As usual with a collection of short stories, this was a mixed bag. One very good story (I will be looking for more from Angela Knight), two mediocre ones, and one rather lame offering I probably wouldn't have even bothered with except to just finish off the book. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.

I've never read anything by Angela Knight before, but I really liked her story MOON DANCE. I was intrigued by her Direwolfs and the world they live in, and plan to look up more of her books.

BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE MOON, by Virginia Kantra, was an interesting story, but didn't appeal to me simply because of my preconceived notions of the sidhe world. In this story they seem evil, and that threw me off, but the premise of the story was a good one.

MaryJanice Davidson's story, DRIFTWOOD, was the reason I got the book in the first place. It's another fun, short, sarcastically funny read in typcial MJD style.

I've never read anything by Sunny, so I had no preconceptions when I began reading MONA LISA THREE. I have to say that I loved it -- and that I'm also surprised that the author hasn't been sued for blatant plagiarism by Laurell K. Hamilton. Sunny has taken every single plot element from both the Anita Blake and Meredith Gentry series' and placed them into her world of Mona Lisa and the Monere. Since I enjoy LKH, that's no doubt the reason I love Sunny's story. It's even more sexually erotic than LKH's stories, and I really like her world that revolves around a group of people who get their power from the moon. But at the same time it's so much like LKH's worlds that you get a distinct feeling of deja vu with each paragraph. I'm still going to look up her first two books featuring Mona Lisa and the Monere -- before the lawyers come knocking at Sunny's door. ( )

I really enjoyed this selection of stories, a good collection, not requiring you to know much about the other 'verse they come from. A pleasant introduciton to some new authors to try. ( )

"Three beloved bestselling superstars and one exciting new voice in paranormal romance come together in an anthology of startling seduction."

All of the stories were good! But one of them was hard for me to get into but it got better as it went on. ( )

****½ "Moon Dance" by Angela Knight. This is set in the Mageverse, but deals with the Direkind (werewolf) side of that universe rather than the vampire/witch side. (Check Angela Knight's website for the details.)

Elena is a Chosen--that is, she's a descendant of one of the original Direkind created by Merlin rather than one who was merely bitten and turned. The Chosen are exclusionary and patriarchal, and Elena's father has decreed that she must marry another Chosen, the sadistic Stephen.

In order to save herself and change things for the rest of the Chosen females, Elena turns to relatively new Direkind Lucas, a cop in a nearby town, for help.

For a novella, this story has quite a lot going on. The werewolf politics are clear, and both Elena and Lucas are easily identifiable characters. It's less easy to believe the declaration of love at the end, but given the novella length, and the fact that they have similar and complementary personalities, and are in tune enough with each other to spirit link, I'll buy it.

****½ "Between the Mountain and the Moon" by Virginia Kantra. This story is apparently connected to Virginia Kantra's story in Man of My Dreams, which, unfortunately, I haven't read. Yet. But that doesn't make a difference with understanding this story.

Cait is hiking the Appalachian trail with a group of friends. An injury causes two of them to turn back, and she's left with Josh, whose interest in her wanes when she declines to share his bed.

Still, he's better than nothing, she thinks, except that when she's chased by the menacing Ursus and gets lost, he doesn't come for her, and she's left at the mercy of Rhys, a man they met the night before at a hiking shelter, and who seemed to be friends with Ursus.

Rhys is more than he seems, and, without giving away the surprises, the story involves the conflicts between duty and desire, and love and self. A true fairy tale.

****½ "Driftwood" by MaryJanice Davidson. This is a crossover story, involving one of the Wyndham werewolves and one of Betsy's vampires.

Burke is a bit of a rarity among werewolves, in that he's a loner. Serena is a vampire who wants to get revenge on the vampire who killed her best friend. But before she can do that, she finds herself stuck in a deep pit on a beach.

Burke comes to help her out, but it's daylight, so she refuses his help, whereupon he jumps down into the pit with her, freaks out (werewolves are notoriously claustrophic), changes (the full moon just rose), and claws his way out.

The next day he comes back to find what he assumes will be her body, and discovers a very annoyed, but very not-dead Serena.

These two are a little darker than MJD's usual couples, but there's still a lot of humor, and they're definitely a couple that's made for each other.

**½ "Mona Lisa Three" by Sunny. This novella follows Mona Lisa Awakening and concerns Mona Lisa and her entourage needing to move to their new territory. But before they can, they've got to go shopping. And her mother, Mona Sera, comes demanding that Mona Lisa either heal her warrior who's been bitten by a hellhound, or give up one of her own warriors in his place. I've no idea where the "three" comes from--as far as I can tell, this is the second story in the series.

Continuing in the tradition of the first book, this story is even more "LKH-lite." For a short story, there are interminable descriptions of Mona Lisa clothing her reluctant his-em in tight pants, and yet more characters who fall madly in love with Mona Lisa, including of course the warrior she heals, the hellhound, and its mistress.

There's never any question of whether she can heal the warrior--all it takes is her magical orgasm.

I'm not going to list all the parallels between this series and LKH's two series. Suffice it to say that the parallels continue, and that if you like LKH's more recent books, you'll like this one, and if you don't, you won't. ( )

MOON DANCE by Angela Knight
In a desperate attempt to change the fate of her people and herself, hereditary dire wolf Elena Livingston risks everything by asking bitten dire wolf Lucas Rollings to be her champion.

BETWEEN THE MOUNTAIN AND THE MOON by Virginia Kantra
A young woman's hiking trip turns into a sexy and dangerous encounter with the Fae.

DRIFTWOOD by MaryJanice Davidson
A hole in the beach throws a Wyndham werewolf and a vampire together -- literally. What is the saying about opposites attract?

MONA LISA THREE by Sunny
Follow the further adventures of the mixed-blood Monere Queen Mona Lisa and her devastatingly sexy entourage of men. ( )

Okay, I have to start out and say that, unfortunately, the only reason I labeled Over the Moon as 'One of my Favorite' is because of Angela Knight's short story, Moon Dance. The other three stories, I felt, were a little weak and not exactly what I expected. I will give the whole book a
rating, and then I will proceed to break it up, reviewing each of the four stories and giving them their own rating.

Although the book was full of paranormal and romance, I found more of the first than the second-- and that kind of put me off, because when I pick up a book from the genre of 'paranormal romance', I kind of expect an equal amoung of both the fantasy, aka paranomal, and the connection and love, aka the romance. If I wanted straight out fantasy *I have heard some people refer to the genre as 'Urban Fantasy'* I would go to that section in the bookstore. No, I want an equal combination of both, and I felt that for the most part, Over the Moon failed in that area.

For a book total, I am giving Over the Moon 4/5 STARS, but I most, once again, point out that most of those stars come from the brillant work of Angela Knight. Her story in thie book, Moon Dance, continues her sexy Mageverse series that I fell in love with about a year ago. The other three authors, I am sorry to say, did not really impress me, at least in this book. This does not mean that I do not like their work, because I do not believe that I have read any of their other books before. I am willingly to give them another chance, and who knows, maybe they can impress me more when they are writing a full length novel by themselves-- I don't really know yet, but I will definitely give them another chance, some day, and read one of their own books.

Moon Dance
By Angela Knight

If you have read Angela Knight before, you already know how she deftly combines paranormal romance with both erotic sex scenes and even some tender love connections between the hero and heroine, providing, in my opinion, a perfect example of a paranormal romance book. I have devoured and loved each and every book in her Mageverse series, and in Over the Moon, her short story is a continuation of the series, following the sexy tale of Lucas and Elena, both of whom are Dierkind (Or werewolf for those of you unfamiliar with Angela's Mageverse series.)

The only thing I don't like about anthologies is that usually the author's individual stories cannot be properly spun out and resolved in only a hundred or so pages. True, some of them do it nicely and leave you satisfied in the end, but a lot of them, usually the great ones, seem like they've been cut short *Which I guess they have, in order to fit into the anthology.* and even though you love the story and the author's writting, you still finish the story and find yourself asking "But what about..." or "Wait, I don't want it to end- what's going to happen next?".

Moon Dance was by far my favorite book in the whole anthology, and probably the only one that I really felt was cut short and I would have loved to have seen Lucas and Elena's story in a full length novel.

So, for Angela Knight's story, Moon Dance, I felt it deserved a 4.5/5 STARS easily, because, once again, Angela has proven that she can write a great romance with fantasy and wild sex and yet still keep that true romantic feel to it in the end. Great story, can't wait for her next books, especially in her Mageverse Series.

Between the Mountain and the Moon
By Virginia Kantra

I have never read any books by Virginia Kantra before, so forgive me if may judge her a little harshly.

When the story started, the setting sounded like a promising one: the heroine is out in the mountains hiking, and she comes across a handsome man, whom she nicknames Tall, Dark and Mysterious for obvious reasons. I settled in, thinking I was going to be reading a great story that I would love and want to return to every now and then and rush out to look for previous novels by the author. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

I found the 'sex' scenes to be kind of bland and, well, not very hot or wild, lacking 'details', if you will. I prefer my romance books to USUALLY lean more towards the 'X' rated, as some call it, or even 'erotic', and I felt that this one was very gentle, not the more 'mature' content that I am use to, that I have come to enjoy. Virginia had ample opportunity, considering that the hero and heroine were alone in the woods, he's a total rough and sexy alpha man type, but when the two of them finally had sex, it seemed quick and meaningless, with only vague refrences as to what was going on-- for a moment, I wasn't even sure if they had actually proceeded to the 'third base', because one moment Rhys was teasing her and the next thing you know it's two or more paragraphs of how good this felt to him and how he'd never felt like that before, etc *Which isn't a bad thing, but I would have prefered to hear more details inbetween his thoughts of 'could this be love'.*

Though it is not my first choice in romance novels, or any books, for that matter, I did find the sidhe 'plot' of the book very interesting, and I would have loved to have heard more about the race, especially Rhys and his chidlhood, and instead the story felt rushed and choppy. I may still give this author another chance, but for now, I'm going to simply move on and stick with my review of her work.

Between the Mountain and the Moon gets 3.5/5 STARS, because the ending was sweet and the story itself wasn't completely horrible.

Driftwood
By MaryJanice Davidson

Yet another author that I have yet to read any other books from, but I am pretty sure that this is one that I might just completely cross off my 'potential future reading list'-- sorry MaryJanice!

At first, I was happy to find that her story in the anthology would be about vampires-- one of my favorite fantasy characters. And then I started to read it... and I was quickly let down.

The starting was kind of flat, the heroine was a little bit annoying, and the hero wasn't very vocal, nor was he very strong in personality. In fact, he almost seemed like he should have been cast as the sidekick or best friend, because he just didn't seem to fit the role of a hero.

Just like I said about Virginia Kantra's story, MaryJanice's was a little bit bland and boring as far as the sex. I'm not asking for outright erotica from my romance authors, but I would prefer just a tad bit more orginality, personality, and, oh yeah, details!. Also, I thought that even for a short story, the plot was kind of weak and not the most interesting, and I was, I'm sorry to say and I hope I do not offend MaryJanice fans out there, but this is my honest opinion, happy to see the end of the story. Unlike the other books in this anthology, I worked through Driftwood much slower, forcing myself to stick with it to the end, hoping it would get better... Unfortunately, it didn't, at least not for me. However, if you have not read any MaryJanice Davidson before, please don't completely cross her off your list just because of my review. This is my opinion, nothing more, and who knows, you might love her work. I am only saying that her books aren't really my thing, and I doubt I'd pick up another one, unless I could be assured that it would be a complete 180 degrees from what I just critiqued.

Driftwood receives one of my lowest ratings, with only 2.5/5 STARS. I found it lacking details, plot, character development, sex.. pretty much everything that I look for in any book, especially a romance novel. If the plot cannot hold up the whole book, then it should fall to the characters interactions, conversations, connections and for me, Driftwood failed on all accounts.

Mona Lisa Three
By Sunny

Though I am not a huge fan of the heros and heroines of my romance novels being in 'Open Relationships' or polygamy, I was surprised to find that Mona Lisa Three wasn't half bad, all things considered. I wouldn't call it a 'romance' book, not in the classical sense of the word, since Mona Lisa, the heroine, has two loves from the very beginning of the story, both of whom are willingly to share because they both love her so deeply. I will give the book some 'romance' credit, because it does show how deep of a connection all of them have with one another, which is a plus in any book, but it's not a plot line that I would usually want to read, and especially not one that I would usually label as 'I really enjoyed it!'. However, I think that both apply to Sunny's work, though this is the first one I have read by her (so far). I may actually go on to read her full length novels about Mona Lisa and her life, just to see if she can continue the story without overduing it or making it seem repeatitive.

Be warned, if you do not like the idea of threesomes and hot and wild sex, all very detailed, I might add, then you might want to skip Sunny's book. However, if you are willingly to try those things or you already have a liking for them, then I think you will like it. The plot line is fairly interesting, with a few unique twists and turns to it, and the fantasy world she's created does add to the amazing sex that the characters have together (After all, a truly great book has to have more than just great sex in order to make it in the industry, at least in my view.) The story is very erotic and yet the characters have their tender moments.

The only thing I would have liked better is if the author has better explained Mona Lisa and her two lovers', Amber and Gryphon, lifes before the point in which she starts the book at. I'm hoping that her future books do a flash back type thing, in order to give us the full story, which sounds interesting, from what little bit Sunny tells us in this book.

Mona Lisa Three gets 3.5/5 STARS for having interesting characters, plot, and, of course, sex scenes, while still playing a bit on the romance that the series belongs to. ( )

An easy time waster, you're happy while you're reading it but the next day you can't really remember what any of the stories were about. Angela Knight's one wasn't bad - a wolf during her burning moon runs away to a made (rather than born) alpha wolf cop, rather than staying with her abusive fiance. MJD had a reasonably funny Wyndham werewolves tale, where a lone wolf falls for an African American vampire (don't meet many of those, though no reason why you shouldn't!) and the Virginia Kantra was the most pleasant surprise - I hadn't heard of her, but her romance (about getting lost on the Appalacian trail) was the most romantic of the lot, and nicley written. I nver like Sunny, so didn't read her chapter.

I finished this book couple of days ago, and realized something kind of odd. While I was reading the stories, I'd have said I was enjoying them (well, 3 of them anyway), but at the end I was left feeling dissatisfied and wondering if I need to give up on buying short story collections, since this isn't the first time I've been left feeling this way.

One of my gripes is that all four of these stories are sequels or part of continuing stories that had been started in novels or other anthologies. I was familiar with the "worlds" of Knight's and Davidson's stories, since I read (and enjoy) those authors' novels regularly. Those two were my reason for buying the book.

Kantra's story was a sequel of sorts, but from references in this story, it was clear that the prequel was based on the legend of Tam-lin. While I hadn't read Kantra's prequel, I've read other books based on that legend, so I understood the references and didn't feel too lost.

The last story, however, was by Sunny, (a new-to-me writer) and it was, in some ways, like opening up a novel right in the middle and reading just one chapter without bothering to read the beginning or end. I find it a little frustrating that the publisher didn't include even one story that was strictly a stand-alone tale, where you didn't need extensive knowledge of folk tales or an author's back list to fully appreciate the story.

It was also frustrating because I thought each of these tales could have potentially been a novel if the writer had gone more in-depth into character, motivation, etc. and I would've enjoyed the novels more than I enjoyed the short stories. I felt cheated at the end, like I only got a tiny bite of a larger story and that tiny bite wasn't very satisfying.

Then there was the problem that bothered me even more - the last story in the book (and only the last story) was so poorly edited that the grammatical errors were driving me crazy before it was over. That would have been annoying in any part of the book, but for it to be the last story in the book - my final impression of the anthology - yikes! Not good!

I spotted misuse of I/me, mixing up of singular and plural within the same sentence, but the error that was bugging me the most was the author's habit of using phrases like "truthful sincerity." As opposed to what - deceptive sincerity? Truthful lies? Doesn't that seem like a case of *repetitive redundancy*? Just sayin'...

Another one I remember was a scene where the protagonist, who is a shape-changer, was saying something about her "feline cat nature." Whew! What a relief that she doesn't have the dreaded canine cat nature, which causes sufferers to chase themselves up trees until they collapse in exhaustion. Bah!

Then there was the *strong* resemblance of the story to Hamilton's Merry Gentry novels, something already noted by several other reviewers. I found that off-putting as well.

It's a shame because I thought Sunny's writing showed talent, but I was so annoyed by the problems in that story that there's no way I'm going to buy the novels and take a chance on having those same issues drive me nuts for 200+ pages.

Unfortunately, I think this one's going in the used book store pile. ( )

I really enjoyed this quartet of different supernatural stories and had a couple pleasant surprises as well.

Angela Knight's tale set alongside her mageverse series was the story of one of the Chosen (werewolf royalty) and her decision to run from the marriage arranged by her father to an abusive suitor. Will the newly bitten police detective she picks as her champion be strong enough to stand against an insane suitor, her father and his minions?

The second story by Virginia Kantra was a pleasant surprise. It was a continuation of her previous story which was my favorite short in the anthology Man of My Dreams. In this short story the daughter of a librarian and escaped Fairy sacrifice is unwittingly drawn to a man who represents a heritage she has no knowledge of.

MaryJanice Davidson's short story of love between a moody vampire and rouge werewolf was very cute.

The last short story by Sunny was a continuation of her "Mona Lisa" books which I have not yet read, but are on my wishlist. Although this short story probably has ruined some of the suspense of what happens in the former book(s), it has also made me much more anxious to read her Mona Lisa stories. Where I was merely curious before, now I'm definitely interested in finding out more about Mona Lisa and how her story started.

Overall this was a very worthwhile anthology and I would certainly recommend it to any fan of paranormal romances. ( )

Moon Dance by Angela Knight is the best story in the group and tells about a young werewolf who is trying to escape from her dangerous fiance and the restrictive society she was born into. I couldn't really get into Virgina Kantra's Between the Mountain and the Moon. Driftwood by MaryJanice Davidson takes us back to the Wyndham Werewolves but is pretty sappy. Finally, Sunny's Mona Lisa Three, the other decent story, we learn a little more about Mona Lisa's healing powers. ( )