Caroline don't defeat them, mankind will pay the price...

I will definitely be reading more of this series!

* Finally, in the romantic novella "Blood Lust", popular romance author Vickie Taylor brings her own unique spin on vampires . . .

I don't recall hearing about this author before, but she is definitely on my reading radar now.

Daniel Hart has been working to try and develop synthetic blood, something that has the bigwigs in the local vampire community very interested. So interested in fact that they are willing to steal his formula and beat the crap out of him to get it. Fast forward a couple of months and Daniel is determined to exact revenge, not only in respect of his work, but also his fiance who was left undead by them. In order to get revenge he needs to get himself turned into a vampire as well, and this is where Deadre Rue. She is very reluctant to bring him over, especially seeing as she thinks that she has a pretty miserable existence - especially there has been so many restrictions on who she can feed from.

This novella was really good, and I have added this author to my "I am going to read more from this author one day" list!

Overall, I have added a couple of new authors to my list and I have now caught up with all the Sookie Stackhouse stories (I think).

One interesting thing is that this is the fourth anthology I have read so far this year. I only read 6 in total last year. What this does have the effect of doing is increasing the number of new to me authors I have read. So far this year, I have read 19 books, and been introduced to 16 new authors!



Rating 4/5