Review: Must Love Hellhounds (Anthology)
The anthology is composed of "The Britlingens Go to Hell" (Charlaine Harris), "Angels' Judgment" (Nalini Singh), "Magic Mourns" (Ilona Andrews), and "Blind Spot" (Meljean Brook).
Series: All of them except "The Britlingens Go to Hell" are part of series, and apparently characters in TBGtH make an appearance in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I read all of them but "Magic Mourns" without knowing the series, and I think they could almost all be read without knowing the series -- though familiarity with the characters and setting definitely make them better. The only one where I felt like I was really missing things was "Blind Spot."
Genre: Urban fantasy, paranormal romance
Cover: Ugh. Dislike.
Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: Fans of any of the above authors.
Buy?: Possibly. If I like any of Nalini Singh or Meljean Brook's work, then I'll probably get it.
Review: Cut for length and separated into the different stories.
"The Britlingens Go to Hell" by Charlaine Harris (2/5)
I really don't like Ms. Harris' writing style. It's simplistic and bland and doesn't draw me into the story. The plot was interesting, though, and the pacing pretty good for a short story. The world-building left a great deal to be desired. The "Britlingens" were never really described beyond that they had to be bodyguards, the world was never fleshed out, "Hell" wasn't actually hell as we know it but some kind of horrible underground place ruled by Lucifer (which sounded pretty close to Hell to me), and a few other annoyances. The romance element was stuck in at the very end and didn't fit.
"Angels' Judgment" by Nalini Singh (3/5)
The world-building in this story, as a contrast, was very good. It's a prequel to Angels' Blood, but I didn't feel like I was missing anything as I read it. Following the prologue, it gets off to a rocky start, but it smooths out quickly. The romance element felt rushed at the beginning, and there were a couple issues that seemed blown out of proportion, but the end was very cute, and I thought they complemented each other nicely. The mystery was very intriguing, and I could follow along easily (I wasn't able to guess who did it, but then I never can, so that doesn't mean much). The heroine was strong and able without being a Mary-Sue or bitchy, and the support between her and her friend Elena (who I think plays a much bigger part in the series) added a nice touch. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
"Magic Mourns" by Ilona Andrews (3.5/5)
The novella is part of the Kate Daniels series and immediately follows Magic Strikes. While it wasn't quite as good as the regular novels in the series, I still enjoyed it. To fill non-followers of her work in, the world is explained explicitly, which bored me and I skimmed over. It doesn't have the same appeal as the slow, taunting revelations of the series. The story itself follows Kate's friend Andrea and Raphael. I didn't like Andrea's voice as much as Kate (my favorite part was the end when we get a quick view of Kate from someone else's perspective), but the background on Andrea was very interesting. I loved the view we got of Raphael -- he's one of my favorite characters in the series. The byplay between Andrea and Raphael was cute, though much simpler than that between Kate and Curran. The plot was interesting but perhaps a bit too much for a short story.
"Blind Spot" by Meljean Brook (3.5/5)
This took an opposite approach from "Magic Mourns" who spilled everything about the world -- this described almost nothing. As a consequence, my grasp on the world was not very good, but the interesting characters made up for it. The plot was paced well for a short story and allowed for plenty of character interaction. The premise was very intriguing, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Ms. Brook's work (which my library doesn't have -- I was astounded).
I was very happy with this anthology -- it introduced me to two new authors! Success! The cover/title of it is almost unbearably lame (the hellhounds play almost no part in the first two stories, though they're worked well into the last two), but I enjoyed most of the stories.