In the anthology HEXED
Book 4.5 of the Kate Daniels series
Genre: urban fantasy
Synopsis:
Four of the bestselling names in romance and fantasy come together in this collection of thrilling novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two...Source: Info in the Synopsis was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9633064-hexed on 31/12/2011.
New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews spins "Magic Dreams." Shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau finds herself in deep waters when she must challenge a dark being to a battle of wits or risk losing the man for whom she secretly longs.
In "Ice Shards," New York Times bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn returns to the Otherworld as Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite, journeys to the frozen Northlands to confront the crazed shadow of her former lover and break the curse that is keeping her from marrying the man she loves.
National bestselling author Allyson James takes you to Magellan, Arizona, where Stormwalker Janet Begay and her friends are trapped by a powerful curse. It will take every bit of magic simmering beneath her skin for the Stormwalker to survive being "Double Hexed."
From national bestselling author Jeanne C. Stein comes "Blood Debt," in which bounty-hunter-turned-vampire Anna Strong is visited by three witches who ask her to right an old magical wrong. Anna will have to live up to her last name to make it through alive.
[image credit: Madurai Tsunami]
My Thoughts:I would only review Magic Dreams in this anthology. Magic Dreams happened between books 4 and 5 of the Kate Daniels series, so the world building was done a long time ago with the last 4 books or so in the series. In this short story, the reader is only given a sketchy background of the Kate Daniels world, so for readers who are new to this series could still follow the story line and don't get too confused, however I still do not recommend that you read this short story as an entry point into the Kate Daniels series because you will be cheating yourself out of a wonderful reading time with the Kate Daniels books from 1 to 4. And because the short story only referred to the world of the Kate Daniels in a sketchy manner, you will not get the full appreciation of the intricate beauty of this world. Even though this is only a short story, it managed to give us a well-structured story. It got good plot with a central dilemma and a satisfying ending. This is something which I find a lot of the short stories fail to do, maybe because there isn't enough room to do all that. But Ilona Andrews managed a well-rounded story despite the space constraints. Kudos to Ilona Andrews!!
In this short story we meet for the first time The Suanmi Dragon. A creature of the Chinese legend who is a descendant of the Fire Son out of the 9 sons of Dragon. I am eagerly awaiting to read more about The Suanmi in future books!
Although I have a few nitpicking issues with this short story, I enjoyed reading it and would give it a 4.5 out of 5.
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 5
Story itself = 5
Ending = 5
World building = N/A
Cover art = 4
Pace = 5
Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries
Books In The Kate Daniels Series:
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