Grade: B-

First of all, I hunted this anthology down specifically for the MaryJanice Davidson story. I had read Derek’s Bane and kind of enjoyed it even though the heroine was slightly annoying, but I was really more intrigued by Michael, the leader of the pack, and Jeannie, his mate. Aside from the Angela Knight story (and I have come to depend on her to always bring in the goods), Davidson’s contribution is really the only readable one. Heck, not only was it readable, it was spunky and fun, too. Huh. The one by Alice Gaines wasn’t as horrible as getting skinned alive and bathed in lemon juice, but compared to Davidson’s and Knight’s, it was… umm… not good. The one by Sandy Fraser, on the the other hand, was a complete and total waste of time, as well as an insult to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Not only does it have a premise that an acquisitions editor at Harlequin Blaze would have laughed at, it also features the most annoying heroine in the vein of… what, Meg Ryan? Oddly enough, the front of the book proclaims this collection to be “the best in women’s erotic romance”. Well, if that’s true, Angela Knight and MaryJanice Davidson must be the romance anthology equivalent of D.H. Lawrence, then. Okay, that was a cheap shot. Wait… no, it wasn’t.

In Flint’s Fuse by Sandy Fraser, our heroine Dana Madison gets kidnapped by ex Special Forces (aren’t they all?) Flint as ordered by her father. Why, oh why, do you ask? Well, Dana’s father is in the middle of a huge merger and he wants Dana out of the way because she might be in danger. What the hell kind of merger is it that he actually has to fear for his daughter’s life? Wouldn’t it be more convenient if he had just sent her away to a spa vacation and told her not to come back until the merger was over? It’s not like Dana cares too much about the company, anyway. She seemed like one of those society chick types who spend their days heading up charities and buying five thousand dollar purses or something. Maybe Daddy was secretly hoping that Dana would accidentally get killed during the kidnapping? Hmm. The sex scenes were kind of hot, mostly because Flint, who is all stoic and tough, has a dirty, dirty mouth, and I love me some dirty talkin’. That’s the only nice thing I can say about this story. I also wasn’t very convinced that Dana was really in love with Flint because she seemed like a flighty, fickle, thoroughly unlikeable person, who would probably just cheat on Flint with her tennis instructor. On the upside of that, Flint could break her neck over his knee if he ever caught her with another man.

Love’s Prisoner by MaryJanice Davidson, despite its ridiculous title was really quite enjoyable. In this story, a woman named Jeannie Lawrence walks into an elevator and encounters a hot stranger who immediately orders her not to stand too close to him because he likes her smell an awful lot. Jeannie is appropriately outraged and about to give the stranger a piece of her mind when the elevator stalls and she is stuck there with him. Unfortunately for her, the stranger is a werewolf, it’s a full moon, and she is giving off a scent because she’s ovulating. The delicious creature forcibly seduces her, then allows her to escape from the elevator, letting her think that he had died when the elevator plunged to the ground floor. A month or so later, she’s pregnant and he arrives at her door, revealing to her that he’s a werewolf and that she’s his mate, so she has to come with him. Jeannie refuses, as any sane woman would do, but the werewolf, who turns out to be Michael Wyndham, the richest man in the eastern seaborg (of course he is), kidnaps her and takes her to his delicious Cape Cod estate. I know the plot sounds a little wacky, but MaryJanice Davidson really makes it work here. The dialogue sings, the sexual tension between Jeannie and the yummy, yummy Michael Wyndham just absolutely sizzles, and… did I mention that Michael Wyndham is the sexiest, most mouthwatering psycho this side of Patrick Bateman? Jeannie is appropriately sassy, but I was a little bemused about her reaction to the werewolves. I mean, she just found out that there are WEREWOLVES EXIST and she’s just like, “Huh. That’s weird. Can we have sex now?” It just felt like Davidson didn’t even want to bother with it because she just wanted to jump into the hot, hot sex. That’s really my only pet peeve with this story because other than that, I really dug it.

If I hadn’t read Love’s Prisoner before reading The Education of Miss Felicity Wells by Alice Gaines, I would have thought that it was pretty okay. Not good, not bad… but okay. In this story, Felicity Wells is a society miss who is about to marry a man who is appropriate for her station. Because she has issues with her dad cheating on her mom, she resolves that it will not happen to her if she were sexually knowledgeable and could satisfy her husband. There is only one man who can teach her the ways of carnal love and that man is Dr. Marcus Slade, a well-known rake, scoundrel, libertine, sexual hedonist, blah-blah-blah. The scene where Marcus teaches Felicity how to give a blowjob is kind of cute, I guess, but I couldn’t get past this creepy image of Marcus in my head. Just imagine this thirtyish guy who probably lounges around in his house in a silk robe, masturbating and boozing all day–wait a minute, that sounds kind of fun–maybe he doesn’t even take shower, so he’s all greasy and smelling like vodka. Then imagine this girl, all fresh-faced and innocent, coming in to see him, so he could teach her the ways of… it just sounds really porn-y and a low-budget one at that. Moreover, I just couldn’t buy the happy ending, you know? It just seemed like Felicity only wanted Marcus because he was the first to give her an orgasm and Marcus only wanted Felicity because she’s all that is good and clean and innocent in his life. We don’t get to know them–and that’s fine, because it’s a short story–but that means we don’t have to care about them, either. And that’s bad. On top of that, this story also utilizes the well-worn plot device of Marcus realizing he’s in love with Felicity when he couldn’t get it up for another woman. Sigh. Aaaand… I’m thinking about this way too much.

Angela Knight saves this anthology nicely with A Candidate for a Kiss. In this story, we find a reporter, Dana Ivory, in the middle of spying on a bunch of racist extremists plotting to assasinate the President of the United States. Dana is tired of writing obituaries and fluff pieces, so when she receives a tip about the hick meeting, she gets all her gear together and waits for them in a treehouse. Much to her dismay, she finds herself sexually attracted to one of the racist bastards–and we can’t have that–so naturally, he turns out to be Gabriel Archer, a super-sexy secret agent for a super-secret division of the government… and oh, he’s a vampire. When Gabriel tries to hypnotize Dana to forget about everything she saw and learned, he finds that he is unable to get into her head. This means that she has the mental abilitities to withstand the transformation into a vampire, which means she’s a Candidate for a Kiss, and Gabriel doesn’t have to be alone anymore. Sniff. Of course he has to convince her that being a vampire is the coolest thing in the world, and boy, does he ever. If you can get past the vampire-working-for-the-government thing, you’ll probably really enjoy this story. It’s very, very hot, which is pretty much an Angela Knight trademark by now, and there is actually pretty meaty plot to be found in it. Gabriel is absolutely delish and while Dana is one of them assertive, independent womyn, she doesn’t exhibit the too-stupid-to-live tendencies of her brethren who rush headlong into danger, screaming that she doesn’t need any help, only to find herself in a situation where the hero gets maimed or seriously injured saving her dumb ass.

Anyway, the Angela Knight and MaryJanice Davidson stories made this anthology worthwhile, even if I had to slog through the other two stories. Davidson’s Wyndham Werewolves are definitely a lot more interesting that her Undead series, especially since I don’t have to deal with Betsy’s annoying whining. Man, that Michael Wyndham is a hot, hot, sexy man. More of him! Fraser’s Flint was also yummy, but the “sassy” heroine and the stupid premise just killed it for me. As for Angela Knight… man, the girl knows how to build a fire and stoke that sucker to a beautiful, sexy flame. Umm. That sounds dirty and vaguely… uh… lesbianic. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 8:28 am and is filed under Books, Grade: B, Romance: Sci-fi/Fan, Romance: Contempo, Romance: Historical, Romance: Anthology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.