The Hunter's Cabin by Jean Johnson - 3
Some of the jargon was distracting, I think if I was more familiar with this world I might have enjoyed this better. These two are on the run and they hole up in a cabin under an avalanche and he teaches her the ways of sex. Story could have been beginning of a larger story.
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Four stories of varying quality (for me, anyway), from four series I don't know (and three authors I don't, one I know well). The first one, Angela Knight's "Enforcer", is very well-written, with great characters and a fascinating world. It's clearly part of a series (and apparently the climax), but it stands alone just fine. I want to read more, but don't feel that I need more info to understand this story. The sex is just a trifle too explicit for me, but not terrible, and the rest of the story is great - as I said, I want to find the rest of this series. Second story is Jennifer Ashley's "Perfect Mate" - didn't work for me. I wasn't caught up in the characters, story, or setting; Cormac is a trickster, Nell is rather limp, and everyone else seems to be just background. Also the setting made no sense to me (exactly what do Shifters get, to make them willing to wear the stupid collars?). The story annoyed me and I wasn't interested in seeking out more. Third is Jean Johnson's "The Hunter's Cabin", which...wasn't as good as Knight's story. Good story in itself, but it drew too hard on the rest of the series which I haven't read. Now I happen to know that Jean Johnson is a great writer and I love all her stuff, so now I want to find the rest of the Vulland Chronicles and read them - but this story wouldn't have done it for me. I like both Keris and Vee, the sex is explicit but not too much so for me, the situation that gets them isolated is clever (but again, not knowing the rest of the story, it's hard to tell exactly why they're there. Lots of exposition that gives the background, but not the specifics - what hunter why, why hiding now, why running now... I'm confused). But I know and trust Jean so I expect that when I've read the whole series everything will make sense - and as I said, the story itself is good, it's only the frame that's fuzzy. And the last one, Hanna Martine's "No Surprise More Magical", totally didn't work for me. The only obstacle between them was both of them being idiots and not _talking_, and I hate that trope. The situation didn't make a lot of sense to me - the why and how of the rebellion and so on - which meant that most of the stuff about relative ranks and rites and so on was nonsense (to me). And there were a few bits of language that didn't work for me - for instance, these guys think they're a master race, right? So just how did they settle on non-magical being Primary and them being Secondary? That so totally didn't make sense to me that every time either one was mentioned I had to stop and remember which was which - throwing me out of the story. Do not like. So two good stories and two that didn't work - definitely worth reading, and probably rereading (the two good ones, not the others). ( )