Title: John Doe
Author: Anna Windsor
In: The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Angels, Paranormal romance
Dates read: 31st July 2019
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: She took a deep breath, knowing he needed to understand everything.
Dutch knows that there are dark things in the world. What she doesn’t expect to find is love when the man who is supposed to protect her from them shows up at her psychiatric ward.
The most disappointing aspect of this story was that it was so short and it isn’t part of a greater series. I know, a pretty common complaint for me. I always love when I read a really good short story and it turns out that there’s a whole series that I can stick my greedy little literary nose into. But the premise of a half-angel and her protector (who also happens to be her lover) was incredibly fun. And it was seriously disappointing when I found out that it was a standalone – there was just some incredibly brilliant world building going on!
In July I seemed to read a few stories which feature psychiatric facilities and asylums. A bit of a random theme, but it worked really well in John Doe. After all, Dutch finds out that there are far more serious things going on in the world than she had ever anticipated. Add that to the fact that she lives in isolation from everybody and is celebrating her thirtieth birthday alone… it worked really well to make Dutch seem like she’s lonely and unsure as to what she wants to do with her life. The appearance of Shant changes that all. And injects this amazingly fun and sassy side of the lead that I really wasn’t expecting.
Most of the paranormal romances I’ve been reading lately feature the couple for the entirety of the story. This tale on the other hand doesn’t have the male love interest in it for as long. He goes missing for a fair while and then returns towards the end. The period of separation though worked beautifully for the structure of this tale and I loved the slight department from what I would consider a more traditional tale.
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