Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Ilona Andrews, Yasmine Galenorn, Allyson James, Jeanne C. Stein
Title: Hexed
Release: June 2011
Series:Anthology
Reviewer: Believer
Source: Library

Purchase: | Book Depository

Four of the bestselling names in romance and fantasy come together in this collection of thrilling novellas featuring powerful women who know how to handle a hex or two.

Four of the top authors in the urban fantasy genre are brought together in this one anthology.  Each story explores havoc wreaking curses in scenarios ranging from a mythical elfin ice land to a dystopian Atlanta teeming with shifters.  While each story is an extension of an existing series, they are meant to stand alone. Many readers will recognize The Kate Daniels Series, The Otherworld Series, The Storm Walker Series, and The Anna Strong Series.

The stories may revolve around the same subject but they are as varied and distinct as possible. Beginning with Magic Dreams by Ilona Andrews, a demure but long awaited story that will thrill Kate Daniels fans. Set in Atlanta, GA, the story describes a city that is torn apart by competing forces of  magic and technology.  Dali, a near sighted vegetarian white tiger shifter is desperately in love with her alpha, Jim, an imposing black panther shifter  in charge of pack security. Dali and Jim join forces to save Jim’s life after he is cursed by a Japanese demon. The shifters soon discover that the demon seems to be targeting a specific family and search to uncover the meaning beind the tragic and deadly haunting.

Galenorn’s story, Ice Shards, follows Lady Iris’ journey across worlds and dimensions, as she seeks to expunge the curse that has plagued her since she was  exiled from the Northlands monastery she once called home. Raised as the embodiment of a goddess, Iris  awakens one day to finds herseld lying next to her dead lover and unable to recall the events leading up to this moment. Surrounded by evidence that designates her as the murderer, Iris denounced by her community and sent to live in exile in the Pacific Northwest for nearly 600 years. But when a new love comes into her life and with him a chance for marriage and a family  Iris must go back to the temple to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of her former lover and have the curse lifted.  Be prepared for a world of intricate mythologies, mystical powers and exotic creatures written in a language that combines the formality of old English with the quick almost stuttering cadence of modern day American English.

James’ entry, Double Hexed, is the sexiest novel of the bunch with Janet, a demi-goddess, and Mick, her dragon-shifter mate, almost constantly in some sexual act. A small assortment of witches, shifters, vampires, nulls and an enchanted mirror struggle to free a hotel and it’s inhabitants from a deathly curse that has the plumbing spouting blood and the supes acting crazy.

Stein rounds out the quartet with Blood Debt, an Anna Strong story. Anna is called in to pay back a favor when the brother of a local witch goes missing. Complicating matters, the man has been taken to avenge a crime that Anna unwittingly committed. Now racing against the clock and the devil, Anna must find a way to bring him back alive and clear her name.

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to read story books. She devoured them because they were full of magical possibilities with every turn of the page. Then the little girl grew up and school work occupied more and more of her time. Eventually the little girl graduated from school, trading in poets & prose for business management & autobiographies. Magic was left behind in her quest for the top and the world became a place filled with “paradigm shifts”, ROI & financial reports. Before she knew it, the girl was a woman who felt out of touch with the world’s magic until she met Birth and her sister Death. While Birth filled her with wonder & happiness; Death filled her with sadness & loss. And so one day she set aside the management books and instead picked up a paperback story filled with vampires, shifters & telepaths. Lo and behold, her passion for these stories blossomed and the woman became a believer in the magic of reading, again. My name is Believer9200 and I believe in the magic of stories because they give me hope.

Doll Believer

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