On the Prowl is an anthology of novellas by four urban fantasy/paranormal romance writers, so I’m just going to treat each story separately.

Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs

I adore the Mercy Thompson series, so moving on to the Alpha and Omega series was practically a given for me. This short story was surprisingly more substantial than just a teaser. Anna thinks that she’s the most submissive wolf in her pack; turned without a choice, she is threatened frequently by other pack members and has been subject to gang rapes and other such cruelty. When she sees a man missing on the news and realizes that her pack leader has not only turned but sold him, she finally calls the Marrok, the leader of all the werewolves, and he sends his son Charles to investigate. The connection between Charles and Anna’s wolves is immediate and he helps her to realize she’s not worthless after all. I liked the relationship between them and the fact that they don’t exactly act on their animal impulses. Restraint is something that doesn’t happen very often in this type of novel and I love that Briggs’s characters are always building their actual relationships, not just hopping into bed with one another because they want to. I feel that this is a delicate handling of Anna’s horrible situation and I liked the resolution of this story. I’m looking forward to reading the next two in the series but I do think that I could have stopped here satisfied at how it stands alone.

Inhuman, Eileen Wilks

This story reads much more like a teaser for a series. Kai Michalski is a physical therapist who also believes she’s a telepath. She’s friends with Nathan, a police officer who isn’t exactly human. When suspicious deaths begin to occur, Kai is immediately blamed thanks to prejudice against magical people from politicians and because another creature has taken her form, fooling credulous officials. While all her affairs on earth are cleared up, thanks to a handy deus ex machina that Nathan can summon at will, the story ends in a massive “buy my book if you want to know what happens now”. It’s a shame because I did like this one, although somehow it managed to feel too long, perhaps because it is all background and not really a story on its own. I might be interested in reading the Lupi series, of which this is a part, but I am not in a rush to do so.

Buying Trouble, Karen Chance

This was my second favorite story in the anthology. Claire has the ability to calm magic around her, so she’s been hired at an auction house to prevent the magical devices going wrong until the duped customers can get them home. One night, however, she discovers that she herself is on auction because of her skills; she can be killed and her abilities drained to make a bomb. Lucky for her, she is rescued by a Fey, Heidar, who realizes that there is even more to Claire than she herself suspected, not to mention a reason for her pesky attraction to all Faery men. This story alone was actually very funny at times and I really liked the main characters, Claire and Heidar. It struck a good balance between action, humor, and romance, and it was a great self-contained short story, not an ad for a book like the other three are. After reading this story I put a request in at my library for another of Karen Chance’s books.

Mona Lisa Betwining, Sunny

This was my least favorite story in the anthology. Basically, it felt like an infodump with lots of sex attached. Mona Lisa is a new Monere Queen, but she’s special because she’s half-human. In this story, she’s called to account for the death of another Monere Queen, who was part demon, and she laments the death of one of her lovers. She also makes an unpleasant discovery about herself. A lot of the story consists of recounting what happened before to get to this point. In the meantime, she has sex with two different men and one of the scenes made me very uncomfortable. The story is only 60 pages long, so at least it went by quickly, but I probably would have skipped this one if I’d known. I went on Sunny’s website and it turns out that her books are mainly paranormal erotic romance, which I really don’t like, so that explains my reaction to this. Her novels have won a number of awards so I’m assuming they have more actual plot and less recapping, but I don’t intend to try them. ( )

Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs:

Alpha and Omega is the novella that preceded Patricia Briggs’ Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1). Part of the On The Prowl anthology, A&O is less its own story and more the introduction to Cry Wolf. It almost feels like someone decided to cut the first few chapters of Cry Wolf and publish them separately. Having read Cry Wolf previously, I already knew the basic plot of this novella as most of it is rehashed in that book. But what makes A&O worth reading is the character insight revealed through the alternating POV of Anna and Charles. And I actually found Anna to be a much stronger character this time around, despite the ongoing abuse she is enduring in A&O. She shows some spine and resourcefulness that I was proud to see. In Cry Wolf she almost seemed to take a step backwards in that sense. As a heads up, there is a lot of romance in this story. I would say the vast majority involves exploring feelings and attraction. So in that sense, A&O is very much a romance with paranormal elements and not the other way around. But even though the romance is the focus here, because this is Patricia Briggs we're talking about, the paranormal elements are top notch. The werewolf pack dynamic is fascinating and I particularly enjoyed how the wolves in this world have there own distinct personality that is not always in agreement with their human counterparts. I just wish there was more of them, especially regarding the origin of the Omega wolf. Perhaps Briggs is planning on doling out more of those details in future books. If you are reading this story first, be sure to have Cry Wolf on hand as the story does not conclude in this novella.

Sexual Content: Sexual abuse and rape is alluded to in the past tense.

Inhuman by Eileen Wilks:

This is the third book set in the compelling World of the Lupi, but it was my first visit, and right off the bat this book struck a nerve with me when the author resorted to writing two of my pet peeves: In the first chapter alone Christians and Republicans are stereotypically dismissed as evil, ignorant hate mongers. I mean how cliché can you get? And the second pet peeve is the info dump. Instead of gradually drawing her audience in to a world unlike our own, we get an entire history crammed into the first chapter. Starting chapter two, I was prepared to groan through the rest of this book for the purpose of this review, but after those initial turn offs (and basically a worthless first chapter full of irrelevant characters), not to mention the whole power wind concept which I found clear as mud, I ended up really liking this book, more to the point, I liked Nathan. His chapters are by far the most interesting (as is the revelation of what he really is). Kai, on the other hand, was pretty vanilla. Yes, she is Gifted (in some undefined way that we only get hints about initially), and yes, she does become more interesting towards the end, but Nathan is why I kept reading and why I was so disappointed to learn that nothing further has been, or is going to be written about him. Eileen had this to say on her website: '’10-05-2009 08:02 am
…when I wrote about Kai & nathan I hoped to continue their story in books or novellas. But for now, my editor wants Rule & Lily stories from me, so no Kai & Nathan books--yet. This may change.’ Maybe we should start a letter campaign to Eileen Wilks’ Editor to write more books about Nathan (and Kai if she wants to)? In the mean time, I’m already planning my next visit to the World of the Lupi.

Sexual Content:
There is a sex scene that is not overly graphic

Buying Trouble by Karen Chance:

I liked this story from page one. Claire is a Null (or something more), someone who can nullify magic, a rarity that her 'family' wants to cash in on by selling her to the highest bidder. Heidar, a Light Elf, lends a hand in her rescue sending the two on the lam through the Faeire realm where, of course, romance and action ensue. There isn't any explanation for the world in this story (I didn’t even realize that I was in the same world as in the Cassandra Palmer series until afterwards, which, considering how I reviewed the first Cassie book is probably a good thing); its like ours in most respects, except that it is populated with fey, weres, vampires, mages, trolls and even dragons. Some hardcore UF lovers might not enjoy this story as much as I did as the majority of the story takes place in the decidedly un-urban faeire realm, and in that sense feels more like straight fantasy. The characters, however, are strong with very modern mindsets. Claire specifically was sharp and witty with just the right amount of cynicism for my taste. Another nice thing about this story is, that unlike a lot of anthology selections, this one actually has an ending. None of that, 'read the rest of the story in the next book...' And it feels like a complete story, something not all novellas do. I hope Ms. Chance plans on writing more about Claire and Heidar in the near future.

Sexual Content:
One semi graphic sex scene. ( )

Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs:

Alpha and Omega is the novella that preceded Patricia Briggs’ Cry Wolf (Alpha and Omega, Book 1). Part of the On The Prowl anthology, A&O is less its own story and more the introduction to Cry Wolf. It almost feels like someone decided to cut the first few chapters of Cry Wolf and publish them separately. Having read Cry Wolf previously, I already knew the basic plot of this novella as most of it is rehashed in that book. But what makes A&O worth reading is the character insight revealed through the alternating POV of Anna and Charles. And I actually found Anna to be a much stronger character this time around, despite the ongoing abuse she is enduring in A&O. She shows some spine and resourcefulness that I was proud to see. In Cry Wolf she almost seemed to take a step backwards in that sense. As a heads up, there is a lot of romance in this story. I would say the vast majority involves exploring feelings and attraction. So in that sense, A&O is very much a romance with paranormal elements and not the other way around. But even though the romance is the focus here, because this is Patricia Briggs we're talking about, the paranormal elements are top notch. The werewolf pack dynamic is fascinating and I particularly enjoyed how the wolves in this world have there own distinct personality that is not always in agreement with their human counterparts. I just wish there was more of them, especially regarding the origin of the Omega wolf. Perhaps Briggs is planning on doling out more of those details in future books. If you are reading this story first, be sure to have Cry Wolf on hand as the story does not conclude in this novella.

Sexual Content: Sexual abuse and rape is alluded to in the past tense.

Inhuman by Eileen Wilks:

This is the third book set in the compelling World of the Lupi, but it was my first visit, and right off the bat this book struck a nerve with me when the author resorted to writing two of my pet peeves: In the first chapter alone Christians and Republicans are stereotypically dismissed as evil, ignorant hate mongers. I mean how cliché can you get? And the second pet peeve is the info dump. Instead of gradually drawing her audience in to a world unlike our own, we get an entire history crammed into the first chapter. Starting chapter two, I was prepared to groan through the rest of this book for the purpose of this review, but after those initial turn offs (and basically a worthless first chapter full of irrelevant characters), not to mention the whole power wind concept which I found clear as mud, I ended up really liking this book, more to the point, I liked Nathan. His chapters are by far the most interesting (as is the revelation of what he really is). Kai, on the other hand, was pretty vanilla. Yes, she is Gifted (in some undefined way that we only get hints about initially), and yes, she does become more interesting towards the end, but Nathan is why I kept reading and why I was so disappointed to learn that nothing further has been, or is going to be written about him. Eileen had this to say on her website: '’10-05-2009 08:02 am
…when I wrote about Kai & nathan I hoped to continue their story in books or novellas. But for now, my editor wants Rule & Lily stories from me, so no Kai & Nathan books--yet. This may change.’ Maybe we should start a letter campaign to Eileen Wilks’ Editor to write more books about Nathan (and Kai if she wants to)? In the mean time, I’m already planning my next visit to the World of the Lupi.

Sexual Content:
There is a sex scene that is not overly graphic

Buying Trouble by Karen Chance:

I liked this story from page one. Claire is a Null (or something more), someone who can nullify magic, a rarity that her 'family' wants to cash in on by selling her to the highest bidder. Heidar, a Light Elf, lends a hand in her rescue sending the two on the lam through the Faeire realm where, of course, romance and action ensue. There isn't any explanation for the world in this story (I didn’t even realize that I was in the same world as in the Cassandra Palmer series until afterwards, which, considering how I reviewed the first Cassie book is probably a good thing); its like ours in most respects, except that it is populated with fey, weres, vampires, mages, trolls and even dragons. Some hardcore UF lovers might not enjoy this story as much as I did as the majority of the story takes place in the decidedly un-urban faeire realm, and in that sense feels more like straight fantasy. The characters, however, are strong with very modern mindsets. Claire specifically was sharp and witty with just the right amount of cynicism for my taste. Another nice thing about this story is, that unlike a lot of anthology selections, this one actually has an ending. None of that, 'read the rest of the story in the next book...' And it feels like a complete story, something not all novellas do. I hope Ms. Chance plans on writing more about Claire and Heidar in the near future.

Sexual Content:
One semi graphic sex scene. ( )

Lately I've really enjoyed collections of short stories in urban fantasy, but this one fell a bit short. For once, I thought Brigg's contribution was formulaic and predictable, and I'm a huge fan of Briggs. The last story...well, if you Laurell K Hamilton's new stuff, you'll like this. I didn't. Of the whole collection, I thought Wilk's "Inhuman" was the best, and it was very good. This isn't a bad collection, just not a great one. ( )

I enjoyed all the stories in this except Sunny's - which seemed to have no point other than for the two main characters to have sex. I've not read any of Sunny's novels so I'm not sure what her usual writing is like, but if this is true to form, I'm not likely to try them.Overall not a bad selection of stories - Karen Chance and Patricia Briggs being my two favourites in this compilation. ( )