Title: Strange Brew
Authors: Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Karen Chance, P.N. Elrod, Charlaine Harris, Faith Hunter, Caitlin Kittredge & Jenna Maclaine
In: Strange Brew (P.N. Elrod)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Dark fantasy, Paranormal fantasy, Paranormal romance, Short story collections
Pace: Medium
Format: Anthology
Publisher: St Martin’s Griffin
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: Murphy jumped on me then, pinning my left arm down as Meditrina started raking at my face with her nails, both of them screaming like banshees.

Today’s hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic!

In Charlaine Harris’ “Bacon,” a beautiful vampire joins forces with a witch from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. In “Seeing Eye” by Patricia Briggs, a blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother—and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. And in Jim Butcher’s “Last Call,” wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers—the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer.

For anyone who’s ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who’s imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection of short stories!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable collection of short stories – they all erred on the side of dark fantasy and had twists to traditional ideas that I didn’t expect. The balance of female and male chief protagonists was well thought out, with a range of characters for even the most discerning reader to fall in love with. I loved that each tale was strange and unique, but they all fit together in a fabric that made the stories flow easily into each other.

The nine authors collected together in Strange Brew contributed short stories from their larger series, but they were easily accessible if you have not read the greater series (as I hadn’t for the majority). They are a window into another world that encourages you to jump in, feet first, something that I, for one, intend to do!

Image source: Goodreads