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kathydavie's review against another edition
3.0
Four paranormal short stories with Christmas as the theme.
Series:
"Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" (The Hollows, 0.2)
"The Harvest" (Signs of the Zodiac, 1.5)
The Stories
Kim Harrison's "Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" is a snapshot into Rachel's life before she joins Inderland Security and is her first meeting with Gordian Pierce.
You can find this short in Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond---a much better deal as it provides all the current Kim Harrison short stories for The Hollows.
Lynsay Sands' "Run, Run, Rudolph" is a cute idea, but Jill is such a dork! She keeps losing her shapeshifting control. She has stupid ideas. She never leaves a message to warn her brother or his wife. I mean, duhhh… Although, the ending was pretty funny.
Marjorie M. Liu's "Six" is a combination of secret agent, vampires, and necromancers battling it out for domination in Shanghai. I'd love to find out if this is a series as it has some intriguing possibilities. And we don't get many urban fantasies based in Asia!
Vicki Pettersson's "Harvest" is just after Zoe Archer has given up her superhero abilities to her daughter Joanne to fulfill a prophecy told her by the Seer. But then her newborn granddaughter is kidnapped, and Zoe is determined to get her back.
I've had Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac on my TBR pile, but I have to wonder if I want to read it. What with all the duh-what moments in this story. Why would a baby need to go into witness protection? Why publish every little detail of what you did on a mission and everything you learned where, I assume, the bad guys can read it? If Zoe investigated Ashlyn's new adoptive parents so exhaustively, wouldn't she know what they looked like?
The Cover
The cover is a montage of each story and I can't tell if the sexy, knife-brandishing Mrs. Santa is walking on a cloud or on snow towards the sunlit collection of headstones with bats flying around them.
The title tells it like it is, Holidays are Hell.
Series:
"Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" (The Hollows, 0.2)
"The Harvest" (Signs of the Zodiac, 1.5)
The Stories
Kim Harrison's "Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" is a snapshot into Rachel's life before she joins Inderland Security and is her first meeting with Gordian Pierce.
You can find this short in Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond---a much better deal as it provides all the current Kim Harrison short stories for The Hollows.
Lynsay Sands' "Run, Run, Rudolph" is a cute idea, but Jill is such a dork! She keeps losing her shapeshifting control. She has stupid ideas. She never leaves a message to warn her brother or his wife. I mean, duhhh… Although, the ending was pretty funny.
Marjorie M. Liu's "Six" is a combination of secret agent, vampires, and necromancers battling it out for domination in Shanghai. I'd love to find out if this is a series as it has some intriguing possibilities. And we don't get many urban fantasies based in Asia!
Vicki Pettersson's "Harvest" is just after Zoe Archer has given up her superhero abilities to her daughter Joanne to fulfill a prophecy told her by the Seer. But then her newborn granddaughter is kidnapped, and Zoe is determined to get her back.
I've had Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac on my TBR pile, but I have to wonder if I want to read it. What with all the duh-what moments in this story. Why would a baby need to go into witness protection? Why publish every little detail of what you did on a mission and everything you learned where, I assume, the bad guys can read it? If Zoe investigated Ashlyn's new adoptive parents so exhaustively, wouldn't she know what they looked like?
The Cover
The cover is a montage of each story and I can't tell if the sexy, knife-brandishing Mrs. Santa is walking on a cloud or on snow towards the sunlit collection of headstones with bats flying around them.
The title tells it like it is, Holidays are Hell.
badseedgirl's review against another edition
2.0
There was just too much soft core porn in these stories for me to enjoy them all that much. Plus all of these short stories were about characters or settings from established series, so it was not as enjoyable for me to read them without reading the source materials.
alikatson's review against another edition
5.0
Reading for Kim Harrison's short story, Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel.
This story is set when Rachel is 18, still living with her mom, and getting ready to apply to the IS. She needs parent approval and is concerned her mom will turn her down. Her long absent brother is also visiting and they make a bet that if she can raise the spirit of their father, and he approves of her career choice then her brother will sign the form (as a legal guardian).
Wow, this was great! I feel like it really helped me understand Rachel a lot more - and to have patience with some of her crazy seeming decisions. I did not realize she was
Also, her brother taking off just after her father's death must have been doubly painful. I love hearing about her dad.
Pierce was interesting... maybe too nice?.
This story is set when Rachel is 18, still living with her mom, and getting ready to apply to the IS. She needs parent approval and is concerned her mom will turn her down. Her long absent brother is also visiting and they make a bet that if she can raise the spirit of their father, and he approves of her career choice then her brother will sign the form (as a legal guardian).
Wow, this was great! I feel like it really helped me understand Rachel a lot more - and to have patience with some of her crazy seeming decisions. I did not realize she was
Spoiler
still quite sickly at 18. Listening to her family talk about her and how physically weak she was must have been hard (even though they did not know she was eavesdropping). It is obvious she constantly pushes the limits.Also, her brother taking off just after her father's death must have been doubly painful. I love hearing about her dad.
Pierce was interesting... maybe too nice?
cheesygiraffe's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed all 4 stories but my favorite was the young Rachel one by Kim Harrison.
bikes_books_yarn's review against another edition
3.0
I have read Kim Harrison and Vicki Pettersson books and enjoyed them. So when I saw that they were 2 of the 4 authors listed on this book I picked it up. I enjoyed the Lynsay Sands story well enough to pick up a few of her books. The other author Marjorie M. Liu was actually quite good too. Of the 4 stories that is the one I still remember and in pretty good detail. I might have to read something else of hers. I think I have been hesitant because I lean toward books with more light and humor and this short story definetly lacked that.
vikingwolf's review against another edition
2.0
I got this book to read the Kim Harrison story introducing a young Rachel Morgan. It was a decent enough story but the ghost that she was helping annoyed me with the way he was talking. Yes I know he's from a different era but the sentence structure used was all over the place-confusing and not making much sense. It did detract from the story a bit. And with Rachel's experience of the people working at IS in this story, it's beyond me why she wanted to work there. I also despised her obnoxious brother who puts her down non stop throughout the story.
jlaynereads's review against another edition
5.0
Loved it!
Loved each story and even found a new author or two!
Loved each story and even found a new author or two!
jsmith3's review against another edition
5.0
Keep in mind that I only read Kim Harrison's short story, and I've never read anything by Sands or Liu. I love the Zodiac series by Pettersson, but was unable to get into it, because it was told from Johanna's mother's point-of-view.
I loved Kim Harrison's short story. It took the reader to an important time in Rachel's past, and to meet important characters for the first time. I've never really liked Pierce, but after finishing this story I actually like him now. I also loved that we could see Rachel when she was still recovering from her illness, and I liked seeing how hard it was on Rachel to even do a run, but she still persevered. I liked seeing Rachel's determination and strength when she was still recovering and weak. A fantastic shorty story that gives the Hollows' fans a little background on Rachel's past.
I loved Kim Harrison's short story. It took the reader to an important time in Rachel's past, and to meet important characters for the first time. I've never really liked Pierce, but after finishing this story I actually like him now. I also loved that we could see Rachel when she was still recovering from her illness, and I liked seeing how hard it was on Rachel to even do a run, but she still persevered. I liked seeing Rachel's determination and strength when she was still recovering and weak. A fantastic shorty story that gives the Hollows' fans a little background on Rachel's past.
mleetm's review against another edition
5.0
I read only the story by Kim Harrison: two ghosts for sister Rachel. It was poignant and touching. Short but powerful in its message. I liked it a lot, which is surprising since it has such a different tone from the main series. Many kudos.