i've read this anthology before, but it was a while ago, so I didn't mind revisiting.
The first story - Dark Hunger by Christine Freehan - more life mates meeting, this time in the jungle and she, unusually, is sexually experienced and a shapeshifter, but he still treats her like a virgin... It was readable but barely.
The last by Angela Knight - set in her mageuniverse. This time Lancelot meets his commupance with a woman who doesn't want to accept her grandmother's gifts - esp after she so cruelly withheld them from her mother.
Started the Maggie Shayne one but it didn't pull me in.

all in all, quite a forgettable book... ( )

Four paranormal stories with a creatures of the night theme:

Dark Hunger by Christine Feehan: D
Juliette and her sister rescue animals from an experimental farm deep in the jungle. One of the creatures she rescues is not a creature but Riordan - a Carpathian - a sort of a super vampire/shapeshifter being who hunts evil vampires. In order to survive he has to bite Juliette but they unite to rescue Juliette's sister. Juliette is a shape-shifter and turns into a jaguar so does this make her a furry critter with bat wings. Sorry disn't work for me and I do like vampire romances - there just seemed to be so much in such a short story.

Awaiting Moonrise by Maggie Shayne: B
I loved this story - a wonderful tale about a zoologist who is searching a steamy bayou to find the creature she is convinced is responsible for the wild tales of werewolves running about the town. She quickly finds, and doesn't he have big teeth and a cute tail. Yep he is quite yummy, now all she has to do is save him from the big bad scientist.

The Night Owl by Emma Holly: B
kinky romance ("The Night Owl") between a vampire and a smalltown baker. Mariann cooks her grandfather's recipes. The owner of the B&B next door is a vampire who knows he has found his queen. Now they just have to work it out.

Seductions Gift by Angela Knight: C
The last story is a mix up of the traditional Arthurian legends and alien invasion. King Arthur and his knights are vampires - the women are witches. The hero is Lord Lancelot du Lac, assassin and High Court seducer. He has to 'turn' Grace from human to Witch - and he can only do this by having sex three times. Trouble is she knows what he wants to do and is not going to make it easy for him. ( )

Dark Hunger by Christine Feehan is book 14 in the Dark Carpathian Series. I read this "short story" in an anthology, and this review is only for Dark Hunger.

Riordan is an ancient and powerful Carpathian male living in the jungles of South America with his brothers. Trapped and caged by the same beastly Morrison Psychic Research Center that has been endangering the lives of all immortals throughout the series, Riordan will give his life before becoming the bait to bring in his brothers and others of their kind.

Deep within the jungle, Juliette lives with her sister Jasmine and cousin Solange. On a mission to liberate wild animals from the Morrison Center's secret jungle lab, Juliette stumbles upon something she did not expect - Riordan. As Juliette frees him from his captors, Riordan realizes that he's found his lifemate, but Juliette has her own secrets to protect...

As you may have noticed, I'm not a huge fan of the "short stories" in this series. Usually, the stories from the anthologies are just too short to be as good as the rest of the series. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE WITH Dark Hunger! It was really exceptional.

Dark Hunger is vivid, and beautifully written. Feehan's writing is fluid and lyrical, and her style of multiple point-of-views is outstanding. I'm really intrigued by the "jaguar people" we've been hearing about for awhile now, and was happy to see a little more of them in this book. I can't wait to see what happens next, so I'm officially moving book 15 to the top of my tbr pile. ( )

An anthology of 4 short stories, gets 4 short reviews from me. I liked this one, for me it had 2 authors I am familiar with and 2 I had never read before (but will in the future).

Dark Hunger (Carpathians - Dark series, book 14) by Christine Feehan
Chained to a wall by the humans, caught in a trap surely set by a master vampire, Riordan De La Cruz was running out hope until he felt her coming into the room. Witnessing the men take more wild animals into the new research building, Juliette Sangria and her sister Jasmine needed to save the animals before they were tortured, finding not only animals but a man, nearly broke her heart. Binding themselves together meant one big family.
(****4) Book 14 ….. Short stories are so difficult, it always feels so rushed and incomplete. I like the jaguar species and the connection they make to the Carpathians, Juliette’s simple acceptance of was good but Riordan’s compassion for Jasmine’s situation is what made him the best part of this story. Large cast of characters (brothers Zacarias, Manolito, Nicolas and Rafael as well as sister Jasmine and cousin Solange) for a short story, hopefully we will see more of all of them as the series progresses.

Awaiting Moonrise by Maggie Shayne
Taking a research trip to New Orleans, Professor Jenny Rose from Dunkirk University was wanting to use her expertise as a cryptozoologist to prove that werewolves don’t exist, it is just a previously not discovered species of animals. After finding what could be the animal she has been looking for and being scratched by it, she met the local Doctor. The attraction Dr. Samuel La Roque had to Jenny was instantaneous and unavoidable. He had his secrets and she was going to find them, and then what would they both do?
(****4) Under 100 pages, this is a great story with some wonderful characters. It did feel like it was lacking because of how short it was. Their encounters are intense, but the reaction seemed more than what was warranted, almost like we only saw part of it. I liked the ‘bad guy’ not really wanting to track the werewolf for any normal reasons. The addition of the Voudon priestess, Mamma Louisa, gave a bit of flavor to the story and a great ending.

The Night Owl (Midnight series, book 1) by Emma Holly
Owning the bakery was all Mariann O’Faolain had really ever wanted to do. Finally after the ex-husband and the ex-partner were out of her life, she could start over and do what made her happy. Needing a connection to the people around him, Bastien Luce and his ‘cousin’ Emile started renovating the Night Owl Inn. Finding a different kind of connection with Mariann might be more difficult for him, but he knew he would find a way to make it forever.
(****4) New author for me, one that I really enjoyed and will look for more from. Little bit of a different take on a common storyline. The back story of the characters was well written and easy to follow, the characters themselves were wonderful. Bastien’s shyness was endearing from the beginning and I could have read more about him and Emile’s strange view of life made for an easy camaraderie between the two… and then all three of them. As always, I like learning a new words (one at a time), upyr - from Hungarian and Slavonic folklore.

Seduction’s Gift (Mageverse, book 1) by Angela Knight
Sheriff Officer Grace Morgan liked her job, she liked protecting and helping people even if she already knew that there was more to life than just the earthy universe. Catching a speeding car, Lance (Lancelot du Lac) looked up at her and her heart dropped, she thought she had squashed that crush long ago but seeing him now made her unsure of everything but the need to not give in to her desires for him. Knowing that he had the power of the Mageverse behind him, Grace fought her growing needs as long as she could.
(***3) Different, interesting, strange - really enjoyed the concept of the story (King Arthur, his round table, and Merlin) and the characters (Lancelot, Grace and Morgana) were fabulous. Too rushed for my taste (maybe because it is a short story), felt as if the story was an excuse for the sex scenes, I would have rather had a story I didn’t care about and have the sex be the story or invest more into the great story and let the sex just enhance it. This story could have been the best story of the book, it could have been a really great story, unfortunately it was crammed into about 100 pages and lost so much. I would be interested in reading this author again (full length book please). ( )

stories were sooo boring...the only one worth reading is from Angela Knight. ( )

DARK HUNGER by Christine Feehan
In a dark jungle a beautiful activist liberates animals from a secret laboratory-and stumbles across an unexpected prisoner. She releases the Carpathian from his bonds-only to unleash his voracious appetite on herself....

AWAITING MOONRISE by Maggie Shayne
A science professor enters the steamy bayou to find a new species of animal, convinced that its presence is behind the stories of lycanthropy in the region, but finds herself tempted by a legendary creature straight out of her most sensual nightmare....

THE NIGHT OWL by Emma Holly
Little ever seams to stir in the sleepy woods of a small Vermont town, until a new owner takes over the exclusive local inn. He is centuries old and has traveled far and wide to find his queen-and now nothing will stop him from claiming her....

SEDUCTION'S GIFT by Angela Knight
All's fair in the war between desire and resistance when a lady cop pulls over a speeder-and finds an immoral lover who is determined to seduce her into accepting her own passionate destiny.. ( )

This anthology has Dark Hunger which is not a favorite Carpathian story. It falls somewhere before Dark Secret. I don't particularly care for this heroine or hero.

The anthology did introduce me to another author though! Angela Knight. She's got a fun vampire series as well that is totally different! ( )

Hot Blooded is an Anothology of 4 steamy paranormal romance stories. First one is Dark Hunger.
Dark Hunger is set in the Amazon. Juliette rescues Riodan only to find out he's a Carpathina. He is surprised to find she is from the Jaguar Race. Surprise to both, they are compatible in more ways than one.
I love Riordan. He's not too overbearing and arrogant like his brothers Must be of being youngest. I do hope Zacharias and Nicholas gets someone for themselves like Jasmine and Solange.
Poor Juliette. She is torn between her lifemate and family.
The Next ones didn't excite me as Dark Hunger. Though the Warewolf story was interesting. ( )

Worth it for the Angela Knight story that begins her Mageverse saga. ( )

For an anthology, all of these stories were surpisingly good and well-written.

"Dark Hunger" by Christine Feehan
This story takes place within Christine Feehan's Dark series and tells the story of Riordan de la Cruz and his lifemate Juliette. But Juliette has a secret identity of her own, as well as her own agenda protecting her sister and cousin. Definitely a romance but enough other action going on to hold my interest throughout.

"Awaiting Moonrise" by Maggie Shayne
Jenny Rose is a university professor who travels to the bayou of Louisiana to research tales of a possible unknown, and as yet undiscovered, species of mammal. But she meets up with the town's sexy (and single) doctor, whose interest in her is more than just academic. I enjoyed this one even more than the Feehan story.

"The Night Owl" by Emma Holly
This story takes place within Emma Holly's Midnight series (Catching Midnight, Hunting Midnight, Courting Midnight) and if you like to read series in order, is best read after Hunting Midnight since it tells the continuing tale of Bastien and Emile who first appear in that book. It was a good story, though I probably didn't like it quite as much as Shayne's contribution.

"Seduction's Gift" by Angela Knight
Grace Morgan is a Latent, she has the Gift of the Mageverse but would rather live in the real world serving and protecting fellow humankind in the role of a deputy police officer. But her grandmother, Morgana le Fay, sends Lord Lancelot du Luc to seduce her and bring her over, activating her Gift with the act of lovemaking, at least 3 times.

This is the second short story I've read by Angela Knight that takes place in the Mageverse series, the first one being "Galahad" which appeared in the Bite anthology, though that one actually takes place later in the series. I didn't really care for "Galahad" all that much as I couldn't get into the whole Knights of the Round Table as Vampires thing... but for some reason, I liked this one a little better. Perhaps because it's actually the first story in the tale. But because so many others thought it was great, I didn't want to judge the series by a short story and I've since acquired the other books of the Mageverse series. If anything, this story has forced me to move Master of the Night closer to the top of my TBR pile. ( )

Juliette is one of the few females remaining to a dying people - the jaguar race who can shift shape between human and the great cat. She lives in the jungle with her sister and cousin, trying to protect the females of their race who are being brutally abducted by a group of rogue jaguar males. While breaking into a secret laboratory to release the research animals, she finds a man, chained and bleeding on a concrete floor. The man is Riordan, one of five Carpathian brothers sent our by Prince Mikhail's father centuries ago to protect the South American continent from the scourge of vampires.

As soon as he sees her, Riordan knows he was found his lifemate. Juliette has to come to terms with what this means, heal Riordan's terrible wounds and rescue her sister, all packed into one 100 page short story.

When I started this, I expected to be disappointed. In fact, my thoughts were along the lines of "Oh no, not another big cat shapeshifter". I was not pulled into the two "Leopard" books at all, and didn't think jaguars needed to be added to the mix. However, I have to admit that Feehan won me over. The story had more depth to it than I expected and I enjoyed it. My main complaint would be that I thought Jasmine's (Juliette's sister) fate was unnecessarily harsh. However, I kind of suspect she may turn out to be someone else's lifemate and what happened to her in this story will figure in that one. This is not a hugely memorable tale (or it may just be that short stories aren't really a medium that works for me), but it was a nice addition to the Carpathian mythos. ( )

**** "Dark Hunger" by Christine Feehan. Carpathians meet Jaguars. I'd have liked to see more info about how/why the two races can/can't mesh, but I realize there wasn't space in a novella. Both the h/h have siblings who'll probably get more stories.
**** "Awaiting Moonrise" by Maggie Shayne. Werewolf, voodoo, a cryptozoologist. I kept thinking this was by Rebecca York--it felt very much like her Moon stories. Nice story, but one that would have been better if it had been longer--I didn't really buy that the h/h fell in love so fast.
**** "The Night Owl" by Emma Holly. Again, just too short. I'd been looking forward to Bastien's story, and I wanted to see more of it. Still, nice portrayal of a natural ruler who's wary of taking power.
****½ "Seduction's Gift" by Angela Knight. Lancelot! Woo-hoo. Heroine's a cop, knows all about the magi and majae (sp?--I always get them confused--would have been nicer if AK had given them more distinctive designations from the beginning, but...), and in fact already knows Lancelot & that sex with him will bring her into her powers, so it makes the story fit better into the novella length. ( )

Dark Hunger is in the anthology, it was to short, but a good read. ( )