The premise behind this short story collection is throw the words “Christmas” and “werewolves” at a bunch of authors and see what happens.\u00c2\u00a0 The stories are as varied as the writers.\u00c2\u00a0 Some use Christmas as a focus and others use it merely as a time frame for the story.\u00c2\u00a0 All involve werewolves but only one or two actually use wolfsbane.\u00c2\u00a0 It can be exciting or boring to see the variety of\u00c2\u00a0stories that result\u00c2\u00a0when a group of writers are given the same material but these are quite good.<\/p>\n
Authors include: Charlaine Harris<\/a>, Donna Andrews<\/a>, Simon R. Green<\/a>, Dana Cameron<\/a>, Kat Richardson<\/a>, Alan Gordon<\/a>, Carrie Vaughn<\/a>, Dana Stabenow<\/a>, Keri Arthur<\/a>, J.A. Konrath<\/a>, Patricia Briggs<\/a>, Nancy Pickard<\/a>, Karen Chance<\/a>, Rob Thurman<\/a> and Toni L. P. Kelner<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a good introduction to some of these authors.<\/p>\n One of the stand outs is “The Night Things Changed” by Dana Cameron.\u00c2\u00a0 Gerry, a werewolf, and Claudia, his vampire sister, are Fangborn.\u00c2\u00a0 They fight evil and this time it has shown up at Claudia’s job.\u00c2\u00a0 Cameron has a lot figured out about the world they live in and their roles in it.\u00c2\u00a0 It appears as though Cameron has a series planned for Gerry but no books have appeared at this time.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll be one of the first in line to get one.<\/p>\n “The Werewolf Before Christmas” is Kat Richardson’s first werewolf story.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s Christmas Eve and Matthias Vulfkind has eaten Rudolph.\u00c2\u00a0 Santa Claus insists Matthias assist with deliveries.\u00c2\u00a0 This tale has moments of heartbreak and hope in it.<\/p>\n “Fresh Meat” by Alan Gordon features Sam Lehrmann, owner of Lehrmann’s Guard Dogs on Christmas Eve.\u00c2\u00a0 The reader follows\u00c2\u00a0Sam through the last part of his work day and into the wee hours of the holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 This is one tale in which man’s best friend can also be the werewolf’s best friend too.<\/p>\n “The Star of David” by Patricia Briggs made me think Hanukkah was going to be the featured holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, the title is a very clever reference to Stella, a social worker who is concerned about one of her foster kids.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing is revealed too early and the pace is just right.<\/p>\n J. A. Konrath’s “SA” is laugh out loud hilarious.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m afraid to say anything else as it might give something away.\u00c2\u00a0 The surprise at what’s coming is part of the fun.<\/p>\n The stories have different moods and tones.\u00c2\u00a0 Some feel short and others feel like they are a missing novel chapter.\u00c2\u00a0 Short story collections like this one are great.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s wonderful to see the variety that comes from the same elements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The premise behind this short story collection is throw the words “Christmas” and “werewolves” at a bunch of authors and see what happens.\u00c2\u00a0 The stories are as varied as the writers.\u00c2\u00a0 Some use Christmas as a focus and others use it merely as a time frame for the story.\u00c2\u00a0 All involve werewolves but only one… Continue reading Wolfsbane and Mistletoe edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[24,133,134,132],"class_list":["post-1261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-book","tag-charlaine-harris","tag-toni-l-p-kelner","tag-wolfsbane-and-mistletoe","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1261"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1347,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1261\/revisions\/1347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}