Very enjoyable, and a great chance to read something by three authors I had heard of but not had the chance to read yet. ( )

I started reading this book to take a break from the Anita Blake series.

It's called _Never After,_ because each story has someone who definitely does not want to marry, or at least not marry the one they are "supposed" to.

The first story in this book is "Can He Bake a Cherry Pie?" by Laurell K Hamilton. It was fun reading something by her that wasn't erotica and a stand-alone story. This is a fairy tale, but instead of the handsome prince saving the damsel in distress, it's the damsel who sets out to save the prince. She must brave many tests and in the end, decide her own fate. Cute and well written, it's a fairy tale with a twist.

The second tale is "The Shadow of Mist" by Yasmine Galenorn. In a world where supernatural beings exist side-by-side with humans, a selkie woman flees her home in Ireland to escape a forced marriage to her rapist. Her friends help her as she tries to save her lover and defeat the man who wants to abduct her and make her his princess. It's nice to see a story about selkies, they are one of my favorites. Putting them in the modern world is interesting. I'd read other things by this author based on this story.

"The Tangleroot Palace" by Marjorie M. Liu is back in the fairytale vein of storytelling. I really liked this one. It had magic, an evil queen, a damsel taking her life and destiny into her own hands. There is a hero, too, but he is not the main focus of the story. He helps provide the happy ending.

The last story is Sharon Shinn's "The Wrong Bridegroom." This is probably my favorite of all of them. There is palace intrigue, hidden secrets, and a princess who must choose between two suitors who have passed her father's tests to get to that point. The characters are rather stereotypical, especially the men. The women are more three-dimensional, but then it is more about them and their relationships to the men in their lives. The princess goes on a hero's journey of sorts and learns about her kingdom and herself along the way.

All the stories have heroines who are taking their lives and destinies into their own hands. They are moving out of their comfort zones. I particularly enjoyed the stories with fairytale atmospheres, Since fairy tales usually have damsels in distress waiting for a prince to save them. These are stories for modern women and girls. Galenorn's story gets pretty dark, but I think young adults would enjoy seeing women take power over their lives. ( )

Can He Bake a Cherry Pie by Laurell K. Hamilton - 5
Elinore would rather face death than wed the pervert her father agreed to marry her off to and so she takes a quest to save a Prince, expecting to die.

The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie M. Liu - 4
The kingdom is under attack and her father arranges a marriage to a Barbarrion. She flees to the Tangleroot forest to find her freedom only to discover more than she bargained for. Was okay read.

The Wrong Bridegroom by Sharon Shinn - 3
Spoiled princess refuses to marry the man the King picked for her so he creates a competition for her hand. Didn't like her most of the story, didn't even want to finish it but the ending was good for a fairytale.
( )

This collection of four short stories was OK. Nothing too graphic, kind of fairy "taleish" (Is this even a word?. I felt like I was basically reading the same story over and over. The Laurell K. Hamilton story was first and short. Kind of a bummer. She really should stick with Vampire Hunter, Anita Blake. ( )

Read all of the stories except by Sharon Shinn. Skimmed hers and figured out the storyline and didn't want to follow how she got there. Liked how Laurell's story went. Yasmine's was a nice follow up to a side character in the Other World series she has. Marjorie's I don't think lines up with any of her storylines, but was good too. ( )