First one, Mad Dog Love by Angela Knight

We meet Mad Dog, he is a werewolf and in the beginning of the story he is a slave. Well, he ends up getting bought by Zarifa, who is on the run from her ex. She finds herself strangely attracted to 'Mad Dog' aka Rance even though he is supposed to help protect her from her ex and expose a person who has betrayed her. Well the story ends up all hot and steamy and makes me wish that I could fins me a hot werewolf!

A Jaguar's Kiss by Lora Leigh

This one was my favorite. We meet Natalie who has been offered a teaching position for Breed children/ She meets Saban, who ultimately attracts her and yet she fights the feelings that he is bringing out of her. Saban is determined to make her his mate. There is plenty of action, sex, and plot twists and turns. In this story, the Breed genes and such are amazing. Not your usualy run of the mill shifters. It was aactually quite refreshing to read this kind of outlook on shifters in general.

Shifter's Lady by Alyssa Day

This one was about a woman named Marie who lives in Atlantis and hasn't left in nearly four centuries. Now she gets to leave and go visit her brother who is involved with a panther pack. Well, she didn't expect to run into a shifter like Ethan. But needless to say, she gives into her feelings for Ethan as she has never yearned for a man more, nor has she experiences one that yearned for her as much! Sensual romance to be loved!

Sea Crossing by Virginia Kantra

Emma is crossing the waters to Canada. But instead of meeting a horrible and ugly death, she meets a Selkie (an elemental who is like a Seal). She becomes a teacher on an island, seeing that there probably was no way a ship was ever going to find her again. But Griff, who is male, okay, very male - she finds herself attracted to him in such a way!

This was a pretty good anthology. But my fave story is A Jaguar's Kiss! So do with this review, what you will and check it out yourself! ( )

Mad Dog by Angela Knight
I’m not a huge fan of futuristic stories, but if they are from an author I know, then I will usually give them a try. With that said, I should mention that Angela Knight’s contribution takes place in the year 2450 and it involves some technology that I kind of wish was available today. The story was actually quick and easy to follow along, but I think I would rather have seen this as a full length novel. I would have definitely picked this up as a full novel. The technology (which is usually throws me off of the futuristic milieu) was believable and not overly done. I’ve read stories that describe the world’s technology a little zealously and that really doesn’t help in my opinion. In fact, Knight did it really well and even told a pretty good romance story along with it.

A Jaguar’s Kiss by Lora Leigh
Lora Leigh is a new author for me, and I’ve heard of her Breeds series, so finding out her contribution was another story in her series, it gave me a little bit more of a reason to pay attention. What I wasn’t expecting was to get sucked into the story, and at one point, get tears in my eyes. The story had a very intense emotional feeling to it and there were times where you just had to read on. At other times, Leigh kind of got carried away in my opinion. Scenes that could have been shorter weren’t and moments were dragged out until I really didn’t care anymore. The ending was like that for me. Once the climax of the story occurred, I was ready for a quick ending and I didn’t get that. Overall I enjoyed the story, and I’ll have to get to her books sooner rather than later, but it didn’t make me go out and find something now.

Shifter’s Lady by Alyssa Day
While I did enjoy the story, it was obvious that Shifter’s Lady was a part of another series. Day has create a whole new world that seems to be very descriptive and without reading any of the other stories, there were things that lost me a little. Nothing serious or that took away from the story, but there was already a bigger story line going on and I didn’t have any of the back story/plot. Other than that, the story was good and it did make me interested to find out what I missed by getting the first Atlantis novel.

Sea Crossing by Virginia Kantra
This novella actually begins a whole new series for Kantra and so far I’m interested. The world builds around the mythology/legend of Selkies in the British Isles and, in my opinion, is kind of new. If you’re a fan of historical romances, than the Selkie myth isn’t anything you should be unfamiliar with. It’s been referenced to in any Cornish based book, or at least alluded to, and now we’re actually getting a story from the Selkie’s perspective and I’m intrigued. Sea Crossing is only the beginning and we get more with her follow up novels - Sea Witch and Sea Fever. The fourth novel in the Children of the Sea series will be Sea Lord, which doesn’t come out until May 2009. The only thing I am unsure of is when the novel takes place. The story really doesn’t allude to a certain time frame, but I get a feeling of a more historical time period. Personally, this doesn’t bother me, but it may some.

Overall, this anthology was actually pretty good. It had three new authors for me and all three gave me something to look forward to. I haven’t read anything by Lora Leigh, Alyssa Day, or Virginia Kantra, but I plan to and now I’m a little more familiar with their story worlds. Whether your a fan of these authors or they are new to you, Shifter is definitely worth a read.

http://www.literaryescapism.com/2008/... ( )

I read a lot of anthologies and if I find one good story in the book I'm satisfied. Shifter is unusual for me because 2 of it's stories are keepers. The first and last stories are excellent. Angela Knight writes an excellent short story about a runaway empress and the slave werewolf she purchases. It was both dense and satifying, relying on character and a little bit of world building, and lots of fun.

The last tale about a selkie and a school marm, was both romantic and magical. I had not read any Virginia Kantra before but immediately searched out her next 2 books, Sea Witch and Sea Fever based on her powerful and beautifully told tale here. It's every thing I like in a short story, infusing the tale with a tension and a fairy tale like sense of inevitability. The ending was the tiniest bit rushed, but that's only because I did not want to leave the characters.

So it's well worth getting. The Lora Leigh was standard Breeds - she starts too intense and has nowhere to go from there, so there's no build up, just on going crescendo which can get a bit tiring. And the other Alyssa Day felt confusing to me. But the bookends make it a keeper. ( )

As a whole, Shifter was a great book- sexy, passionate, funny, thrilling, full of untamed desire... what more can you ask for? I know what you are going to say: Where's the delicious bad boys, the sexy shifter alpha males? Well, no worries ladies, they are in the book too-- plenty of them! In fact, you may need to call the fire department before you start reading, it's that hot!

When you find an anthology with top paranormal romance authors like Angela Knight, Lora Leigh, and Alyssa Day, how can you go wrong, right? Not only do they write great paranoraml romances, but they all know how to add in the perfect amount of borderline erotica, which is always a plus, in my opinion. And believe me, they do not disappoint, even in an anthology, where sometimes it feels like the stories are too rushed! I loved each and every one, and I felt like they were able to tell a great story and wrap it up nicely even with limited pages available.

The only story that I had a problem with was the last one, Sea Crossing, by Virginia Kantra. I've read her work once before, in the last anthology I rated, and in that one I was also a little disappointed. I do not mean to offend any Kantra fans out there *Or Kantra herself, of course!* but I have to say that after two slightly bland stories that I've tried of hers, I don't think I will be reading any more of her books. I will definitely re-read Shifter when I get the chance, but when I do, I will skip right past her story because it failed to hold my interest. Though she was able to write some pretty good sex scenes, I felt like the rest of the story line and characters, conversation and development, was forced, and not, well, completely developed. There was just something missing, and I'm not sure what it was, but I noticed it in the other story I read of hers. And I don't think that it helped any that the hero was a selkie. I've never really been into selkies in my romances, and the fact that it was the male who was selkie, it kind of turned me off, if that makes sense. There's just something about the thought of a handsome and sexy male turning into a seal that doesn't really work for me. Sorry to any fans out there, but this is my opinion.

Oh, just a little side note: In Lora Leigh's book, A Jaguar's Kiss, the lucious bad boy, Saban... WOW! Grab a fan or a bucket of ice before starting it! Not only is the story hot hot hot!, like all of her books, but Lora Leigh made this hero extra sexy, in my opinion, by giving him a Cajun accent and a name like 'Saban'. Is it unusual? Yes, BUT it's so damn sexy! Is it just me, or does the name just scream "Untamed Passion" that would boil over, both in bed and out!? And when you read the story itself, I swear, that "Untamed Passion" triples in it's intensity, which you would think couldn't be possible.. and yet it is. Oh, God, let me tell you-- it is! While reading Saban and Natalie's story, I found myself whispering under my breath 'Saban' over and over again, actually pronouncing his name outloud each and everytime it came up in the story.. and a few times when it didn't!- because it's such a sexy name. I'd love to have my own personal Saban... *SIGH!*

4.5/5 stars! Shifter is a great book, full of passion and thrill, love and laughter.. and Saban, as I've already said. ;) Don't miss this great book written by three wonderful authors... Oh, and one author that tried her best, but that I felt the book itself could have done without. ( )

Collection of short stories with tie-ins to other series. ( )