Review courtesy of AllThingsUrbanFantasy.blogspot.com

Kim Harrison - Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel - I had a bit of a falling out with Rachel Morgan's The Hollows series after book four. I've long maintained that Ivy is in need of some serious staking, and as her relationship with Rachel increasingly became more of the focus of the series my enjoyment decreased (if a guy pulled half the possessive, needy, territorial garbage that Ivy does Rachel would never have put up with it). Plus after what happened with Kisten...But after reading Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel, I remembered why I loved this series so much to begin with. Nobody, and I mean nobody does better world building than Kim Harrison. I loved getting to read about Rachel as a teenager brimming with excitement about following in her late father's footsteps as a runner for Inderland Security (basically the paranormal police). But Rachel nearly died as a child, and at this point in her life she is still struggling with chronic fatigue and weakness from any type of physical activity, a fact her older brother uses to encourage her to pursue an alternative career as an earth witch. When the two strike a bargain to decide the issue, Rachel accidentally calls forth the ghost of a murdered witch (handsome Peirce) who has some unfinished business with the dead vampire who condemned him centuries before. Together he and Rachel hope to save not only Peirce's soul, but the soul of the young girl the vampire is about to condemn as well. This is a fun quick read sprinkled with holiday magic that will entertain both new and familiar readers, and might even re-hook those of us who had given up on this series for one reason or another. (plus no Ivy!)

Sexual Content:
None

Run, Run, Rudolph by Lynsay Sands - I haven’t read anything by Lynsay Sands before, but I’m a little surprised that her story was included in this anthology because its basically a typical contemporary romance with an added sci-fi element. Jill gets struck with a destabilizing ray by an evil scientist and goes on the run through a parade and Christmas party with her longtime crush Nick. Jill new superpowers include being able to take on the appearance of anyone or thing (remember the title?) that she sees. Of course while on the run, Jill and Nick take a few breaks for a steamy make out session, and a near coupling in the parking lot. For a story that was only 90 pages long, the sexual content felt abruptly introduced and overly emphasized.

Sexual Content:
A scene of heavy petting, a graphic sex scene that isn’t quite consummated.

"The Harvest" by Vicki Pettersson. Vicki's story focuses on Zoe, the mother of the main character Joanna in her Signs of the Zodiac series as she tries to rescue her infant granddaughter from the evil Shadow agents during Thanksgiving. The Zodiac series has an extremely complex and unusual paranormal world involving an endless battle between good and evil personified in comic book-like heroes of the Light and Shadow. I wouldn't recommend starting this series with this prequel novella as the paranormal elements will likely be confusing (and there are a few spoilers from the main series in here). But if you have at least read Scent of Shadows already, you should enjoy the back-story this provides and a deeper look at the inner workings of both sides of the Zodiac.

Sexual Content:
A reference to a rape. A non-graphic sex scene ( )

Well, there are four stories in this book. So I'll do a break down of each one and my thoughts of each of them.

Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel - This is the one where we meet Rachel before she becomes a part of the IS - or the Inderland Security if you're not familiar with her story. I loved this story, because her brother comes back and is trying to talk her out of becoming part of the IS. And of course, she wants to follow in her father's footsteps. So what does her brother do, he tells her if she can complete this spell and bring back a ghost then he'll make sure that the application gets signed. Well, of course, she does complete, but it turns out that it's not who she's looking for. In the end, everything goes great and as most of us know, Rachel goes to the IS. This was a wonderful story to read about a young Rachel.

Run, Run Rudolph - This was not exactly my fave story out of this bunch. I feel that there was more to the story than this one. Perhaps there is, but I have yet to find it. But it was a romantic story about a poor girl who shapeshifts into a reindeer. But although this wasn't one of my fave stories, it was still pretty funny!

Six - I've never read anything by Marjorie Liu, but all in all, this story was just a simple romance, not that I'm a big romantic reader, but this one was really good. Six is a Chinese agent and soon discovers that vampires exist. Of course, once the vampires were introduced, this story had me hooked. Interesting visit into this world. The characters were great and I'll be looking for some more books by this author!

The Harvest - I have a few of Vicki Petterson's books on my bookshelf, but I have yet to read them. So this was also a new one for me. We meet Zoe Archer and the we go into the zodiac World, which I am not at all familiar with. I was kind of confused but I think if I read the other books in the series I'll be able to figure out everything just fine. All in all, I thought it was an interesting story and I'm looking forward to reading more by her!

This book was pretty good. I really don't like to read books like these that have so many different stories, but I had to give this one a shot and I'm really glad I did! So if you're interested, go ahead a buy and give it a try. Plus, the holidays are coming soon so get a move on it! ( )

An early story of Rachel Morgan from Kim Harrison. Lynsay Sands story of a shape-shifter. Marjorie M Liu's story of a government agent and a hunky necromancer and Vicki Pettersson's story of a Zodiac Warrior all combine to create an interesting selection of Christmas and Thanksgiving stories. Light and fun for distraction over the Holiday Season and interesting for some side stories within several worlds. Nothing terribly standout but interesting. ( )

I am somewhat ambivalent about this little anthology, even with my reasoning behind acquiring it – Kim Harrison’s contribution – nicely satisfied. With a tenuous link between all four of a national holiday as backdrop, familiarity with the authors – three of which I am not – may increase the reader’s grasp but, on the whole, the condensed format tended to leave me a tad disgruntled at the conclusion to the stories.

The first, Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison, is a prequel to The Hollows series, and reveals the circumstances of Rachel Morgan’s life in her late teens, the reasoning behind her desire to gain a contract as a runner with the I.S., and her quite extraordinary, if personally-oblivious, witching abilities. When her brother Robbie, home for the solstice holiday, attempts to dissuade Rachel from this career path, by daring her to produce a complicated spell to summon their father’s ghost in order to gain his opinion, the result is not what either sibling expected. A ghost is summoned, forcing a search for a missing girl, and her mother’s ingenuity is finally unveiled – now we know where Rachel gets it from! This story, which although I felt was rushed in the dénouement, I couldn’t fault as an avenue to more knowledge about a favourite character of mine.

The second story Run, Run, Rudolph written by Lynsay Sands, contains an interesting interlude in the day of newly-made shape-shifter Jill, after being zapped by her brother’s mad ex-co-worker and inventor in order to experiment on her changed form. Amongst her frenzied escapes from this deranged hunter Jill still manages to fulfil her duties at the Christmas parade by utilising her burgeoning powers, with the help of her scrumptious, shop-owner neighbour, Nick. While I enjoyed the inventiveness of Jill’s new-found potential and the cleverness of the underlying premise, the conclusion felt too easy and I was left, at the end, feeling flat.

Six by Marjorie M. Lui, third in the book, occurs during the Spring Festival in China where Six, a highly-trained and lethal member of the elite Squad Twelve, joins - if at first reluctantly - with necromancer Joseph Besud, to fight the paranormal forces of vampires threatening her country. And, for the first time in her harsh reality, while battling to save her very existence, finds respite in the most unlikely of places. I was rather enthralled at the beginning of this story but became disappointed with the conclusion – this narrative would have been better served, in my opinion, as a novella, the length working against the plot; the speed of events at the end inconsistent with the start.

The last in this anthology, The Harvest, is another prequel, to the Signs of the Zodiac series – one I haven’t read - but this little tale piqued my interest with the fundamental supposition to its story-line. Once more the brevity excluded a full insight but, from what I gathered here, there is a world balanced between forces of the ‘shadows’ and the ‘light’, these superhumans associated with the signs of the Zodiac. Zoe Archer – with a long, complex history behind her – has relinquished her immortality to save her offspring and fulfil the Seer’s prophesy, linked to the fate of the world. But when her grand-daughter is stolen, on Thanksgiving, Zoe must return, now powerless, to her past and face many consequences she had hoped, in her mortality, she had left behind. In doing so the reader glimpses a fragment of this interesting world and, in my case at least, is left with a desire to read further.

Overall, I am pleased to have learnt more of the background to Rachel Morgan, and to have discovered new authors from this anthology. However all the stories left me feeling underwhelmed due, most likely, to my personal preference for intricacy and more depth in my reading material? To me, the ‘how’ is as crucial as the ‘why’ – at times even more so; especially in my paranormal reading worlds, and with less emphasis on the romance much preferred. Not likely, or indeed probable in this form…

(May 16, 2009) ( )

Well.. I only read the short story by Kim Harrison and it was really cool because it was Rachel when she was 18 and a bit more of a weaker character than we know her as. Just a touch of romance and lots of action in this short story. :) ( )