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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.08508
EAN num: 9780061239090
ISBN number: 0061239097
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: November 01, 2007
Publishing house: Harper
Release Date: October 30, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 42751
Studio: Harper
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Product Description:
This holiday, spend quality time with family and loved ones—living and dead . . .
There's no place like home for the horrordays—unless you'd prefer a romantic midnight walk through a ghost-infested graveyard . . . or a haunted house candlelight dinner with the sexy vampire of your dreams. The (black) magical season is here—and whether it's a solstice séance gone demonically wrong with the incomparable Kim Harrison, a grossly misshapen Christmas with the remarkable Lynsay Sands, a blood-chilling-and-spilling New Year's with the wonderful Marjorie M. Liu, or a super-powered Thanksgiving with the phenomenal Vicki Pettersson, one thing is for certain: in the able hands of these exceptional dark side explorers, the holidays are going to be deliciously hellish!
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Rated by buyers -
I have only completed two of the four short stories, and am currently enjoying the third short story. The very first two were very intriguing though. But then Kim Harrison is a great author in the world of bizarre fiction.
Rated by buyers -
Except for Lyndsay Sands, the authors were selected well.
My favorite, Kim Harrison, did a bang-up job writing Rachel Morgan. Her writing gets stronger with every publication and our dear future witch/runner learns some valuable lessons. Her loss tugs at your heart and seeing her brother really added to the story.
Vicki Pettersson also turned in an excellent short story, complete with super spies and wizardly types. I plan on buying more stories from her after reading this.
Rated by buyers -
This is a set of nearly novella length shorts which overall rates a 4. The stories are:
Kim Harrison; Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel.
Here Rachel deals more with her family and some of her background. Her older brother wants her to move to the coast with him and take advanced classes in witch craft and she wants to join Interlander Security (IS). This book lacks the more detailed world building of the very first in the series but can be read as a starting point for the series. Good characters good plot with a decent twist; almost imposable to do better in a short. 4 stars+
Lynsay Sands; Run, Run, Rudolph.
Here the author is still having fun with her Molecular Destablizer (if you zap a human with it they become a chameleon able to change into any thing that they can visualize). But they have no information about that thing. Very funny and well written plot is pretty linear which is why it only rates 4 stars.
Marjorie M. Liu; Six.
This would make a great plot for a movie like "Crouching Tiger Sleeping Dragon" as it has all the characters. The orphaned super martial artist agent (shades of Rudyard Kipling), the mentally powerful mysterious guru, the grandmother etc. This would have gotten a 5 star rating as the plot is good as is the humour and characters. But the ending simply leaves too much up in the air with the organization.
Vicki Peterson; The Harvest.
This story uses a world with Zodiac characters that isn't really developed although the plot and characters are well done it is just too much for a short but is better than average and deserves 3 stars.
Rated by buyers 
-
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
Whether your preference is Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice, Christmas, or New Year's, you'll find a paranormal adventure here to suit your spirit.
Kim Harrison shows us in Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel what happens when a spell to call a ghost goes haywire and brings the wrong one to you. Rachel Morgan is a teenager trying to prove she has what it takes to make it in her dream job at Inderland Security, in spite of her frequent illness growing up. When her brother challenges her, Rachel is determined to win, no matter what, even if it means fighting vampires.
If you are a fan of her Hollows series, or as in my case, are new to the series, you'll enjoy this prequel. Rachel is a spirited young woman full of spunk who won't take no for an answer, even when it means running around on the night of the Solstice celebration to help a young girl in danger. Rachel even gets to experience a little love and romance with the ghost she accidentally summons, which adds a little touch poignancy to the story.
Lynsay Sands gives us a humorous take on a psycho stalkers obsessed with studying shape shifting abilities, even if it means said stalker has to trick people into "participating" in his scheme in Run, Run Rudolph. Here we meet Jill, who is tricked into being blasted with a shape shifting ray while babysitting her niece. Now she's on the run just when her love life finally seems to be heating up neighbor store owner, Nick, in time for them to play Mr. and Mrs. Claus in the annual Christmas parade.
This story is a sequel to a novella featured in the book Dates from Hell. Having not read the previous story I still followed along fairly well, though I was missing the back story on why our villain was so desperate to trap Jill and use her in his science experiments. We had a very enjoyable, and funny, story here nonetheless and I'm going to now have to go read the preceding story. I especially loved watching Jill come to terms with her new ability and how to control it, when constantly changing her appearance (even becoming a reindeer at one point!)
Marjorie M Liu has us spend Chinese New Year with a young government agent who unwittingly finds herself caught up in a war against soul sucking vampires in Six. Orphaned at a young age, all Six has ever known is her training and later her career as a government agent. When her latest mission introduces her to hideous soul stealing vampires, her only aid is in the form of a sinfully seductive necromancer who has his own job to fulfill where the vampires are concerned.
This story probably had the most romance of any in the book. Be forewarned however, if you are a fan of the Dirk & Steele series, Six is completely different from the stories found there. This is a very dark and gritty story though it still showcases Liu's incredible talent for word building and character development. I've come to love Liu's books and found Six to be quite captivating, though I could see it working a little better as a longer novel.
Lastly, the story I was most waiting for, Vicki Pettersson's The Harvest rounds out the collection. Pettersson gives us a prequel to her Zodiac series when former Light Agent Zoe must spend Thanksgiving trying to rescue her granddaughter from her greatest enemy and leader of the Shadow Zodiac, the Tulpa, who happens to be the grandfather of this special child.
I love the Zodiac series and have been waiting for this story since I read the very first two books earlier this year. I knew Zoe was a fascinating person and had so much story to tell. The Harvest only scratches the surface of Zoe's complex life, but it was enough to satisfy this eager fan, at least for a little while. Another added bonus was discovering more about Warren, the leader of the Light Zodiac. This story sheds a lot of light on his reasons for treating Joanna the way he does in the other books in the series. However, while fans of the story will be sucked right in, readers who are new to Pettersson's world may find themselves confused here and there, trying to keep all the details straight.
Holidays Are Hell is a wonderful collection of paranormal holiday tales. Keep in mind that while this is not a romance anthology, we do have a bit of romance in every story, some more than others. What a perfect book to read when needing some relaxation during the hectic holiday season.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, December 2007. All rights reserved.
Rated by buyers -
For the most part it is an enjoyable anthology. The very first story was my favorite.
Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison delves into the early life of her protagonist Rachel Morgan. It was very tightly written, and shows where Rachel got her determination as well as her taste of adventure with just a dash of romance thrown in.
Run, Run Rudolph by Lynsay Sands was lighter in tone. It continues along from one of her other offerings in another anthology that I read last year. Unfortunately, I don't remember which one off hand. This time it's the sister of the hero from the very first story that is zapped by the shapeshifter machine. It was amusing. The hero of the piece going from... is he even interested to almost proposing was a bit unrealistic. Other than that little bit, it was a fun read.
Six by Marjorie M. Liu was very different from what I usually come across in these types of anthologies. I'm not really that familiar with Asian culture, so it's difficult for to say whether the protagonists came across as realistic to me. For me, I find it difficult to believe a woman is going to be so conditioned by the state that she has never had an enjoyable moment in her life until the time of the novella.
The Harvest by Vicki Pettersson was a bit wearing. I couldn't get involved with her characters. The set-up to the climax seemed to take forever. Perhaps if I was more familiar with her books, I could have gotten more into her world building.
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