Finished Wild Thing, a paranormal anthology featuring four authors. I picked this one up at the Berkley author signing at RWA last year, and Marjorie M. Liu was gracious enough to autograph it for me before the signing started. If you’ve ever met Marjorie, you know she’s as nice as she is talenter. Here’s a brief recap of the stories:

Maggie Shayne pens a tale of a vet who can communicate with animals. Her gift makes her the target of a rapist, but luckily, there’s a sexy detective determined to keep her safe. Meljean Brook writes a story set in her Guardian universe, where a female Guardian (angel-like protector) teams up with a sexy vampire to stop a demon from opening a gate to hell.

Marjorie M. Liu introduces Maxine Kiss, the heroine of her new urban fantasy series (the first book comes out in June). Maxine is covered with living tattoos that transform into demons at night — but one man makes her long for a more normal life. Alyssa Day pens a tale in her Warriors of Poseidon universe, where one of the warriors cozies up to a female shape-shifter as he tries to make an alliance with her pack.

I’d never read Shayne or Day before, so this book was a good introduction to them. Overall, I liked Liu and Day’s stories the best. The world building and idea of living tattoos was really well done in Liu’s story, and her writing was as lush and descriptive as ever. Day’s story was a great mix of action-adventure and fun, and reminded me a lot of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter series. I’ll probably pick up the first book in the Poseidon series and see how I like it.

Overall, a good anthology with a variety of styles to choose from. Thumbs up.

Up next: Something from the TBR pile

Finished Night Life by Caitlin Kittredge. I heard Caitlin speak on an urban fantasy panel at RT this year and picked up her book from the freebie room.

This urban fantasy focuses on Luna Wilder, a detective in Nocturne City who’s on the trail of a vicious serial killer. Complicating matters is the fact Luna is a lone werewolf without a pack, which means she’s pretty far down on the magical totem pole. Also, her police captain is doing everything in his power to keep Luna from finding the truth. Then, Luna meets Dmitri Sandovsky, a pack leader who was close to one of the victims. Sparks fly, to say the least. Too bad the killer has Luna in his sights — and is willing to do anything to bring her down.

One of the things I liked most about this book was Luna and her job. The reader actually gets to see Luna doing police work, visiting a crime scene, following up at the morgue, tracking down a suspect, etc. You get a feel for the mechanics of the job, and it’s a real part of the story and not just a toss-in or wallpaper, like some of the professions are in other books I’ve read. Also, the scenes between Luna and her sexist pig of a co-worker were hilarious — especially when she roughs him up for being, well, an idiot. 😎

I also liked the descriptions, particularly the one where Kittredge describes Dmitri and his Fu Manchu mustache. When’s the last time you read about a hero with a Fu Manchu mustache? (Although he doesn’t have it when Luna meets him.) Her characters resembled real people and not the perfectly buff guys or busty gals you see in a lot of novels.

I also really liked the map in the front of the book, which laid out where everything was in Nocturne City. Maps and glossaries are always pluses in my book. Yes, I know, I’m a total geek. :rolleyes:

The only real quibble I had was the relationship between Luna and Dmitri. I thought it developed a little too quickly, since Dmitri was sleeping with one of the serial killer’s victims and was going to make her his mate. I would have liked to have seen more of Dmitri’s grief and the two of them taking things a little slower.

Still, if you want to go on an urban fantasy reading binge (like I’ve been doing lately) and are looking for titles to try, pick up Night Life and add it to your TBR. You’ll probably enjoy it. Thumbs up.

Up next: Wild Thing, an anthology featuring Marjorie M. Liu, among others