I like sarah monette (aka katharine addison of goblin emperor) as a romance writer. 'A gift of wings' is a bit trite as romance tends to be, but pleasant.

The others were literally unreadable.

The four stars are for the two novellas I liked, the one by Sarah Monette and the one by Sharon Shinn. The Sharon Shinn novella is set in her Mystic and Rider universe and was mostly enjoyable because it was fun to spend more time with some of the minor characters from that series. The Sarah Monette story was clever and excellent, as is to be expected from Sarah Monette.

The other two novellas were not at all to my taste, and would each merit 2 stars from me. (One I finished, since I got halfway through and it felt like a waste to give up on it. The other I quit after just a few pages.) ( )

Improbable versions of fairy story girl gets guy - Mixing the Fall and the Ice Queen and Skaldi foot searching for her preferred groom. Sarah Monette’s story was pretty straight mystery romance, even if the victim went for boys. Kurland’s lovers are all perfectly lovely, and Shinn describes a prosperous 19-20th century domestic architecture for a medieval technology tale. Separate bedrooms and squeezing bedsteads? ( )

This takes place before Lothar became the big bad for the world. He is just starting out and he wants a wife. So he kidnaps the beautiful elven princess Iolaire. Luckly for her the king of the newly made kingdom of Neroche has been in love with her for years. It was a lot of fun to see the beginnings of the main bad guy and how Neroche was founded. Lothar is really just a background presence but he does it well. Symon is great, I really like him. He is a bad place because Lothar is his older brother but he is going bad. Iolaire is not bad I would have liked to see of her before she was kidnapped. A good addition to the Nine Kingdoms lore.

I give this novella a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library. ( )

I think this would've got a worse rating from me if not for Monette's story (or even if Monette's hadn't been the last one). Mild spoilers follow, but how can you discuss a short story without them?

Lynn Kurland's "A Whisper of Spring" was fine. It was a bit of a romp love story between a human and a fairy. I was pleased that she was active in her rescue and didn't sit around wailing while the men did all the work. However, the flashbacks of the two first seeing each other were rather irritating. Could we have a little more substance than "shiny!"?

Sharon Shinn's "When Winter Comes" was pretty good. Aside from not seeing too much chemistry between the main characters, it told a pretty good story. I found the religious persecution pretty tired. The story of intolerance is an important one to tell, but if it's told often enough and same enough to be almost cliché, does it have any power any more?

Claire Delacroix's "The Kiss of the Snow Queen" had some troublesome things going on: the maiden told to protect her chastity to keep her power, the mysterious helper with a bit of a sex fixation, the powerful sorceror who saw a pretty woman and said, "baby, I'ma make you mine!", and a bad bad woman (you can tell because she's cold). *sigh* On the other hand, the mysterious helper was kind of nifty. He helped OH strengthen herself so that he could use her to achieve his goal. I don't mind that: you make your weapon strong and true; you don't mistreat it. However, the memory trick irks me something fierce. It's a giant takeback and I want people to stop doing it.

Sarah Monette's "A Gift of Wings" is Sarah Monette doing what she does. I was a little "sigh" over yet another damaged man. However, the damage wasn't suddenly cured by LOVE. Love played its part but didn't work miracles. Agido (Our Heroine) is pleasantly active. She's in danger, but she works to get out of it. She doesn't wait for a man to rescue her. Also, bonus points for older heroine who knows the value of sex for fun. ( )