Ok, I'd like to give this book 3 1/2 stars but since that is not possible lets go with 4. I wasn't expecting much from this book. In fact I was expecting so little that I held off on reading it for a month after I bought it. But technichally I got it free through the 4-for-3 deals so I thought what the heck, I'll give it a quick read.

None of these stories are really great stand alone's. If you've never read anything by the author you may be lost!

"Until Death Do Us Part"- I have to disagree with a lot of the opinions I've seen out there on this story. I loved it! It was very old school Dark-Hunter with less flash than the newer books but they definitly tugged at the heart strings. Retta was Dracula's (the historical Vlad Tepish the Impaler)daughter and she ran off and married Velkan the enemy. He tried to save her and sacrifice himself ala Romeo & Juliet ( which this story says was based on these lovers!)only to have Dracula slay his sleeping bride. He had bound their souls together through magic and weeks later when Vlad killed Velkan, Retta rose from the grave just in time to witness Velken's Dark-Hunter vengance against Daddy dearest. Needless to say she ran...for 500 years! Now it may be time to patch things up. I loved this story and it was my favorite of the bunch. This was a much stronger story than Kenyons DH tale in Big Fat Supernatural Wedding.

"Ride the Night Wind"- L.A. Banks also is a well entrenched author and her use of slang and dialect to paint the canvas of a story is very good. But I think unless you are a dedicated reader of her work this story was fairly lost on you. I liked the young lovers getting together but the near ending had me completely lost. It involves demons, latino youths,a shaman, and fighting vampires but it's all a bit vague.

"The Gift"- Susan Squires is an author I've seen many mixed reviews on so I thought this may be a guilt free way to try her out. This story is only going to grab a paranormal lover if they are also ok with reading historical works as well. It's set in both regency London and Casablanca. The bad guys are evil hedonistic vampires. The good guys- and girls- are humans and vampires. The two are coming to a show down in the sands of the desert after the leader of the evil vamps, Ashtari, was killed in one of Ms. Squires books. I gather these are all formerly used characters and I thought it was surprisingly ok. I won't be running feverishly to the book store, but I may keep my eye open for her if I'm bored.

"The Forgotten One"-Ronda Thompson is about to release the third book in this series of a family that was cursed by a whitch. The men all bear the senses of a werewolf which will spring from their body and destroy them unless they are accepted unconditionally by their true love. This story was of an illegitimate fourth son whom I found rugged and interesting. The heroine was a pampered orphan who had always been a good girl and was sick of it. This was my second favorite in this compilation. Not a surprise since, like Sherylon Kenyon, I have already read her previouse works and wasn't lost.

This was the worst excuse for a compilation book that I've seen in years. None of the stories was engaging in the least. Kenyon should have left hers lining her sock drawer or bird cage. Banks' story was the first of hers that I read & I immediately took all of her books OFF my wishlist on Amazon. I like Thompson, and perhaps hers was the best of the group. But that isn't saying much. Squires' story was so forgettable that I had to look at the front cover of the book in the middle of this review to remember it was in there.

This is a collection of rejects that should never have seen the light of day. I wish I had kept my receipt so I could get my money back.

I am not the biggest fan of anthologies, but I usually enjoy the work of Kenyon and Thompson. I have to say that Thompson's entry was the one bright spot in an otherwise painful read. I hate to say it but Kenyon seems to be just marketing on her popularity. She didn't even seem to try on this one. The characters completely lacked any form of depth. I couldn't force myself to care what happened to either the protagonists or the bad guys. The only character that was even remotely entertaining was Esperetta's friend.
Even worse than Kenyon's half hearted attempt was Bank's ride the wind. Her attempts to use slang came out stilted and awkward. And I agree with the other reviewers that the ending left me completely confused and disappointed. I know anthologies tie in to other series generally, but at least try and give some kind of explanation of what happened. The author just jumps ahead 2 decades leaving the reader scratching their head. Instead of inspiring me to read more of Banks work, this story ensured that I won;t be reading any of the author's work any time soon.

The worst story is Kenyon !!!
I will NOT buy any more in the future!!

I'm not a big fan of anthologies, but when I saw Sherrilyn Kenyon's name, I thought I'd buy the book - what a mistake. While SK's story (the first one) was not the worst of the bunch, it was one of the poorest she's ever written. If I had read this book before being a fan of Ms. Kenyon's, I'd never buy another thing written by her. This does hold true for the other 3 authors whom I've never read before and hopefully, never will again. The anthologies got progressively worse & I must admit, I couldn't even bear to finish the 2nd & 3rd ones & skipped rapidly through the 4th one to the end. Just believe me when I tell you - DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS POORLY WRITTEN TRASH. The authors should be ashamed of themselves for collecting any monies from it.