1. 'Reckoning'**** is 0.5 in Jeaniene Frost's 'Night Huntress' series, which I have not read. I looked the series up. Heroine Cat Crawford does not appear in this story. Vampire hitman Bones is our protagonist. Real life voodoo practitioner Marie Laveau (1801-1881) is one of the undead and rules New Orleans. (Her title is 'Majestic'.) The Majestic happens to be away, however. Bones is summoned by Jelani, the ghoul Marie left in charge. It seems that notorious sadistic real-life serial torturers and killers Delphine and Louis LaLaurie are here as ghouls taking advantage of Laveau's absence. Jelani was one of their slave-victims. He has prosthetic arms and legs, which means he had to have lost them before he became a ghoul.

If hunting down this pair isn't enough, someone keeps shooting Bones with silver-tipped arrows. Good thing the shooter keeps missing Bones' heart. This adventure starts on February 16, 2004 and ends during the Mardi Gras season that year, before Hurricane Katrina wrecked the city. If you're a history buff, there are some inaccuracies about the LaLauries. The fire that exposed their monstrous actions on April 10, 1834, so the story's tour guide in incorrect to claim the LaLauries were at in in the mid-eighteen hundreds. The building visitors can see today was rebuilt from the ruin of the LaLaurie mansion.

Bones recruits a human, Becca, who actually saw Delphine lure away a victim. He isn't treating her as a disposable tool. He genuinely wants to keep her safe. She seems like a nice lady.

It was interesting to learn that vampires are forbidden to use magic in this series. Also, the Biblical Cain was the first vampire, according to chapter five.

The hunt and the big battle were good reading. If you know the LaLaurie story and are infuriated that they managed to flee and live out their lives, this story should make you feel better. If you want to know if Marie Laveau makes an appearance, she does. Is she more frightening than the LaLauries? Make that a resounding YES!.

2. 'Dark Matters'***½ I've read a few stories set in Vicki Pettersson's The Sign of the Zodiac series, but not enough of them to be that invested in this one until about chapter four or five of its seven chapters. This is story 4.5 in the series.

When the story starts, a five-year-old JJ, son of two agents of Light, gets to witness his parents die in a battle with the Shadows. One little Shadow girl, Solange, could have killed him but didn't. They meet again 23 years later. Their interactions are this story, coupled with the need to find the Kairos, the child of prophecy. A human psychic could have the answer. Who will get to her first?

This is an origin story. If you're a fan of the series, it should prove interesting. Otherwise, it takes a while to get into the story.

3. The Dead, the Damned, and the Forgotten**** is a novelette, #0.6 in Jocelynn Drake's Dark Days urban fantasy series. I don't know this series. I got the number from the author's website.

In this alternate Earth there are nightwalkers (vampires), lycanthropes (werewolves, also called shapeshifters), and magic users. The nightwalkers are ruled by the Coven, which is in Venice. There are four Elders, only two of whom are named in this story. One is Macaire. The one named Jabari is missing. The nightwalkers have domains, kept by one nightwalker. Our heroine is Mira, Keeper of the Domain of Savannah, Georgia. Macaire has hated Mira since Jabari became her mentor 500 years ago.

The nightwalkers, lycanthropes, and magic users have their enemies among the humans, some of whom have formed the Daylight Coalition. The coalition wants to kill the supernatural creatures, but have managed kill about as many of their own kind as the real thing. I loved this description from chapter 3: 'The rest of the human world thought they were a bunch of crackpots who had watched Van Helsing one too many times. I tended to agree.'

A nightwalker has been murdered in Savannah, and it looks as if it's the work of the Daylight Coalition. Worse for Mira, Macaire's emissary, Bishop, is in town. If Mira doesn't solve the case and prove she's still in charge, Bishop is going to take her back to the Coven. Remember that missing Elder? He's the one who helped Mira escape from them centuries ago.

The more Mira and her assistant, Knox, look into the case, the worse things go. Mira is nearly killed more than once. I was not expecting the solution, but it was quite interesting. From the description of the series at the author's website, I'm assuming that hunter Mira agrees to deal with will turn out to be series regular Danaus.

Ley Line Drifter by Kim Harrison - 5
A great peek into the pixie life. Jenks and Bis are fun
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I love anthologies for being able to be briefly introduced to other authors and possible other series without having to spend the time to read an entire book before I decide if I want to buy into the series or not. For the most part, this is an incredible anthology — I only picked it up for the Jeaniene Frost story about Bones, but I found myself enjoying almost every story within this volume. While I’ve heard of all the authors included, the only one I’ve read before was Frost, so this was a great opportunity for me to see if I want to start these different series. For that reason, “Reckoning” was my favorite series since I already appreciated the context and had an emotional buy-in for the main character; however, I also greatly enjoyed the Melissa Marr story and the Vicki Pettersson story.

None of these are overly sexy, which I actually enjoyed. I didn’t want to read about smut in these stories, I wanted actual substance, and that’s what I got from them. They definitely fall more on the paranormal thriller side, even if there is a bit of romance in some of them. I can’t speak for the other stories, but I definitely recommend reading this just for “Reckoning” if you’re a Night Huntress fan. It’s a gruesome, horrifying story, but it’s kind of fun to see Bones pre-Cat. As for the others, I can’t wait to get started on some other paranormal series that weren’t yet on my to-read list.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )

I loved the Kim Harrison and Jeaniene Frost story's. ( )

How to give a good rating when you only read two of the stories? I loved Jenks' story and him working with Bis. Hope there's more shorts for these two. Bones' story was also fun to read and added to his world. I tried reading Jocelyan Drake's and really wasn't getting in to it, so tried Melissa Marr's. Also a no go. I glanced at Vicki's and passed on it also. I really need to get through the second book in her series to know if I want to read more of hers, its on low priority. ( )