Bad, Dad and Dangerous
NOTE - I recieved an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest, unbaised review.
This is an anthology of 4 paranormal romantic adventures. Each story features a single dad who is temporarily on their own while the kid is gone on a summer vacation. Each Dad meets someone new and has to balance a paranormal problem of some kind with a budding new something. I’ve never reviewed an anthology before, but here goes.
Monster Hall Pass - Bru Baker
Hugh is a vampire raising the daughter he adopted after finding her abandoned in a dumpster as a baby. He finds it odd that he’s never been able to read Ruby’s aura like he can the humans, so he suspects she might be a paranormal of some kind, but foundling babies don’t come with pedigree papers so who knows. Either way, they are living in the human world so Hugh raising Ruby as a human while he lives as a human.
Ruby is off to summer camp for a month, so it’s time for Hugh’s annual hunt. As we know, vampires do not feed on human blood. Their essence feeds on human emotion, especially the negative ones. But if the vampire drains too much at one time, the human could die. For this reason Hugh NEVER hunts except when Ruby is away, and he uses his ability to read auras to choose only the worst of the worst from the human buffet. During his annual hunt he tanks up on all of the human emotion he can, and then the rest of the year gets by on a trickle charge, absorbing the negative emotions he comes into contact with as the manager of a customer service call center.
His first night out hunting Hugh comes accross a violent rapist at a truck stop. As he seeks to intervene he’s interrupted by Rykoff. Rykoff is a member of the Fae Royal Court and he’s here in the mortal realm searching for a Fae Prince who went missing about a decade ago. He sees Hugh and his kind as viscous cruel beings who feed off of innocent humans. He tries to stop Hugh, not realizing that Hugh’s hunt actullay protects humans be eliminating the truely evil ones. Imagine the WORST way to meet someone you might find attractive.
Once Rykoff is faced with proof of Hugh’s actually good intentions, if not his good nature, he’s willing to accept help from the vamp. Wile riding in Hugh’s car Rykoff picks up on Ruby’s essence from some misplaced items in the back seat. Guess what? Ruby is the half-blood daughter of the missing prince. Since Rykoff will do ANYTHING to rescue the prince (and/or previously unknown daughter), and Hugh would give his very life to protect Ruby, the two paranormals team up to keep the fae out of the hands of those who would be willing to kill in order to steal the Fae magical powers.
I loved this story, because I liked the idea of adversaries teaming up for a common goal. I also liked the pace of the relationship, in that it didn’t feel overly fast or forced like can happen so easily in tales of this length.
Kismet and Cadavers - Jenna Moffat
Thomas Anders is a warlock from an old and respected Mage family. He’s rasing his daughter Star, who happens to be powerful enough to accidentally use black magic to raise her beloved cat from the dead after an unfortunate encounter with a car. Ressurrection is STRICTLY forbidden, but so far Thomas has managed to keep their talking feline familiar under wraps. Nate (or Nation, short for abomination, as Thomas calls him), remains a closely guarded secret.
KJ Beshter was one of Star’s favorite teachers last year. Star is multiple grades ahead of her age in school, and KJ tutored her through a particular advanced class. Due to a particular childhood experience KJ has spent much of his leisure time trying to get irrefutable proof thgat magic and the supernatural exist. As a thank-you for his effort Star gives KJ a gift card to the Anders’ family’s magic shop. Star has secretly charmed the gift card in hopes of getting KJ and her Dad together.
The Summer Solstice is approaching, perfect time for a part-time paranormal researcher to top up on books and gadgets. Star has just left for summer camp, so Thomas has the store all to his lonesome. Good thing, as Summer Solstice is also the perfect time for the practitioners of black magic to capture magical beings, possess their bodies, and thereby gain/maintain immortality.
KJ and Thomas end up having to fight the bad guys, all the while trying to fight their growing attraction. Star’s magic meddling may have provided the spark, but the relationship grows entirely naturally, so it’s more like a matter of timing than Star creating a relationship out of nothing. As a result, even though the “meet” was engineered, the relationship doesn’t feel that way.
I could see this story being the kickoff to some sort of paranormal adventure series.
Elf Shot - TA Moore
Conri is an elfin changeling, as is his adoptive son Finn. Changelings are people who started out human, but were converted (or partially converted) by spending too much time in the Otherworld (the magic world of the fae, elves, etc.). The story starts out with Conri driving Finn to a special summer camp for changleing teens. The locals HATE that the camp exists, since the first Changelings were the result of humans being kidnapped into the Otherworld. It was a LONG time ago, and it doesn’t go on anymore, but as a result the fae and other beings are generally disliked and always distrusted. Finn and some other kids sneak off the camp grounds to attend a local teen party and things go WAY wrong. Now 1 human teen girl (Nora) and 3 changeling teens are missing. If Nora isn’t found soon, the Human/Otherworld treaty will fall apart and war will ensue.
Iron Door is the group of paranormal enforcers charged with making sure that any human entering the Otherworld is doing so of thier own free will. Iron Door is NOT happy about the possibility (and growing human suspicion) that the missing changeling teens have abducted Nora into the Otherworld. If that’s the case then Nora will start to become a changleing. Time is of the essence, so they put Agen Dylan Bellamy (aka Bell) on the case.
Bell and Conri become partners (though at first unwillingly) to (A) find Nora and the missing changeling kids; and (B) get some kind of proof that Nora wasn’t abducted. It’s a race against time, magic beings, and the attraction growing between Bell and Conri.
Of the four stories in the anthology this is the one I liked least. The relationship between the two men feels about right in terms of pacing, but the plotline itselft didn’t appeal as much. For some reason the challenge/adventure part of the plot felt very convoluted to me. I had trouble following what was all going on becuase there was so much and it seemed like the peril just kept buidling. I had to read the story a couple of times to get more of the gist of it.
Wolf at First Site -- Rhys Ford
The 4th and Final story of the collection is an offshoot of Rhy’s “Wayword Wolves.” In the first book of that series we meet Gibson Keller (a wolf shifter) and his brother Ellis. Gibson is one of the MC’s in that book, with Ellis filling an important secondary role. This story features Levi Keller, a cousin of Gibson and Ellis.
Levi is a respected Paranormal Peacekeeper. The Peacekeepers help the paranormals to stay hidden in the mundane (aka human) world by acting as impartal mediators. In this way paranormal disputes don’t escaate into things that the humans couldn’t help but notice. Levi’s Irish pub St. Connal’s is a Sanctuary, where any paranormals can safely come to have their disagreements adjudicated by Levi.
Jospeh Zanetti is an SFPD Lieutieent (hmm - I wonder if he knows any of the Morgan family? the SFPD is chock full of them) who is part of a multiple precinct gang taskforce. He’s concerned bacause he’s seen few bikers whose clubs have BAD reputations hanging out at and around St. Connels. He has no idea why they’re there, but it doesn’t look good in terms of maintaining the peace and stopping a gang war from erupting.
One night while scoping things out Joe is attacked by one of the bikers, and sees the dude turn into a nasty-looking coyote right in front of his eyes. Turns out the coyote mistook Joe for Levi. Then Levi, seeing the attack, turns into a black wolf and fights off the coyote. Joe gets conked on the head and goes out cold.
When Joe comes to he’s lying on a couch in Levi’s apartment. He’s not sure if he really saw what he thinks he remembers seeing. Enter Joe’s grandmother Toni Zanetti. Joe is about to discover the family secret, that his sweet Catholic grandma is also a powerful 6th-generation Streja with healing magic. In one night Joe not only learns that the paranormal exists, but that he’s the descendent of one. Welcome to life in the freaky lane Joe.
The accidental attack on Joe puts him right in the middle of a touchy negotiation Levi is trying to mediate between two shifter groups who happen to like motorcycles and aren’t always strictly adherent to human law (hence the presence of the suspicious bikers Joe has seen). Throw in his attraction to Levi, and Joe is one VERY confused person.
This story is a fun romp. The relationship between Joe and Levi is something neither of them was looking for, and not sure either of them wanted. Yet, since they have to rely on each other to get through the current sticky situation it just works. It doesn’t happen too fast to be belivable, but not so slow that it feels fake or forced.
Overall I’d give the collection as a whole 4 stars out of 5. I couldn’t give it 5 stars due to the dissonance and disconnection that I felt in the 3rd story of the collection.
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