Kathleen Pickering

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

"The Keepers: Christmas in Salem" is a collection of Christmas short stories and, even though each one has a different author, there is a common thread to them all. These short stories bring us back to the Keepers' universe, but this time in Salem. They are sequencial and take place at Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The main characters are four Keeper cousins, all of them with an unsolved loved history in their past, which will get resolved during the corresponding story. But the stories are not just about the Keepers' happy endings, there is a phenomenon affecting Salem and threatening the whole town and not just the paranormal community: a strange darkness that started on Halloween and has since settled progressively over town and that not even Winter's Solstice was able to diminish. On Christmas Eve the darkness is total and the town starts to suffer its effects, because the darkness starts to negatively influence the spirit and the actions of the population of Salem.

"Do You Fear What I Fear?", by Heather Graham - Samantha Mycroft is Salem's Vampire Keeper and, informally, is also kind of a Keeper of the Keepers. Daniel Riverton is a vampire and is also the “man” that abandoned her two years ago, also on a Christmas Eve. So Eve is not particularly happy when he shows at the door, even more so because Daniel now works for the International Council and his job is to go to places where there is vampire related trouble and fix it. And if Daniel was called back to Salem that means the Council does not trust Sam to handle the job... Sam and Daniel end up working together, chasing a vampire that may be behind the darkness. And the misunderstandings of the past get cleared and Sam and Daniel realize two years apart were not enough to change their feelings for each other.

"The Fright Before Christmas", by Deborah LeBlanc - Rebekah Savay is the KOFE, Keeper Of the Five Elements and she's back in Salem to try and help with the darkness problem. To do so, Rebekah has called a meeting with the elders responsible for each of the elements. However, there is one “element” that crashes the meeting and that she wasn't counting on: Vaughn Griffith, her competitor for the role of KOFE and that left, three years ago, on the night that Rebekah was chosen as KOFE, right after kissing her... But there is not time to waste with matters of the past, because the fifth element shows up to the meating in a panic because one of his constituents, a black hole, is missing, and if he's not back at his post soon, the consequences will be terrifying. Is he responsible for the darkness? Rebekah and Vaughn will have to find him before it's too late and, at the same time, clear the misunderstandings of the past.

"Unholy Night", by Kathleen Pickering - Katie Sue Montgomery is the Selkies Keeper (mythological creatures that live as seals at sea, but shed their skin to become humans on Earth, which only happens once every seven years). The love of her life is Jett, a selkie she hasn't seen for seven years, that is, since she was fourteen... On Christmas Eve, Jett's birthday date, he's finally back, even if just for a little time. But Katie Sue knows that she has to make a decision, and fast, because no matter how much she loves Jett, she doesn't want to spend another seven years waiting for him. And since she can't go with him, the alternative is to ask him to abandon his selkie side and, as Selkie Keeper, Katie Sue is well aware of how much she would be asking and how hard it would be for him. When Jett's skin, without which he cannot transform, disappears, Katie Sue makes a discovery that may alter her life for ever. For better and for worse. And it's chasing the skin thief that they get their first clue about who is behing the darkness.

"Stalking in a Winter Wonderland", by Beth Ciotta – the conclusion of the story is also the story of Juniper Twist, the Witch Keeper. When it seems obvious that the darkness has magic behind it, it's up to June to find and stop the culprit. But that means working together with Basel Collins, a powerful witch and the boy June fell in love with in Highschool until she found out it was all an illusion from a love spell. Eight years after, Basel is now a man and is determinated to prove to her that the feeling was real and is still there, but June is now suspicious of magic, something that really doesn't come in hand when you're the Witch Keeper... Maybe what Salem really needs is a little bit of Christmas magic to pierce through the darkness and June is just the right person to make it happen!

I really liked returning to the Keepers world, even though in a different town, and I particularly liked the new paranormal creatures that are introduced to us in this book. The Christmas component is very present, not only on the setting, but mostly in its spirit.… (plus d'informations)