Dead and Loving it by Mary Janice Davidson

This one is more of a compendium of short stories published previously in other anthologies but all from the Wyndham Wolf series. This series is very good but because they are all printed in different Anthologies it has been a pain in the butt to follow so I was jumping all over this Anthology when it first came out.

Now to be honest, I had not read any of the Wyndham Werewolf books but my daughter raved about Derik's Bane and since I knew Derik's Bane was the third book in the series I put off picking it up until I had collected all the books and could read them in order.

My suggestion is to NOT do this. The short stories are not strong plots and if you read too many of them, you kind of get sick of the tales. I read the first 4 on vacation back in August and then read the rest in September. Now all I need to read is Derik's Bane.

The Prequels to the Anthologies are:

Love's Prisoner : (C-) SPOILER ALERT!!!
I cannot fathom why I didn't give this story a worse grade. What I keep remembering is that Michael rapes Jeannie… more than once! I think that when I read it I forced myself to step out of my contemporary shoes and go into this alternate universe where werewolves exist and pack law determines how one deals with every day situation. He tries to explain this to his mate (who is human) and I REALLY had to work on getting past the whole rape issue. The story was good enough to bring up the grade even after the incidents but it is not for everyone.

Jared's Wolf : (C) Jared's sister was killed by a rouge Were and he has been searching for the culprit for years. Now he believes he has finally found him and is stalking the mansion waiting for his chance for revenge. He believes that only men can be Weres and kidnaps Moira from the grounds thinking she is in danger. Moira realizes the security risk Jared is and decides to stay close to him to 'protect' her pack. Yeah right!

Derik's Bane should be at this point.

From the Anthology though we have:

Santa Claws (C+): Cute little Xmas story but it was mostly a no plot story (thus why it didn't go over a C+). Just saw you, screwed you, committed to you. Didn't give it anything lower because the heroine, Giselle was a short plump girl that dressed in a Santa's costume. She was just too cute! The Hero, Alec was a Scot that came to pay homage to Michael and Jenny's daughter.

Monster Love (C+): In this one Janet Lupo, who must be a dominatrix in another life since she is such an overbearing b*tch, finds her mate in a vampire that kidnaps her (what is with these Weres getting kidnapped?), hot monkey sex ensues and she makes him heel to her – okay so she does give a little too.

There is no Such Thing as Werewolves (B-): This one was different. The hero was a blind Were who was not feeling welcomed in his pack. He has made a life for himself as a doctor among the humans and runs into some homeless kids that try to mug him. Cresent Muhn is among them but decides that mugging a blind guy is a bit much for her and offers him protection. Drake realizes that there is something different about Crescent and not in the wacko way (even though she is determined to fly). He had some issue due to an age difference but there is more different about them than age. This one was pretty good.

A Fiend in Need – (B): A crossover with Queen Betsy series. This story was a big seller for me on this Anthology. I want to say it was what made me buy the book but not really.. I wanted to read the story of George, The Fiend from the Betsy books and how he finds love with Antonia, the Were that doesn't change but has premonitions. These premonitions are what guides Antonia to Betsy's door and ultimately leads her to George.

Overall, I like this type of anthology where it’s one author and many of their shorts.

Grade: B-
Format: eBook

Anthology - Over the Moon

I picked up my first Anthology in the year mostly because I am so hooked on those Mageverse stories. I also was looking forward to the Wyndham Wolves story by Davidson. Although I have not yeat read all the books in that series, my daughter just loved Derik's Bane and I find myself looking for good reading material for her. With this first Anthology under my belt, I'm just 11 books away from reaching my reading goal for 2007!

Angela Knight – Moon Dance: More of the Mageverse world! Yeah me!! A little more on the Direwolf clans (first introduced in Master of the Moon, and then revisited in Master of the Wolves). Elena is part of the aristocracy of the Direwolves. Her father has elected the Direwolf that would be her mate more for the fact that Stephen will conserve the ways of the past, than the possibility that he will be good to his daughter. Elena refuses to give in and when her burning moon finds her on the way to being raped and impregnated by the bully of a man she seeks help from Lucas Rollings.
Lucas is one of the 'bitten'. He is young in terms of his time as a Direwolf but he has learned from the best. He is a Cop in a small town where Direwolf population is down to 1. When he sees Elena being smacked around by Stephen in the parking lot of the Police station he has to step in.
Knight definitely knows how to take a short story and put as much into it as she can. The story was well rounded, believable and very hot!! It's a must read for anyone following this series since it does explain the bureaucracy among the Direwolf and the separation of classes. I had to give this one an A

Virginia Kantra – Between the Mountain and The Moon: Kantra was a new author for me and I was impressed with the ability she demonstrated in writing a short story about love that developed in a few hours. This is a sequel to an earlier story of this author (In the Anthology Man of My Dreams) but the funny thing is that even though I enjoyed this tale I am not inclined to search out the first book. The first tale is about the parents of the heroine of this book and Kantra really didn't let me develop an affinity for them. Caitlin finds herself lost in the woods on the night of Beltane.
The Queen of the Sidhe has never forgiven Cat's father his abandonment so she ends her son to seduce the girl and bind her to him in an act of vengeance toward her parents. Rhys accepts his fate as the tool in his mother's revenge until he meets Caitlin and cannot stand aside while she pays the price for her father's sins. The mood in this story is dark and a bit unnerving, it gives the fae world a very sinister feel which is part of the charm of the story itself. B

Mary Janice Davidson – Driftwood: I found myself reluctant to dive into this one just because I have not caught up with the Undead series or with the Wyndham wolf series, so I was concerned this would spoil it for me be honestly I needn't have worried because I really just needed to know who the main characters of each series was to fall right into this one. No spoilers are given to any of the two series. The story started out very funny with Burke (a hermit werewolf) encountering Serena (a vamp) on the beach when she is stuck in a hole. Serena is a sassy thing and when Burke tries to help her out of the hole before he turns, it becomes a ping pong of words of comedic proportions.
The problem is that the story peaks at the start. After they discover who they are, her a vamp and him, a Were, there is not much happening. Yeah there is a mission that Serena needs to accomplish that Burke assists her with, gaining her respect/love but honestly, the story was just a tale about two lonely people that find each other. Could not see myself giving this more than a C.

Sunny – Mona Lisa Three: Last one in this anthology had me double checking the author because it was way too similar in content to Laura K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. I really must say this one was the downfall of this anthology. It seems to take place between full length books. Most of the story was a recap of the series itself and by the time we get to the meat of the tale (which is just a quick physical healing that involved sex) the author had lost the reader's interest.
If you're familiar with the series, the story will still bore you because there is way too much recapping taking place; if you are not familiar with the series (like me), you will have lost interest in what is to come because there is so much politics involved in the recap you find yourself lost. As a Merry Gentry fan, I'll admit it did pull me in a bit, but not enough for me to look up the series or to connect enough with the character to really care who is left behind or not. This one really brought down the book itself and I had to give it a D (For the great sex scenes).


This brings the anthology to a close and I find it funny that the book lost it's steam as we kept reading each story. All of these tales are part of one series or another and I guess you would assimilate your appreciation of each story based on the background you might have on each author's work. Still, when I look at an Anthology I'm looking for stories that can be told in a short format, with a beginning, middle and end. All the characteristics of a story should be included, regardless of the length of the tale itself. Some of these stories did a great job at that, others failed miserably.

Grade: C+