Best Gay Fantasy: The Horns and Halos Collection
The first (Toni Griffin - Archie's Accidental Kidnapping) and the second story (Angel Martinez - Hell For The Company), while different in setting, had similarities in the mood and the theme: Toni Griffin imagines shapeshifter hounds from Hell on the hunt for half-Angels going wild; during one of these quests, Adze finds his mate, not it's only a question of convincing the cute boy he isn't as bad as he looks. Archie may be only a human, but he is clever and funny, and with a wicked streak that well fit with Adze. Angel Martinez chooses a sci-fi setting, imagining a far away future in the aftermath of a war between Angels and Demons. Shax is a demon, but he is not evil, as Ness will discover: a lost Angels, Ness will be nurtured back to health by Shax, and for that Ness will be forever grateful, but that is not the reason why he falls for Shax, Shax is the life and the love Ness has always desired. In both stories there is the connections with Demons and Angels, but other than that, there is also the approach to Demons, considering them more like overgrown kids who like to play more than make war. Funny and light, both stories were right to have you smile.
Totally different mood for Freddy Mackay - Internment, a bittersweet tale about love lost, found, lost and found again; Tadashi is a kitsune, a Japanese demon with the gift to change into a fox. The gift is also a burden, when Tadashi, still grieving the loss of his lover, will search his vengeance. Berg is the local vet, used to visit the shrine of Tadashi's family on the mountain when he was a kid; he had also a crush on Tadashi at the time, but as a little kid he didn't understand his feelings, and when he meets Tadashi again as an adult, he is married and with a child coming soon. Theirs seems to be a doomed love. Being this a romance, there will be a uplifting ending, but not without the two men deeply suffering for it.
Internment stood aside from the other two stories both for the length than the mood. But in any case, longer or shorter, all three stories are good, and I enjoyed this anthology quite a lot.
Series: Mischief Corner Anthologies
Paperback: 290 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; First edition (August 29, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1495282376
ISBN-13: 978-1495282379
Amazon: The Horns & Halos Collection (Mischief Corner Anthologies) (Volume 2)
Amazon Kindle: The Horns & Halos Collection (Mischief Corner Anthologies) (Volume 2)
More Reviews by Author at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Reviews
This journal is friends only. This entry was originally posted at http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4307246.html. If you are not friends on this journal, Please comment there using OpenID.