My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon

First, I must confirm the rumors are true. Evil Editor and I got engaged last night, at the release party over at the Church Lady's blog.

EE, quite taken by my charm, wit, and beauty, proposed* and pursued me relentlessly, until I, overcome by his ardent, tender onslaught**, said yes, blushing and giggling***. It was a beautiful moment.****

Even the hubs is pleased for me. When I bashfully informed him of my engagement, he said, and I quote:

*yawn* Congratulations.

Seriously, if you didn't make it by there yesterday you missed a fun party. Hanging otu with EE and everyone else was a good time, and I needed to have a good time yesterday.

Now, I have a review! For you! And you! Yay!

I fially got my slim little exiled-in-England hands on a copy of My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon, a collection of short stories by, as the Amazon listing says, "[an] all-star collection" of today's hottest paranormal writers. Nine stories, to be exact, which are pretty evenly split between ones I loved and ones I didn't love so much, with only two not really working well for me.

Y'all know I'm not generally a short story fan, so I wasn't sure exactly how well the book would work for me. But I really enjoyed it.

It seems only fair that I add a disclaimer, because I'm about to rave about Caitlin Kittredge's story Newlydeads, that not only is Caitlin my fwend but I was lucky enough to read the novel she's written about the characters in this story. I personally don't think knowing the characters made much difference in my enjoyment, but of course I can't say for 100% sure, so there you go. All I do know is the story was creepy and fun, extremely well written (of course) and atmospheric. One of the hardest things to pull off in a short story is to give us a fully rounded sense of character and setting, and Newlydeads managed it neatly. Plus, not only was there some fun personal conflict in there too, which I liked, the hero is soooo sexy. Really. So, so sexy.

I also particularly enjoyed Jim Butcher's Heorot. I'm ashamed to admit I've never read and Dresden novels--hey, this stuff isn't easy to come by where I live--but had always meant to. Now I have to! Again, time and place and character were all there, there was a bit of spark and innuendo, some action, some twists. Most of all, it felt like a complete story, which I appreciated (as did all the stories I most enjoyed).

The other standouts for me: Where the Heart Lives by Marjorie Liu. Beautifully written, haunting, lovely. Apparently it's a sort of prequel to a series, and on that level--as well as others--it worked extremely well. Lucy was a character I understood and felt for from the first page, and I was completely drawn in.
Half of Being Married by Lilith Saintcrow. I wasn't 100% crazy about this one, but I think that was more a personal quirk of mine. It certainly wasn't the fault of the writing, which in typical Saintcrow fashion is superb. Just superb. That woman can write the paint off a fence, folks. I also loved the little twist at the end, because I love twists like that. (There were two twists, actually, one I saw coming and one I didn't. I especially love it when I don't see it coming.) Charming characters and a fun setting, too.

I also enjoyed Katie MacAllister's Cat Got Your Tongue, which was a surprise for me because I'm not really a fan of her novels (personal taste, nothing against her work itself). I liked Kelley Atmstrong's Stalked, but not as much as I like the novels of hers I've read. Perhaps some of this is because I'm simply not a fan of weres and never have been. I'll read books with weres, sure, but they don't usually end up as my favorites. P.N. Elrond's Her Mother's Daughter was also a lot of fun. Not my favorite in the collection, but definitely a very good story.

So there you go! Absolutely worth a read, grab your copy today and see what you think. Come back here and let me know! We don't talk about books enough here, do we?

You know, it really is harder to write good reviews. Sheesh.


* I proposed to him.
** He said no because I'm a Conan fan, then finally agreed when I told him I thanked him in the Acknowledgements for Personal Demons. Which is true.
*** I squealed "Yaay!" Because EE is, as we all know, the Sexiness. Even if he actually looked like the gray-headed, mutton-chopped Ben Franklin character whose image he uses. As whats-her-face said in Amadeus, "Looks don't concern me, Maestro. Only talent interests a woman of taste."
**** Especially when he was gallant enough to imply he thinks I'm pretty when he saw my pictures on Livejournal.