#15: My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon, Butcher,et al, St. Martin's Griffin, Jan 2008

Score: 5 !!!

This collection of paranormal short stories all have the theme of a honeymoon. In Stalked (Armstrong), we have the belated honeymoon of werewolves Elena and Clayton. In Heorot (Butcher), Dresden is called to the aid of a groom whose bride has disappeared.  Roman Holiday, or SPO-arrrrrr (Caine), Cecilia Lockhart, who met her new pirate husband in their previous story from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, is now headed off to his pirate ship for their wedding reception and party. In Her Mother’s Daughter (Elrod), Jack Fleming relates his latest case from The Vampire Files when a gangster’s daughter hires him to find her missing bridegroom. Newlydeads (Kittredge) introduces Jack and his female lead, Pete, as they try to have a little vacation from it all.  Where the Heart Lives (Liu), gives us a prequel to her Dirk & Steele series where a little girl becomes key in helping a bridegroom and his wife. Cat Got Your Tongue (MacAlister) shows the readers what happens during Raphael St. John’s honeymoon and answers the question of where Raphael got those amber eyes.  Half of Being Married (Saintcrow) explains that “when a werewolf marries a vampire hunter, the honeymoon can be a killer…”  Thompson rounds out the book with A Wulf in Groom’s Clothing where fans get to see Sam Wulf face the complexities of a honeymoon under a full moon.

I loved the first anthology, My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding and had been eagerly awaiting it’s sequel along with many other fans. My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon does not disappoint and was worth the wait.  We are lucky to have new stories from returning authors Butcher, Elrod and Caine as well as new entries from blockbuster authors MacAlister, Armstrong and Liu.  With this impressive slate of contributors, how could the result be less than spectacular? I particularly liked that several of the stories (Butcher, Elrod, Armstrong and Saintcrow) were written in first person from the male character’s point of view.

While several of the stories were related to the authors’ popular series, readers new to their work could follow the action with no problem. Elrod’s Fleming is a delightful character with his signature  “Sam Spade” type voice, and Butcher’s Dresden is as self-depreciatingly fatalistic as ever about finding himself in the middle of yet another tight spot. I loved the chance of revisiting Caine’s undead pirate captain from the previous “My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding” anthology.  While we lost the surprise element of the unexpected and delightfully different setting this time around, the further adventures of the characters was enjoyable, and the ending seemed to leave room for more stories about Cecilia and Liam.  

Newlydeads (Kittredge) introduces characters Pete and Jack in Black London.  They will be the stars of a new series beginning later this year.  This was probably the most difficult of the stories for me to follow, in part, because of the frequent use of English idioms that in many cases were not familiar to me.  Pete and Jack’s relationship with each other was also confusing, as we were sort of dropped into the middle of their association with one another. But the action was exciting, and the characters grew on me as the story progressed.

Likewise, Liu’s story was described as a prequel to the Dirk & Steele series.  I have not yet had the opportunity to read this series, (I’m searching for them even as we speak!) and it was not clear to me how this story had anything to do with that series since none of the characters in this story were named Dirk or Steele.  Nevertheless, that fact was inconsequential to the enjoyment factor of the story presented, and I totally loved Liu’s style and look forward to reading her backfiles.

Armstrong’s Stalked was a fun romp as was MacAlister’s Cat Got Your Tongue, although in the later case, the resolution came too quickly as I was hoping for more exploration of the intriguing situation that the story set up.  I really loved the pairing of the vampire hunter with the werewolf in Saintcrow’s story and was disappointed to read on her blog that she had no plans for featuring Kat and Mitch in their own full-length novel.  We were especially blessed to have one final and delightful look at a descendant of the Wild Wulfs of London in the last story of this collection; the world lost author Ronda Thompson earlier this past summer to cancer and her contributions will be greatly missed.

This review is courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques

Harlequin Imprints: 8 Other Publishers: 7

Crystal
100,000 Books Blog: crystalrclass