Hell-Idays

• Date: 06.12.2010
• Book: Holidays Are Hell
• Author: wakela

Review

The authors of the stories are Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M Liu, and Vicki Pettersson. I have to admit that I did not read every story in this one. The last story, I just couldn’t get past a few pages. I would put the book down and pick it back up later in hopes of reading the last story, it just didn’t grab me in.

The first story was by Kim Harrison and it was called “Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel”. If you have ever read any of her books about the I.S. runner, Rachel Morgan, then you will love this story. It takes you back to the days before she entered the I.S. She was only 18 and hadn’t fully come into herself yet. Her brother was trying to talk her into going to the University instead of following in her dad’s footsteps and joining the I.S. He convinces her to cast a spell at the huge Winter Solstice event in hopes of bringing their fathers ghost back. It may be a short story, but it is every much as action packed as her full fledged novels. A must read for all Rachel Morgan fans!

The second story is Run, Run Rudolph by Lynsay Sands. It’s Christmas time and Jill should be focusing her attention on being Mrs. Claus on the parade float next to Mr. Sexy Shoes, Nick, as he plays Santa. However, everything starts to crumble around her when a mad man tricks her under the molecular destabilizer. Now she is on the run from him and has no where to turn. However, she feels duty bound to remain in the parade.

The third story takes us away from the winter holidays. It is now the time of the Chinese New Year. Six is undercover in the hopes of ending a terrorist plot to undermine the very fabric of the Chinese government. She soon discovers that things aren’t as they seem. With all her years of training, she wasn’t quite prepared to take on vampires. Thankfully, she now has Joseph by her side.

The last story in the book is The Harvest by Vicki Pettersson. Like I said earlier, I just could not get past the few pages of this story. For me, if an author can’t hook me in early, that is a bad sign of things to come. Especially when you are dealing with a short story. There are already fewer pages to write a great story in and you can’t waste time telling it. So unfortunately, this last story will be going unread by me. And as this was the first one I had ever attempted to read by her, it leaves me weary to try out any of her full novels.