I picked up Unbound in the store the week it came out because I was waiting with bated breath for Jeaniene Frost's new story, Reckoning, featuring Bones, her charismatic vampire master with a scathing wit and looks to die for. Yes, that is my description. The author no doubt has her own, but I couldn't resist. I won't lie, I read that story first and loved it. How could I not? If you haven't read her Night Huntress books (please do) you can still read the short story because it takes place beforehand. It's set in New Orleans and will make you shiver. No, not because of Bones, but because of the creepy elements surrounding mayhem during Mardi Gras.

There are also stories from Jocelynn Drake and Kim Harrison. Kim wrote a stand alone story with my favorite pixy, Jenks and teenage gargoyle Bis. If you haven't read Kim's books this is a perfect introduction to the world she has created. Jenks solves a case on his own with a little help from some friends. I smiled throughout the entire story and so will you.

Jocelynn Drake's story, The Dead, the Damned and the Forgotten, is a prequel to her Dark Days books featuring Mira, the nightwalker (vampire) who is also known as The Firestarter. It takes place in her beloved Savannah, Georgia, which has been home for a very, very long time now. The books take her to places like Italy and Machu Picchu, so we don't see her at home that often. I liked the story because it gave me a better feel for how she interacts with those she cares for, and those she has to discipline. She has to find that line between keeping her home safe and having the reputation of a heartless killing machine, all well solving the mystery of a death in her domain.

The other two authors in the book are Melissa Marr and Vicki Pettersson. I had heard good things about both of them but hadn't read any of their books. Dark Matters drew me into the world of Vicki Pettersson's books. After reading it, I knew I had to get her books. The story involves a man and a woman who are on opposite sides of a war against good and evil. I really can't tell you much more without giving it away, but the ending is haunting. The story is tragic on the surface, a love story, set in a time of war. I loved it.

Melissa Marr is the author of the popular Wicked Lovely book series, which is young adult. The story in Unbound is, according to the back of the paperback, is her first adult supernatural thriller. It's called Two Lines and I loved it! I've read on her blog that she will be writing an adult series in the future. Rather than try to describe her story, I'll let you read this quote from her blog. I could not possibly say it better:

"the question has been asked already, no, it's not a prequel or a set-up for a forthcoming book in this world. It's just a story about a glaistig, some zombie powder, some criminals, & a bit of necessary violence." (from http://melissa-writing.livejournal.co...)

FINAL SAY ON THE BOOK: I highly recommend it for fans of the authors AND to readers they are new to. It was the first analogy I've read that I loved every story in the book. ( )

This was a pretty good anthology of short stories that take place in the same world as these authors' urban fantasy series. I was familiar with half the authors. As far as I can tell, there's no unifying theme tying the stories together but that's okay.

Kim Harrison's story was focused on Jenks. A fellow pixie comes to him for help because a statue is causing one of his children to sleepwalk/fly and attack the statue so hard she's causing herself pain. It's also caused one of his ...more This was a pretty good anthology of short stories that take place in the same world as these authors' urban fantasy series. I was familiar with half the authors. As far as I can tell, there's no unifying theme tying the stories together but that's okay.

Kim Harrison's story was focused on Jenks. A fellow pixie comes to him for help because a statue is causing one of his children to sleepwalk/fly and attack the statue so hard she's causing herself pain. It's also caused one of his newlings (kids not old enough to be named) to die.

It was nice to see Jenks on his own. I like Rachel, but she can be a bit much.

I'd like to see more of Jenks doing some work on his own and it was cool to see Jenks having Ivy as backup rather than the other way around.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of the characters introduced in this story. They're all less annoying than Pierce.

Vicki Pettersson's story needs to have a huge spoiler warning for City of Souls. If I hadn't already read that and read this first I'd have been incredibly pissed. Having said that, it doesn't make me like the twist in that book any better. It makes me think even more the whole thing was driven by hormones (and probably some depression) so it's not so much a tragic love story (which I never thought it was) as JJ being a naive idiot.

It does explain Solange's fascination with the zodiac more and makes that cooler, but the rest? Meh.

Maybe it could have been done with a lengthier treatment but by necessity this one was pretty shallow. I can't really talk about it without giving away a fairly major plot point in book 4 of the series and while I didn't like the development, I'm not going to spoil it for others. (I talk about it at length in my review of that book if anyone is interested).

I'd honestly forgotten what Melissa Marr's entry was about, which is surprising because I think it was one of the better stories in the anthology.

A woman has to keep from having sex and killing in the same month or she'll turn into a full monstrous creature. Should be easy, but when she starts poking into the business of a drug dealing slaver, and her grandmother who wants her to join the family of monstrous creatures appoints her a hot bodyguard, it's more difficult than it sounds.

It could be really interesting to see an entire series with this character's struggle, or at least a full length book.

I haven't read Jeannine Frost's series, but this story seemed okay. Bones, a vampire, is in New Orleans trying to track down two notorious ghouls who are murdering and eating the tourists. Nothing special, but not bad.

Jocelyn Drake's story takes place just before Nightwalker. It's pretty typical, a vampire's been murdered and she has to find out who. The council is getting uptight about whether she has enough control over her territory, so if she can't solve the murder in a short period of time she's going to be called on the carpet. I really liked the reason behind the murder and I think seeing it from the murderer's point of view could have been really interesting. It would also be interesting to see if it actually affected Mira at all, alas, we'll never really know. It seems unlikely to come up in a future book since she's got other things going on. ( )

I love anthologies and short story collections! I think it's a great way to discover new authors, as well as get a quick taste of stories from some of my favorites. I try to make my "purse book" an anthology as they're easier than full length novels to read sporadically. They're also perfect for my lunch hour reads. This book was a little different for me as I'm already a big fan of all of these ladies, so no new authors to sample. But it is a great selection of stories, so I highly recommend it to all fantasy lovers!

The first story is Ley Line Drifter by Kim Harrison. It features Jenks, my favorite pixie investigator from the Rachel Morgan series. Jenks gets a case of his own, helping a pixie family because their children are being magically attacked by a statue. Was nice to see Jenks and Bis, the teenage gargoyle, again. Rachel doesn't make an appearance, but Ivy has a cameo. Jenks handles things really well, and I think it did both Jenks and Bis good to spread their wings a little and act independently.

The next story is Reckoning by Jeaniene Frost. Good story about vampire bounty hunter Bones tracking two undead serial killers in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Always nice to see Bones again.

Dark Matters by Vicki Pettersson is the third story presented. It involves the agents of Light from her Signs of the Zodiac series, but before Joanna came into the picture. I really enjoyed it, but the ending took me a little by surprise. I didn't see it coming, but it made sense so I liked it!

Next up is The Dead, The Damned, and the Forgotten by Jocelynn Drake. This one features Mira, from her Dark Days series. I haven't read the series yet, but have several of the books in my TBR pile. A nice introduction to Mira and her world, involving the murder of a nightwalker in her territory. If Mira can't solve the murder, she may lose her territory and be sent back to the Council. Another good story!

Last but not least is Two Lines by Melissa Marr. Liked this one, but could have used a little more background as I'm totally unfamiliar with glaistigs. Eavan does not want to become a full glaistig, which apparently involves both murder and sex. Think those are the two lines that she does not want to cross, but it's getting harder and harder for her to resist. There is a sexy bad guy and an equally appealing good guy, as well as family pressure to just get on with it already. Not bad, but there was that confusion over glaistigs, which dampened my enjoyment a little.

All in all I'd say that this was a good collection of urban fantasy, so I gave it 4 out of 5. ( )

"Unbound" is a collection of five stories by various different paranormal authors. I bought this book the day it came out for Kim Harrison and Jeannene Frost's stories. I am not a huge fan of anthologies in general but I had to get this one.

"Ley Line Drifter" by Kim Harrison - * * *
This is the story of Jenks the pixy and Bis the gargoyle attempting to solve a paranormal private investigation case. Jenks usually works with Rachel, but he is eager to help save another pixy's young children. I adore Jenks, always have and always will. Unfortunately a closer glimpse of Jenks and his family is the only thing recommending this story. The mystery of two statues inhabited by a demon and a nymph is too vaguely constructed to be compelling and the ending is far too abrupt. I get the feeling we will hear from these characters again in the future but in this story I didn't' find them too interesting. As a whole the story was unsatisfying Still the pages of family time visiting Jenks, his wife and their children was definitely enjoyable and worth reading.

"Reckoning" by Jeanene Frost * * * * *
This novella is about Bones, before he met Cat, and how he came to be hired in New Orleans to kill a pair of ghoul serial killers. In sixty pages, Frost manages to tell a complete and engaging paranormal tale. It beings with Bones getting a call to New Orleans and follows him as he hunts and finds the killers. There are several other characters who appear through the tale whom we have never read about in Frost's series. Still Frost makes us feel like we know these fleshed out characters. This story isn't going to change how you read the "Night Huntress" series and you won't miss anything vital if you don't read this novella. Still every page is entertainment in its purest form. Unlike Harrison's tale before it, "Reckoning" has a complete ending which I was completely happy with.

"Dark Matter" by Vicki Petterson * * * *
This is a short story set in the same superhero world as Joanna Archer's, where Light agents battle Shadow agents in a war of good versus evil. Joanna, the main character from the Signs of the Zodiac series, is missing here (mostly) as the story takes place before Joanna learns that she is to be the Kairos, a powerful woman made up on fboth light and dark who would tip the scales in favor of which ever side she chose to fight with. Instead this is a story about another Light agent J.J.. JJ falls in love with a shadow agent, and must deal with the fallout from that. This story is gripping and easy to read. My complaint with the Zodiac series is that it is bogged down and events unfold so quickly that it is hard to keep track of everything. Not the case here. Dark Matter is a powerful story that should be a must read for follower's of Petterson's series. It was sad and somewhat shocking at the end, but that only made me want to rush to read the newest book, "City of Souls". Maybe if I had already read that fourth installment, I wouldn't have been as shocked by the ending. Still this story was gem.

"The Dead, the Damned and the Forgotten" by Jocelyn Drake * * * * *
I have the first two books by Jocelyn Drake but I haven't read them yet. The good news is that the story makes me want to hurry up and get to them! Mira, a vampire, runs a domain of the undead in Savannah. She is called to the morgue to find a dead vampire. As she and her assistant Knox race to find the killer it becomes quickly apparent they are in deeper than they bargained for. An ancient vampire shows up from the head Coven in Venus and threatens to send Mira back to live under their rule if she can't get ahold on her own territory. The stakes are raised as they learn werewolves, hit men, and humans are all involved. Drake writes an intriguing story here. The world really appealed to me but I can tell there is probably more blood and violence than in most of the other urban fantasy stories. These people don't mess around! Although the story has to do with an existing world and some established characters I never felt lost. There was nothing about the story I didn't like. Easily a five star story.

"Two Lines" by Melissa Marr * * *
I have never read Melissa Marr before, and I liked her writing. This story was good but not great. It's the story of a girl named Eavan "Eve", who belongs to a family of glaistigs. Glaistigs are woman with goat bodies on their lower halves but are beautiful and human on the top half. They occasionally have to kill to live eternally. In order for Eve to be a real glaistig and leave her humanity behind, she must kill and have sex. Scared of changing over, she avoids both like the plague. This story has her fighting the urges to change, and stalking a human killer as he gives woman a zombie potion and then mutilates them. Enter Cillian, a paranormal police officer and you have her love interest.
The story wasn't bad, and I had no trouble reading through it. If this became a series, I would give it a chance. This was still overall my least favorite of the five stories.

Overall this was a rocking anthology. I usually have a couple stories I really can't get into, but this was a treat. I recommend this one to all the urban fantasy lover's out there who don't mind a good anthology. ( )

Good collection. Really enjoyed 3 of the 5 stories, which are all about the theme of being freed/unbound from something.

The Kim Harrison story, "Ley Line Drifter," is the reason I bought the book. Cute but not overwhelmingly good. About Jinks deciding to form his own detective agency for fairies with the help of Biff, the Gargoyle. It was an interesting insight into the life of an intriguing character, but if you don't already know the character and Harrison's writing, I'm not sure you'll enjoy it. I'd give it 4 stars.

Next up is Jeaniene Frost's "Reckoning", a story about two of the most gruesome people in American history, Delphine and Dr. Louis LaLaurie. In 1834, the New Orleans couple were accused of horribly mistreating their slaves and were run out of the city. (Wikipedia - search Delphine LaLaurie - gives a good account of the atrocities the LaLauries were accused of and mentions that sensationalist journalism leads some to believe the precise atrocities often attributed to the couple were a 20th century invention.) Frost imagines the couple as vampires and tells a good stand-alone story although it apparently features one of her standard characters, Bones. I really enjoyed this story and plan to look for more of Frost's work, although I do wish she had included a note of some kind to let readers know the story was based in history. Five stars for this one.

The third story is Vicki Pettersson's "Dark Matter", a story set in the Signs of the Zodiac world. I don't particularly care for the meme of that world, and I didn't particularly care for this story. It was fairly well-crafted, I suppose, but not action-driven, which made it a bad fit for this collection. I'd give it three stars.

Jocelynn Drake's story "The Dead, The Damned and the Forgotten" is fourth. This is a story about Mira, a Savannah vampire who I suspect is a standard character for Drake. The story was nicely written and tight - not knowing the characters wasn't a problem. However, it didn't appeal to me all that much, so four stars.

The final story is Melissa Marr's "Two Lines." It was a good story, and bonus points for being set in Raleigh, but it wasn't a great story. Will Eaven kill and have sex in the same month, thus becoming a glastig (half sexy woman, half goat)? I have no idea whether I wanted her to go with her heritage or remain human, which made it a little uncomfortable. There were a few passage that were downright confusing or badly put together or something, although overall the story was well-crafted. Four stars. ( )