Today we are joined by Audra of Unabridged Chick

Title: Kiss Me Deadly: 13 Tales of Paranormal Love
Author: Trisha Telep, editor

Genre: Fiction (Paramornal Romance – Short Stories )

Love/Hate?: Love. (Dare I say, deadly love?)
Rating: 4/5
Did I finish?: Oh yes.
One-sentence summary: Thirteen paranormal short stories with a fringe of romance.

Why did I get this book?: Paranormal romance is kind of my guilty pleasure these days.
Source: Won it from Good Choice Reading

Do you like the cover?: Sure, it’s very pretty but it doesn’t seem particularly dark, romantic, or deadly to me.

Did… I find a whole new host of supernatural creatures to crush on?: YES. Djinn anyone? Angels? Unicorn hunters?

Did… I decide to add every single author to my TBR?: YES. I’m already a dyed-in-the-wool Stiefvater fan, but now my list of authors I’m slavishly reading has grown!

Did… I find I was even excited to read about vampires?: YES. I’m still not 100% in the vampires-are-awesome camp, but this collection made me pretty happy to have one as my hero or heroine.

Review: This solid collection of paranormal short stories is engaging and perfect for the approaching autumn season (for those in the Northern Hemisphere). Many of the authors are recognizable from their novels — Becca Fitzpatrick, Carrie Ryan, Rachel Vincent, Maggie Stiefvater, Diana Peterfreund — and even a few offer stories within the universes they write about. In fact, one of the stand out stories in the collection, Becca Fitzpatrick’s “Dungeons of Langeais”, grabs the reader from the first line, regardless of their familiarity with the Hush, Hush series (says one who hasn’t read any of them!).

I enjoyed every story, which is pretty rare. Of course, I liked some less than others. One even had me completely flummoxed (emotionally)! Sarah Rees Brennan’s “The Spy Who Never Grew Up” is super twisted and kind of awesome and kind of sketchy, and I can’t say if I loved it or hated it. And it challenged the idea of ‘love’, which is the uniting theme of this collection. As editor Trisha Telep explains, love can be light and fluffy and sweet, but it can also be dark and twisted and wrong, and every story in this collections hits solidly on that spectrum.

Other highlights included Diana Peterfreund’s “Errant”, which might be set in her killer unicorn universe; Karen Mahoney’s “The Spirit Jar”, which includes a vampire (yawn) and a djinn (yum!); Maggie Stiefvater’s “The Hounds of Ulster”, which is all about teenage musicians and dreams of getting big (and also, faeries); and Daniel Marks’ “Vermillion”, which sort of felt like being plunked midstream in a story but was so good, I eventually didn’t care.

In terms of heat, this is a solid PG rating, if that; I actually found few of the stories openly romantic and some really twisted and played with the idea of love and being in love. I wasn’t wild about Trisha Telep’s introduction to this collection, but I like her taste, so I might even pick up her vampire collection of stories, The Eternal Kiss.

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Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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Today we are joined by historical fiction author, Mary Sharratt (The Vanishing Point; Bitch Lit; The Real Minerva). Mary’s latest book, Daughters of the Witching Hill, was released last month through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This vividly crafted novel tells the story of Mother Demdike, a cunning woman from Lancashire, England who was never given the chance to speak on her own behalf against allegations of witchcraft. In Daughters of the Witching Hill, Mary gives Mother Demdike her say.

I’m currently reading the book and so far I’m loving it, but as my review is not ready yet, please take a moment to read Mary’s encounter with the famous Pendle Hill and how the voice of Bess spoke to her as she wrote. Also, be sure to enter to win a copy of Daughters of the Witching Hill here (open internationally; ends 14 May 2010 @ 12am; one winner will be chosen at random).

How I Became a Daughter of the Witching Hill by Mary Sharratt

In midwinter 2002, I moved from the Bay Area in California to Lancashire, England. I’ve travelled around the world and lived in many different places, from Germany to Belgium. But what ensued from this relocation was the biggest culture and climate shock of my life. In Northern England, the winters are so dark and oppressive—I felt as though I were trapped inside some claustrophobic gothic novel. My husband and I moved to an old industrial town, our newly built house on the site of a demolished factory. Surrounding all this post-industrial bleakness was a landscape straight out of a fairy tale. In spring the hedges were lacy with hawthorn. Ewes birthed their lambs in the meadow behind our house.

Our house looks out on Pendle Hill, famous throughout the world as the place where George Fox received his vision that moved him to found the Quaker religion in 1652. But Pendle is also steeped in its legends of the Lancashire Witches. Read more

Teresa

Teresa (nom de plume: Torrance Sené) is a self-proclaimed geek, a Janeite, a lover of werewolves and bad-ass angels, an aspiring novelist and an avid book reader who freelances as a web designer. You can follow her on Twitter at @eireannoir.

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