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beebz2783's review against another edition
4.0
Just read richelle mead's part and as always Georgina always cracks me up and Seth never fails to charm me...
inmyhumbleopinion's review against another edition
2.0
I'll come back and review this again after I've re-read it. I bought it because I like Lynsay Sands work. The Lynsay Sands story was an old one from 2003. I have read some of Ms Howells work and enjoyed it. I'm not sure if the other 2 stories in this book really turned me off that bad or maybe my head was just in a bad place when I read it. I will re-read at a later date and see if I can raise the rating.
jazzrizz's review against another edition
3.0
I really enjoyed Howell & Sands stories. The other two okay.
lindaunconventionalbookworms's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the Succubus story well enough, the Bite story not so much - I can't even finish it...
As usual, I am quite mitigated when it comes to anthologies, I need to learn to stop buying these, I think.
catpingu's review against another edition
3.0
This might actually be one of the ones that give succubi-protagonist stories its not-so-exciting reputation. It's actually super, super mundane and disappointing. Probably because I'm a RomanxGeorgina shipper.
Georgina's getaway with her human author-boyfriend Seth takes a turn for business when her boss, archdemon of Seattle, Jerome, pulls rank to order her to be his proxy to a tribunal in the (ironically named in this situation) "City of Angels". Georgina now has to deal with a little more than a dozen unruly, corrupt demon jurors ready and willing to sentence innocent suspects to punishment (because they're demons, and demons just don't die very well). With her sense of real justice and a nagging feeling that something isn't right with what's going on in court, Georgina sets out to find the truth; leaving Seth to work on his next novel, in the company of a young human waitress who just seems to get on Georgina's nerves...
Honestly the romanctic part makes more sense than the tribunal stuff. The tribunal stuff went way over my head, because the details were just so vague and obviously were JUST THERE. There really wasn't a lot of meaning behind it, except a way for Georgina to realize her insecurities in her relationship with Seth.
I should mention that I'm all for immortalximmortal relationships, and only immortalxhuman if the human eventually becomes and immortal. Somehow, I don't think that's going to work with Seth. So I disapprove of this relationship. Shouldn't I enjoy this, then? No. Because this little side story somehow paints Georgina as a petty bitch, when we all know she's more than that.
This one honestly nearly made me just stop reading. But I can't resist this, because, as I have mentioned so many times before [I'm not even going to say it at this point it'd be too redundant and boring].
Georgina's getaway with her human author-boyfriend Seth takes a turn for business when her boss, archdemon of Seattle, Jerome, pulls rank to order her to be his proxy to a tribunal in the (ironically named in this situation) "City of Angels". Georgina now has to deal with a little more than a dozen unruly, corrupt demon jurors ready and willing to sentence innocent suspects to punishment (because they're demons, and demons just don't die very well). With her sense of real justice and a nagging feeling that something isn't right with what's going on in court, Georgina sets out to find the truth; leaving Seth to work on his next novel, in the company of a young human waitress who just seems to get on Georgina's nerves...
Honestly the romanctic part makes more sense than the tribunal stuff. The tribunal stuff went way over my head, because the details were just so vague and obviously were JUST THERE. There really wasn't a lot of meaning behind it, except a way for Georgina to realize her insecurities in her relationship with Seth.
I should mention that I'm all for immortalximmortal relationships, and only immortalxhuman if the human eventually becomes and immortal. Somehow, I don't think that's going to work with Seth. So I disapprove of this relationship. Shouldn't I enjoy this, then? No. Because this little side story somehow paints Georgina as a petty bitch, when we all know she's more than that.
This one honestly nearly made me just stop reading. But I can't resist this, because, as I have mentioned so many times before [I'm not even going to say it at this point it'd be too redundant and boring].
lesliethewanderlust's review against another edition
4.0
In this mini story Georgina is sent to LA to be a part of a jury at a trial that concerns one demon killing another. With bribes being thrown at her from each of the accused, Georgina does what she seems to be known for — rejects them all and looks for the killer.
The second story line is her complicated relationship with Seth, and his attraction to someone who isn't Georgina. The relationship is a constant form of stress for Georgina, and as sweet as they are it is just becoming more and more unrealistic to keep up.
City of Demons was a quick, fun read and gave fans more incite into Seth and Georgina's problems. Onto book #3.
The second story line is her complicated relationship with Seth, and his attraction to someone who isn't Georgina. The relationship is a constant form of stress for Georgina, and as sweet as they are it is just becoming more and more unrealistic to keep up.
City of Demons was a quick, fun read and gave fans more incite into Seth and Georgina's problems. Onto book #3.
filunara's review against another edition
3.0
One great story, two good ones and one that I didn't really like. The last one was rather okay except for the fact that Keeran reminded me a tad too much of a certain 'Edward' aka "I'm a monster, a beast, I don't deserve to be loved blah blah blah". And Emily? Hello Bella! But all in all it was okay.
sarah1984's review against another edition
SPOILERS
6/1 - This book has two novellas in it that are part of series, one of which I'm in the middle of - Richelle Mead's Georgina Kincaid series - so I only read the novella which was of interest to me at this point in time. That's the only novella I'm reviewing right now, I'll come back later and review the rest of the stories once I've read them.
I enjoyed City of Demons to the tune of 3.5 stars. I thought it was a good addition to the series, plotwise, but not so much characterwise. I did not like the side of Georgina that we saw in this novella. She turned into a stupid, paranoid, jealous girlfriend, more like a mortal than she should be. I was really rooting for Seth to have worked out who 'Beth' really was, and for him to have simply been playing along with Georgina in some kind of couples 'game'. I was disappointed with the 'no resolution' resolution in regards to Georgina's little game of hide and seek, the story would definitely have ended better if Seth had known (or been told) about what was happening. To be continued when I read the rest of the stories...
6/1 - This book has two novellas in it that are part of series, one of which I'm in the middle of - Richelle Mead's Georgina Kincaid series - so I only read the novella which was of interest to me at this point in time. That's the only novella I'm reviewing right now, I'll come back later and review the rest of the stories once I've read them.
I enjoyed City of Demons to the tune of 3.5 stars. I thought it was a good addition to the series, plotwise, but not so much characterwise. I did not like the side of Georgina that we saw in this novella. She turned into a stupid, paranoid, jealous girlfriend, more like a mortal than she should be. I was really rooting for Seth to have worked out who 'Beth' really was, and for him to have simply been playing along with Georgina in some kind of couples 'game'. I was disappointed with the 'no resolution' resolution in regards to Georgina's little game of hide and seek, the story would definitely have ended better if Seth had known (or been told) about what was happening. To be continued when I read the rest of the stories...
familiar_diversions's review against another edition
3.0
"The Yearning" by Hannah Howell
I think this is by far the most awful story in this anthology. It isn't really the plot, which, while tired and unoriginal, isn't totally awful, and it isn't really the characters, who aren't given a chance to really shine but who also aren't gratingly annoying. The problem is certain idiotic details and Howell's by-the-numbers hideous Scottish accents.
The story begins in Scotland, 1000 A.D., with a woman scorned who just happens to have magic powers. She puts a curse on the man who left her pregnant and alone, while he went off and married someone else for money. Unfortunately, the curse not only affects him and his line, but her and her line as well. The women in her line fall in love, only to lose that love, and tend to be rich but miserable. His line always marries for money, land, and/or power and suffers from a curse that slowly turns them into something that I think might be cross between a werewolf and a vampire. Fast forward to Scotland, 1435, and Sophie, from the witch's line, tries to break the curse by going to Alpin, from the man's line. Sophie has a maid with quirks, and Alpin has a man who's loyal and bland.
I won't go into any more detail, but you should already know it ends happily. There were many things about this story that bugged me, so here's a few examples. First, the horrible accents. It's like some sort of hideous word game: man = mon (except for one early bit where Howell messed up and used "man" instead), no = nay, you = ye, very = verra, know = ken, aren't = arenae, and so on. "Mon" grated on my nerves the most. Second, these characters are stupid. Although the curse ends in a way that should make it clear how it can be broken, every character who finds out or realizes how to break the curse acts like it's the most amazing epiphany. Finally, more stupidity. Alpin avoids having sex with Sophie because "she probably did not understand how to prevent a child from taking root" (p. 48) - even if she is a virgin, she's a HEALER, of course she knows the birth control techniques for her time.
"A Hell of a Time" by Jackie Kessler
After Howell's story, this one was a relief. A former succubus (Jesse) is on a romantic getaway with her boyfriend (Paul), a sexy and lawful cop. Because she doesn't want to keep reminding him that she used to be a demon/succubus, she spends their time there desperately trying to keep him from finding out that the greenery at and near the cabin is trying to kill her.
I liked the relationship between Paul and Jesse enough that I think I'll try one of Kessler's books, since I'm assuming this story is based on characters from an actual novel. I'm also interested in the "former demon adjusting to being human for the sake of love" idea. Despite being a succubus, the sex, while graphic, wasn't as graphic as what you might find in, say, an [a:Angela Knight|23|Angela Knight|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1225599576p2/23.jpg] novel. I appreciated that. It also seemed to me that Paul and Jesse were probably going to sit down in a future book/story and have a talk about sex not being the most important thing in their relationship - Jesse seems to have difficulty being around Paul without trying to have sex, and Paul, although he appreciates it, seems to be cluing in to the idea that Jesse might not be as secure in the aspects of their relationship that don't involve sex.
My only complaint about this story is that it begins with a demon of Gluttony that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story, even emotionally. It was interesting, and started off the story with some action, but it was also unimportant, unless Kessler was using this story as a way to set up the beginnings of a plot for a future book.
"City of Demons" by Richelle Mead
Although this story isn't as good as Kessler's, it didn't even approach the badness of Howell's story. However, since this story also involves a succubus, comparisons to Kessler's story are unavoidable. Plot-wise, I thought this story was, sometimes, more interesting than Kessler's (this one has some murder mystery aspects), but relationship-wise it wasn't that good.
In this story, a succubus (Georgie) is unwillingly roped into being a juror during a demonic murder tribunal. Luckily for her, although this is interrupting her romantic vacation with her boyfriend (Seth) - doesn't that sound familiar? - she gets to take him with her. Georgie's the only juror actually trying to figure out what really happened - everyone else plans on voting according to whichever one of the accused gives the best bribes. While she's dealing with that, she's also worried that Seth might be considering cheating on her with a waitress named Beth. Just a little background on this: Georgie can't have sex with Seth, since she'd suck out his life force if she did that, so instead she masturbates in front of him. She's also told him that it's fine with her if he goes and has sex with someone else, since her status as a succubus means she regularly has to have sex with other people. However, she doesn't really mean it and spends much of this story obsessing over Seth's behavior around Beth.
Although Georgie and Seth seemed like they might be nice enough characters, and the world Mead created sounds interesting, I'm not sure if I want to pick up a book by her. Seth and Georgie's relationship has some serious rockiness ahead, of the kind that stresses me out when I read it. I don't read romance to get stressed out. Anyway, it sounds like Mead's books (and maybe Kessler's) aren't so much romance as they are contemporary fantasy with graphic sex.
"Bitten" by Lynsay Sands
I think this story begins in Scotland in some indeterminate time in the past (it's not really very clear). Keeran's entire family is killed by a vampire, and he is turned into one. Years later (I was guessing it was the late 1800s, but I'm not the best one for figuring this kind of stuff out), he's living alone in a castle with two elderly servants when he saves a woman named Emily as her ship is going down. Emily was going off to marry a horrible earl so that he could have some of her money and her uncle could have some of his prestige. With her uncle dead after the shipwreck, Emily figures she's got a bit of time to consider what she's going to do about her future, so she sticks around, uses immense amounts of energy and stubbornness to get the castle cleaned, and gets to know Keeran better. For most of the story, she knows that people are afraid of him, but she doesn't know why.
It feels like the structure of this book was two succubus (or former succubus) stories that were heavier on the "paranormal" than on the "romance" (sorry, I don't think sex scenes automatically make something a romance), framed by two more traditional romantic stories featuring brooding, blood-drinking Scots. Of the two more traditional stories, I like this one better. Sands did a little of the accent thing, mostly with Mrs. MacBain, one of the servants, but it wasn't anywhere near as annoying as Howell's accents. Also, although I felt I'd read this particular story many times before (pretty, energetic, and innocent blond slowly thaws dark, brooding blood-drinker who doesn't feel he deserves her), I still enjoyed it. This story felt different from Sands' Argeneau series. That series focuses on a family of vampires, and in many of the books (maybe all, but I can't remember at the moment) wackiness ensues. Vampirism works a little differently in those books, too. In that series, vampires have little nanos in their bloodstreams that repair all damage to their cells, even damage caused by the sun, but the more the nanos have to work, the more blood they require to feed them.
I guess you could say I mostly liked this anthology. I read anthologies in order to get a taste of different authors and decide if I want to try getting through one of their novels. After reading this, I think I'll pick up something by Jackie Kessler and maybe Richelle Mead. I've already read a lot of Lynsay Sands' Argeneau series and have sort of gotten tired of it, but if she's starting something new I might pick it up to see if she's stopped doing some of the things in her writing that were getting on my nerves. I will not be picking up anything by Hannah Howell unless I'm desperate.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I think this is by far the most awful story in this anthology. It isn't really the plot, which, while tired and unoriginal, isn't totally awful, and it isn't really the characters, who aren't given a chance to really shine but who also aren't gratingly annoying. The problem is certain idiotic details and Howell's by-the-numbers hideous Scottish accents.
The story begins in Scotland, 1000 A.D., with a woman scorned who just happens to have magic powers. She puts a curse on the man who left her pregnant and alone, while he went off and married someone else for money. Unfortunately, the curse not only affects him and his line, but her and her line as well. The women in her line fall in love, only to lose that love, and tend to be rich but miserable. His line always marries for money, land, and/or power and suffers from a curse that slowly turns them into something that I think might be cross between a werewolf and a vampire. Fast forward to Scotland, 1435, and Sophie, from the witch's line, tries to break the curse by going to Alpin, from the man's line. Sophie has a maid with quirks, and Alpin has a man who's loyal and bland.
I won't go into any more detail, but you should already know it ends happily. There were many things about this story that bugged me, so here's a few examples. First, the horrible accents. It's like some sort of hideous word game: man = mon (except for one early bit where Howell messed up and used "man" instead), no = nay, you = ye, very = verra, know = ken, aren't = arenae, and so on. "Mon" grated on my nerves the most. Second, these characters are stupid. Although the curse ends in a way that should make it clear how it can be broken, every character who finds out or realizes how to break the curse acts like it's the most amazing epiphany. Finally, more stupidity. Alpin avoids having sex with Sophie because "she probably did not understand how to prevent a child from taking root" (p. 48) - even if she is a virgin, she's a HEALER, of course she knows the birth control techniques for her time.
"A Hell of a Time" by Jackie Kessler
After Howell's story, this one was a relief. A former succubus (Jesse) is on a romantic getaway with her boyfriend (Paul), a sexy and lawful cop. Because she doesn't want to keep reminding him that she used to be a demon/succubus, she spends their time there desperately trying to keep him from finding out that the greenery at and near the cabin is trying to kill her.
I liked the relationship between Paul and Jesse enough that I think I'll try one of Kessler's books, since I'm assuming this story is based on characters from an actual novel. I'm also interested in the "former demon adjusting to being human for the sake of love" idea. Despite being a succubus, the sex, while graphic, wasn't as graphic as what you might find in, say, an [a:Angela Knight|23|Angela Knight|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1225599576p2/23.jpg] novel. I appreciated that. It also seemed to me that Paul and Jesse were probably going to sit down in a future book/story and have a talk about sex not being the most important thing in their relationship - Jesse seems to have difficulty being around Paul without trying to have sex, and Paul, although he appreciates it, seems to be cluing in to the idea that Jesse might not be as secure in the aspects of their relationship that don't involve sex.
My only complaint about this story is that it begins with a demon of Gluttony that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story, even emotionally. It was interesting, and started off the story with some action, but it was also unimportant, unless Kessler was using this story as a way to set up the beginnings of a plot for a future book.
"City of Demons" by Richelle Mead
Although this story isn't as good as Kessler's, it didn't even approach the badness of Howell's story. However, since this story also involves a succubus, comparisons to Kessler's story are unavoidable. Plot-wise, I thought this story was, sometimes, more interesting than Kessler's (this one has some murder mystery aspects), but relationship-wise it wasn't that good.
In this story, a succubus (Georgie) is unwillingly roped into being a juror during a demonic murder tribunal. Luckily for her, although this is interrupting her romantic vacation with her boyfriend (Seth) - doesn't that sound familiar? - she gets to take him with her. Georgie's the only juror actually trying to figure out what really happened - everyone else plans on voting according to whichever one of the accused gives the best bribes. While she's dealing with that, she's also worried that Seth might be considering cheating on her with a waitress named Beth. Just a little background on this: Georgie can't have sex with Seth, since she'd suck out his life force if she did that, so instead she masturbates in front of him. She's also told him that it's fine with her if he goes and has sex with someone else, since her status as a succubus means she regularly has to have sex with other people. However, she doesn't really mean it and spends much of this story obsessing over Seth's behavior around Beth.
Although Georgie and Seth seemed like they might be nice enough characters, and the world Mead created sounds interesting, I'm not sure if I want to pick up a book by her. Seth and Georgie's relationship has some serious rockiness ahead, of the kind that stresses me out when I read it. I don't read romance to get stressed out. Anyway, it sounds like Mead's books (and maybe Kessler's) aren't so much romance as they are contemporary fantasy with graphic sex.
"Bitten" by Lynsay Sands
I think this story begins in Scotland in some indeterminate time in the past (it's not really very clear). Keeran's entire family is killed by a vampire, and he is turned into one. Years later (I was guessing it was the late 1800s, but I'm not the best one for figuring this kind of stuff out), he's living alone in a castle with two elderly servants when he saves a woman named Emily as her ship is going down. Emily was going off to marry a horrible earl so that he could have some of her money and her uncle could have some of his prestige. With her uncle dead after the shipwreck, Emily figures she's got a bit of time to consider what she's going to do about her future, so she sticks around, uses immense amounts of energy and stubbornness to get the castle cleaned, and gets to know Keeran better. For most of the story, she knows that people are afraid of him, but she doesn't know why.
It feels like the structure of this book was two succubus (or former succubus) stories that were heavier on the "paranormal" than on the "romance" (sorry, I don't think sex scenes automatically make something a romance), framed by two more traditional romantic stories featuring brooding, blood-drinking Scots. Of the two more traditional stories, I like this one better. Sands did a little of the accent thing, mostly with Mrs. MacBain, one of the servants, but it wasn't anywhere near as annoying as Howell's accents. Also, although I felt I'd read this particular story many times before (pretty, energetic, and innocent blond slowly thaws dark, brooding blood-drinker who doesn't feel he deserves her), I still enjoyed it. This story felt different from Sands' Argeneau series. That series focuses on a family of vampires, and in many of the books (maybe all, but I can't remember at the moment) wackiness ensues. Vampirism works a little differently in those books, too. In that series, vampires have little nanos in their bloodstreams that repair all damage to their cells, even damage caused by the sun, but the more the nanos have to work, the more blood they require to feed them.
I guess you could say I mostly liked this anthology. I read anthologies in order to get a taste of different authors and decide if I want to try getting through one of their novels. After reading this, I think I'll pick up something by Jackie Kessler and maybe Richelle Mead. I've already read a lot of Lynsay Sands' Argeneau series and have sort of gotten tired of it, but if she's starting something new I might pick it up to see if she's stopped doing some of the things in her writing that were getting on my nerves. I will not be picking up anything by Hannah Howell unless I'm desperate.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
heregrim's review against another edition
2.0
For the most part this book was ok. The former succubus who only thought about sex annoyed me, and the Georgina Kincaid book had all of what I liked without anything actually happening. The other two were ok, but not mind altering. Over all a good collection, but not even close to what I wanted.