#54 Midnight Pleasures by Amanda Ashley, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Maggie Shayne, Ronda Thompson

My Overall Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

Though I didn't care for some of the stories in this anthology all that much, I'm still glad I read it because I did enjoy the story by Ronda Thompson. :)

"Darkfest" by Amanda Ashley
My Rating: 3 stars
The price of saving her dying mother is Channa's promise to spend a year at the castle of tormented nobleman, Lord Darkfest... to obey him as his servant or, as his secrets are revealed, to become his salvation. And her own.

I found this one a bit chintzy and sappy. And then I realized I didn't really care for Amanda Ashley's full-length novel, Desire After Dark, that I'd read either. Romance buffs may enjoy it more but it didn't have enough of an interesting story line to go along with it to hold my interest.


"Phantom Lover" by Sherrilyn Kenyon
My Rating: 4 stars
Haunted by recurring nightmares of terrifying beasts, Erin McDaniels is afraid to sleep—until a hero arrives in her dreams to save her... and makes erotic, incredible love to her. But can she find him again when she is awake?

I wasn't too impressed with this story. It was a bit too "sappy romance" for me and the rest of the action was only mediocre. Though I've felt that the romance in Kenyon's full-length Dark-Hunter novels was a bit sappy too, they generally had enough action and sub-plot going on to keep me interested anyway... although I do admit I get a bit glassy-eyed during the sappy love scenes that go on for 3 or 4 pages. But glossing over those parts, the rest of the story is still fairly engaging, which I didn't really find to be the case as much with this short story, probably due in great part to the short-story format and not having enough space to really flesh out a good sub-plot.


"Under Her Spell" by Maggie Shayne
My Rating: 5 stars
Melissa St. Cloud is hired as the technical consultant for a television series, The Enchantress. But instead of simply correcting the technical inaccuracies related to Witchcraft in the show itself, she ends up having to banish an evil spirit who is trying to consume Alex's life... literally!

I had mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I liked the background story that went along with the it. However, the way the author approached the parts dealing with Wicca and Witchcraft, though accurate, seemed very much like a Wicca 101 lecture. Yes, granted she's trying to teach the reader something in the process, but for someone who's already experienced with all that like myself, it simply came off as rote, and the kind of thing that should be saved for a non-fiction Wicca 101 text.


"A Wulf's Curse" by Ronda Thompson
My Rating: 7 stars
Elise is running from her uncle and the arranged marriage he's set for her to a very cruel man. So she stows away in the wagon of a traveling road show, hoping to hitch a ride from London to Liverpool, and ends up right in the arms of the Beast Tamer, Sterling Wulf... and the Wulf part is more than just his last name! ;-)

This is my fist introduction to this author, and since I have some of her full-length novels coming in a bookring from CandyDarling, I had wanted to make sure I liked the author. Although this was strictly romance, I liked the author's writing style enough, and there was enough of a storyline outside of the romance with the traveling road show, that I enjoyed it nonetheless. IMO, this was the best story in this anthology.

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