Unbound

Sometimes I'm just busy and want short stories to hold me over. Usually I am disappointed. This was a wonderful collection! Good authors - fun snippets!

I really enjoyed these short stories, especially Kim Harrison's. Being a fan of the Hallows, I was very pleased to have read a story with Jinks as the lead character. It was funny and intense and I'd recomend this book to anyone.

Ley Line Drifter by Kim Harrison I bought this anthology specifically for this story because I'm a huge fan of Harrison's Hollows series. In this novella Rachel is away and Jenks takes center stage. It was really interesting to not have Rachel around at all, and yet see how much influence she's had on Jenks with their association. I felt like the story was not the main thing here, and that it was instead just the framework used to let us get a more detailed look at the social customs and life cycle of pixies. Jenks is hired by another pixie who's family and home is being threatened by a mysterious statue. It falls to Jenks to put together a team and run the investigation, a role he hasn't taken on before. Bis, the resident teenage gargoyle, is tapped to be his backup and Jenks also decides to start training one of his sons to follow in his footsteps. The issue with the statue, while central to the mystery Jenks is trying to solve, takes back seat in the story to following along with Jenks as he figures out how he should proceed and the plans he makes. Ivy fans also get an interesting peek at her near the end, seeing what she's like when Rachel isn't around. The immediate threat is resolved in the story, but it's also left very open ended because Jenks made a big mistake. One that I wanted to bop him over the head for repeatedly during the story because he never asked the all important question, Why. I guess he needed to learn that lesson the hard way. Reckoning by Jeaniene Frost I haven't read anything by Frost before so I'm not familiar with her characters or world. The story was written in a way that this didn't create a barrier to enjoying the story or understanding what was going on or who was who. Even her unique distinction of ghouls and vampires was easily picked up without needing any extensive exposition. This story is basically a hunt, with the vampire Bones after two evil ghouls, and it turns out someone is also after Bones, just to keep things interesting and moving along at a nice fast pace. It's a pretty straight forward story with a couple minor twists, but no real complexity or serious surprises. The ending was bittersweet and also provides us with a scene with a fascinating female vampire of incredible power. Something I consider a big plus to any story. The story is self-contained with no loose ends left dangling. Though it does leave some possibilities to be carried over in the way of a couple debts owed. Not having read the series itself I don't know if they've ever actually come into play. Dark Matters by Vicki Pettersson I have read the first two books in Pettersson's Zodiac series, but it was when they were first published, so it's been a while and details of events are pretty hazy by this point and I don't know anything about what's happened in the more recent books. But that wasn't a problem since this story is a prequel about how the Kairos came to be conceived. One thing that had frustrated me with the series, a

SYNOPSIS: Five very unusual stories about paranormal characters, some of which were new types for me. All of the stories were exceptionally well written. This anthology can be an opportunity to sample works by authors you have wondered about but never tried. "Ley Line Drifter", Kim Harrison, pixy Jenks really wants to help Vincet protect his family from whatever force is taking over the body of his daughter each night. Jenks discovers that a dryad is trapped inside a stone statue in the park where Vincet has made his home. With the help of his son Jumoke, his gargoyle friend Bis and Ivy, a vampire, they all take on the job of freeing the dryad. But is that really the best solution for this problem? ***I think the writing of this story was top notch but this author certainly didn't do me any favors in filling in the blanks concerning the pixy world. I don't know if this is a part of a series she has done and these are continuing characters but I felt like I had been thrown in at the deep end of the pool. I don't know about pixies, I don't know about the pixy world, I don't know about their relationships with humans. Even though I enjoyed this story I always felt that there was a much larger picture I didn't see. A little basic pixy information would have been nice. "Reckoning", Jeaniene Frost, vampire and ghouls Bones has been summoned by Marie Laveau, the Queen of New Orleans, to take on a job. When he arrives he finds that the Queen is not in town and he will be working with an associate of hers. The job is to track down two ghouls who are kidnapping and murdering ordinary humans in town to enjoy the Mardi Gras celebrations. Bones finds a human woman who saw one of the ghouls and thralls her into helping him search the city for the pair. As if that wasn't enough, it seems that a bounty has been put on his life and someone is determined to collect the money. ***I had a bit of a shock when I began reading this story because I've only met Bones before in the Night Huntress series where he is very definitely associated with Cat. Cat never is mentioned at all in this story so I was a tiny bit off balance all the time wondering when she would appear. She never does so don't look for her. In fact, there is no mention of her at all. I can only suppose this story was written before the Night Huntress series. A really well written story and Bones just has to be my favorite vampire hero in print. "Dark Matters", Vicki Pettersson, superheroes and Shadows JJ was only five years old when his superhero parents were killed by Shadows. Now he has been a fully trained superhero for a long time and he is starting to wonder if it is really worth protecting humans from tragedy and disasters. They don't even realize they are being saved so what is the point. Then JJ meets Solange and he falls in love, a forbidden love because Solange is a Shadow and his kinds worst enemy. ***This was more of a love story for me. The paranormal almost seeme

"Unbound" is a collection of five stories by various different paranormal authors. I bought this book the day it came out for Kim Harrison and Jeannene Frost's stories. I am not a huge fan of anthologies in general but I had to get this one. "Ley Line Drifter" by Kim Harrison - * * * This is the story of Jenks the pixy and Bis the gargoyle attempting to solve a paranormal private investigation case. Jenks usually works with Rachel, but he is eager to help save another pixy's young children. I adore Jenks, always have and always will. Unfortunately a closer glimpse of Jenks and his family is the only thing recommending this story. The mystery of two statues inhabited by a demon and a nymph is too vaguely constructed to be compelling and the ending is far too abrupt. I get the feeling we will hear from these characters again in the future but in this story I didn't' find them too interesting. As a whole the story was unsatisfying Still the pages of family time visiting Jenks, his wife and their children was definitely enjoyable and worth reading. "Reckoning" by Jeanene Frost * * * * * This novella is about Bones, before he met Cat, and how he came to be hired in New Orleans to kill a pair of ghoul serial killers. In sixty pages, Frost manages to tell a complete and engaging paranormal tale. It beings with Bones getting a call to New Orleans and follows him as he hunts and finds the killers. There are several other characters who appear through the tale whom we have never read about in Frost's series. Still Frost makes us feel like we know these fleshed out characters. This story isn't going to change how you read the "Night Huntress" series and you won't miss anything vital if you don't read this novella. Still every page is entertainment in its purest form. Unlike Harrison's tale before it, "Reckoning" has a complete ending which I was completely happy with. "Dark Matter" by Vicki Petterson * * * * This is a short story set in the same superhero world as Joanna Archer's, where Light agents battle Shadow agents in a war of good versus evil. Joanna, the main character from the Signs of the Zodiac series, is missing here (mostly) as the story takes place before Joanna learns that she is to be the Kairos, a powerful woman made up on fboth light and dark who would tip the scales in favor of which ever side she chose to fight with. Instead this is a story about another Light agent J.J.. JJ falls in love with a shadow agent, and must deal with the fallout from that. This story is gripping and easy to read. My complaint with the Zodiac series is that it is bogged down and events unfold so quickly that it is hard to keep track of everything. Not the case here. Dark Matter is a powerful story that should be a must read for follower's of Petterson's series. It was sad and somewhat shocking at the end, but that only made me want to rush to read the newest book, "City of Souls". Maybe if I had already read that fourth installment,