 | Title: Hexed
 Sexual Content: See each story Rating:
Good - A fun read with minor flaws. Maybe read an excerpt before buying. |
Description
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.
Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews
Old legends and frightening nightmares came to life in Magic Dreams. The shapeshifting Tigress Dali Harimau finds herself in deep water when she must challenge a dark being to a battle of wits, or risk losing the man she secretly longs for.
Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn
Iris Kuusi, a Finnish house sprite who lives with the D’Artigo sisters, must journey to the frozen Northlands to confront the crazed shadow of her former lover she’s accused of murdering, so she can break the curse keeping her from marrying the man she loves.
Double Hexed by Allyson James
It starts, innocently enough, with a leaky faucet. Janet calls her plumber, Fremont, to help fix a faucet in a guest room, when all hell breaks loose—literally. Blood sprays from the faucets and a message appears on the mirror in blood: “You are doomed.” Janet and her friends find themselves locked in her hotel, victims of a hex cast by a very powerful sorcerer. Cassandra, Janet’s Wiccan hotel manager, believes the sorcerer is one she’s come to Magellan to hide from, and he’s one of the most powerful entities in the world. As Janet and her friends frantically work to release the spell before the sorcerer kills them all, they realize that their worst enemies might just be themselves.
Blood Debt by Jeanne C. Stein
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 name to make it through alive…
Review
Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels #4.5)
A minor character in the Kate Daniels series, Dali proves more than ready for her own series in Magic Dreams. She couldn’t be more dissimilar from Kate, yet she displays the same strength of character and bravery that I’ve come to expect from the women in this series. She’s a tiny, visually impaired, Indonesian woman who shifts into a white Tiger. As a human, she’s about a physically imposing as a kitten and shifting to her tiger form isn’t easy for her. But she does know how to use magic, sometimes. And in Magic Dreams when her Alpha Jim, the man she secretly loves, shows up asking for help, she doesn’t hesitative even when she learns that she may have to sacrifice her life for Jim’s.
Kate fans won’t want to miss this story and it’s a perfect introduction for new readers as it has one of the best and most concise explanations for the world building in this series. The dialogue is as sharp and clever as ever, the Japanese mythology borrowed for this story is integrated very well, and the romance between Dali and Jim subtly beautiful. By far the best story in HEXED.
Sexual Content: Kissing Rating: 4/5
Ice Shards by Yasmine Galenorn (Sisters of the Moon #9.5)
My only exposure to Galenorn’s Sister’s of the Moon (SotM) series was in the anthology INKED, so I’ll admit near total ignorance when it comes to this world and these characters going in, and I feel pretty much the same way having read Ice Shards. The chronology jumps all over the place and the writing struck me as lazy and uninteresting. Lots and lots of characters and yet not one grabbed me. Iris travels with her friends (including SotM main character Camille and one of her husbands) to find out if she committed a crime she can’t remember. They travel, talk to people, travel, have flashbacks, travel etc. until the last 3 pages when Iris finally gets answers. I suppose fans of this series may enjoy all the cameos, but as a newbie, this story just turned me off the whole series.
Sexual Content: References to sex Rating: 2/5
Double Hexed by Allyson James (Stormwalker #3.5)
Double Hexed is the longest story in HEXED (and I believe that’s Janet on the cover) and makes full use of its extra pages. Like the previous story, there are lots of characters (some stronger than others), but unlike the previous story, they each justify their inclusion in this specific story. Stormwalker Janet and her dragon shifter Mick are the leads and we learn about each character as they interact with them while trying to break a hex that has trapped them all in Janet’s hotel. This actually would be a great introduction for new readers who want to try this series featuring Native American mysticism mixed with more conventional paranormal tropes and a uniquely imagined world Beneath our own where demons and evil have been trapped. Janet and Mick have a heated romance and this story is the steamiest in the anthology.
Sexual Content: References to homosexuality. A brief sex scene Rating: 3/5
Blood Debt by Jeanne C. Stein (Anna Strong Chronicles #6.5)
This is another series I’m largely unfamiliar with (I’ve only read the first book), but I didn’t have any trouble jumping in to this story. Anna and her bounty hunter partners are tracking a Skip when a series of events lead her to stand trail for her life. This setup provides Stein with an opportunity to highlight certain key events from Anna’s life (how she was turned into a vampire, how she ended up as a bounty hunter, and how she finally killed her nemesis etc). It works well has an intro for new readers, but doesn’t dominate the story so that fans become bored. There is a romantic relationship that gets set up in Blood Debt that I imagine will get woven into future books, so series devotees won’t want to miss seeing how it began.
Sexual Content: A couple brief sex scenes Rating: 3/5
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He steps out of slacks and boxers and stands naked, looking down on me.
JS: I think the main answer to that question can be found in number five above. My readers know I write Urban Fantasy and the ones who follow the series know Anna’s track record with boyfriends. The other element is that all my books take place in a very short time span. From the first to the sixth book, for instance, just one year has elapsed. It’s a way to avoid having to rush things.
