A poem that looks at the three different stages of women throughout fairy tales. It asks (and answers) the question “what happens after happily-ever-after”?
I really loved this poem. I tend to find with poetry, some
things just strike me beautifully, and some don’t really pull me in at all. But,
probably because this is a story that is based on the women of fairy tales, I
adored it. There was a great passage of time throughout the three stanzas and
they captured the ways in which we change over time.
What I liked most about this poetic tale was that it starts
with the innocents – the goosegirls, the princesses. Then it travels to their
happy endings – the princesses, the mothers. But, ultimately, it shows how these
happy endings turn into not-so-happy-endings – the stepmothers and the evil
witches. There is great duality right throughout this tale.
Title: Atlantis Awakening Author: Alyssa Day Series: Warriors of Poseidon #2 Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Paranormal romance, Vampires Pace: Medium Format: Novel Publisher: If you threaten Erin again, I will come after you with everything I’ve got. Year: 2007 5th sentence, 74th page: Berkley Sensation
To rescue the world from an overwhelming evil, Poseidon’s warriors have risen from Atlantis. Chief among them is Ven, serving as the King’s Vengeance by birthright and by battle challenge. None can conquer him – except perhaps for one human female…
The warrior… Ven’s mind is filled with duty. He must serve as Atlantean liaison to the humans in a war waged against the vampires. A sword is his weapon – not diplomacy. But on a mission to recover the Nereid’s Heart – a ruby of immense power – it will take every ounce of strength he possesses to resist the sexual allure of the beautiful witch chosen to work with him.
And the witch… Erin’s heart is filled with vengeance. She lives only for the chance to punish those who murdered her family. Now she must partner with a legendary Atlantean warrior whose dark desire threatens to crash through the barriers she built around her emotions – and her heart. Caught in a trap of shifting alliances, how long can Ven and Erin resist their awakening passion?
I have a weird relationship with the Warriors of Poseidon series… while I’m reading them I don’t think that I’m completely enthralled, yet, I tend to just rip through them quickly and fall madly in love with the characters in the storyline. And, when I close the final page of the book, I can’t stop thinking about the storyline and all that unfolded.
Where I really didn’t feel any connection to Conlan throughout Atlantis Rising, I really liked Ven in the sequel. He had that crabby alpha-male thing going on which annoys me (and then I realise that I actually have that in my own life), but it was tempered a lot better than in Conlan’s characterisation. He had a softness and care to him that was kind of missing, although I honestly think that it has a lot to do with an improvement in Day’swriting across the books.
I’ve read a lot of vampire books over the years – something
about Twilight seems to make it a must-have in anything with a paranormal
theme. Yet, the vampires in this, although they follow along the traditional
lines, aren’t a painfully overdone cliché. They aren’t even the centre point of
the storyline, just another calibre of enemy that wants to destroy and take
over the good guys. Or, in this case, want to take over Erin, the lead female
in this story…
Title: A Very Special Girl Author: Mike Resnick In: Blood Lite (Kevin J. Anderson) Rating Out of 5: 3.5 (Liked this) My Bookshelves:Comedy, Horror, Urban fantasy Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Edge Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: He also is an occasional employee that I use when some goniff does not wish to honor his marker, and indeed he has just returned from Longshot Lamont’s, where I had sent him to collect the three large that Longshot Lamont bet on Auntie’s Panties to com ein first, and indeed the filly does come in first by seven lengths, but she comes in first in the eighth race after she goes to the post in the seventh race thirty minutes earlier.
When a zombie debt collector decides to give his boss’ money away to his new beau, you know that things are about to go a little pear shaped. When his new girl is a little more twisted than expected… well, that’s a whole new story.
What happens when your not-so-smart muscle gives away the
money he was supposed to be collecting for you? Well, in this comedy of errors,
you find out one way to deal with it. And meet a very unique couple that is
just feeling the first blossoms of love…
Throughout this entire short story things just steadily kept
getting worse and worse. More and more incorrect and confusing… and I loved how
it just steadily went downhill. Although this isn’t the most memorable of
stories, the fact atht it is just a calamity of errors and poor judgement completely
bespelled me. And even though I probably won’t be reading it again anytime
soon, I certainly enjoyed my time in this world.
Zarifa needs a bodyguard. Mad Dog needs to escape. Maybe the two of them will be able to work out a way to get what they need, while fighting their passions.
I have never read a science fiction-esque story that
features werewolves. It was so completely unexpected and new that it took me
quite a while to actually get into it. But then I realised how great an idea
the nano-bots through the blood stream were and how much I thoroughly enjoyed
this story. Now I’m hooked.
There is a fairly typical storyline throughout this paranormal romance novella – boy meets girl in unorthodox circumstances (in this case she hires him to be her bodyguard slave), they fall in lust, start to fall in love. A spanner is thrown into the works, then they realise that they want to be together forever anyway. However, the fact that the girl was an empress with combat skills who had been drugged her entire life, the boy was an incredibly powerful and deadly werewolf, and there was a royal conspiracy afoot. That’s what made this novella so different and special. Now I just have to find a new Angela Knight story to sink my teeth into…
Title: Machine Maid Author: Margo Lanagan In: The Mammoth Book of Steampunk (Sean Wallace) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Steampunk, Strong women Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: Like one girl confiding in another, like a tiny child in play with its mother or nurse, I reached out and touched Clarissa’s lower lip.
It’s hard being a new wife on the frontier… even harder when your husband won’t let you be yourself. But with a little engineering and hope, there might be a better future in store.
I was wondering how the woman in this was going to overcome her
quite clearly obnoxious husband and slightly awful circumstances. I was also
wondering what kind of message would be imparted in this steampunk short story.
And I really wasn’t disappointed…. Using wits and a bit more blood thirst than
I’m used to, she is able to free herself. But, it is only after she has done so
that she truly wonders at the cost of such an action.
This story had just enough in it that I felt incredibly
uncomfortable throughout the reading of it. And although the sick part of me kind
of loved the ending, it also made me cringe and worry. After all, there was a
hint of a completely different happily ever after. And part of me was left
wondering what would have happened if the alternate ending had have come true.
Zane is sworn to stop the demon from rising, but when he discovers who the final victim is, things take a more intense turn.
Well. This novella did not take the direction I was
expecting at all. It starts at a neighbourhood Christmas party, with a quiet
baker and an enigmatic professor. I figured that they would slowly fall in
love, have some kind of paranormal influence that helps it along (since it’s in
a paranormal romance collection) and then sweep off into the sunset to live
happily ever after. And some of that does actually happen, just not in the way
that was expected.
I haven’t read a really intense demon story in a little while – and reading this novella that features a soul-stealing demon trying to rise… at Christmas time… made me remember how much I love almost anything that features demons. There is something that is just quintessentially evil and overwhelming about a good demon story. And, by setting this against the backdrop of Christmas and a budding romance, Jones really swept me away. I stayed up way too late reading this, just to find out if they would survive.
I loved the dream sequences throughout the storyline. Not
only did they obviously warn at what was to come, but they provided subtle
clues as to the bad guy in the story and maybe even a way in which to overcome him.
The foreshadowing was brilliant, and I think that it will be one of those
stories that I will gain more out of each time I reread it.
He’s alone at Christmas time in a beautiful city, but a chance encounter at a midnight train could bless him with the future he’s always wanted.
Although there was a slight paranormal spin to this
Christmas tale, what I loved the most about it was the loneliness. Which seems
a little weird in a Christmas tale. A story that seeps loneliness from its
pores as it sweeps you through the beautiful and picturesque streets of Paris.
The deserted streets, the Christmas lights, and most importantly, the
mysterious train stations.
There was a lot going on in this short story, and I think that rereading it, I will find more clues. And maybe even rereading it after I’ve been to Paris (which is most definitely on my bucket list) will make it all the more real. But the idea of being and feeling apart and alone on Christmas is an incredibly common emotion. So the fact that Rusch took this and highlighted it worked fantastically well. Then there’s the fact that there is ultimately a happy ending which shows that no matter how lonely this Christmas is… the next one could be much, much, much better.
Title: My Own Invention Author: Delia Sherman In: Mad Hatters and March Hares (Ellen Datlow) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Fantasy, Wordplay Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Tor Year: 2017 5th sentence, 74th page: There is always an Alice in the seventh square.
The knight from the chessboard has another Alice to watch, and there is a lot of wordplay while he does so.
One of the things that I love about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the incredibly insane wordplay. The fact that nothing quite makes sense and you feel like you’re on an intense trip. Well, Sherman captures that feeling perfectly in her short story, My Own Invention. It probably didn’t help that I had had a few glasses of wine when I read this story…
This tale almost takes a tiny snippet of Through the Looking-Glass and embellishes it with the experiences of the knight. The words are still twisted upon one another, and there are a few comments about there is always an Alice (implying that there are many). Like the original Carroll tale, I’m not really 100% sure what even happened in this… but I loved every minute of it!
Title: Remember the Blood Author: Vicki Pettersson In: The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (Trisha Telep) Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect) My Bookshelves:Vampires Pace: Fast Format: Short story Publisher: Robinson Year: 2008 5th sentence, 74th page: And while the scream is gratifying, it’s the scent of his elixir, fouled though it is, that causes her appetite to rear.
Ina and Alexander are meant for each other, but what will they do to keep their immortal romance alive?
I struggled with this short story. I absolutely loved it,
but I found it quite sick and twisted, and thus a little more difficult to deal
with. Actually, I finished this story going… huh and a little bit eeeeew. Not
quite the way I normally finish a romance story.
I have read a few of Pettersson’s stories now, and one of the things that I often love about her writing is the fact that it is never quite what I expect and it always leaves me feeling entertained and bemused. This short story, featuring a couple that will literally sacrifice anything to have their immortality together certainly left me feeling a little perplexed. It took a new spin on vampirism and what must be sacrificed for immortality. A new take on the ways in which we keep our love and romance alive in a long-term relationship. Although, not a way in which I would ever suggest keeping romance alive if you have a conscience…
Title: Like a Red, Red Rose Author: Susan Wade In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling) Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again) My Bookshelves:Fairy tales, Romance Pace: Medium Format: Short story Publisher: Signet Year: 1993 5th sentence, 74th page: Only now the roses blushed, their petals a rich, true pink.
Blanche and her mother live on the outskirts of the local village, but when Blanche begins to fall in love, everything quickly starts to unravel and secrets will be revealed.
There’s something about fairy tales that I love. Have honestly always loved. Probably because they were what I grew up on. But there is also this lyricality and sense of surrealism that I just don’t get from any other type of writing. Recently, I read a series of fairy tales from The Grimm Brothers, and Like a Red, Red Rose worked in exactly the same way for me. It had that sense of darkness (which I always love) and the surrealistic lyricism that I know and love.
Because there is a dark twist in this fairy tale, these
don’t necessarily make the best of bedtime tales. For a normal person. I’m not
normal, and I freaking love dark twists to in any and all stories that I sink
my teeth into. When this is partnered with a story of roses, love and tragedy… be
still my beating heart.
In the introduction to this, it says that Wade wanted to write a Rapunzel / Beauty and the Beast style story. One which had a heavy emphasis on the roses that feature prominently in both (or at least the earlier versions). What she got was something completely different. And far more grimm-ly in its telling and creation. Now I can’t wait to see what else is in store in this collection!
Earth and Skye 