Dark Secrets:
A Paranormal Noir Anthology
Rachel Caine, Cynthia Eden,
Megan Hart, Suzanne Johnson, Jeffe Kennedy, Mina Khan
Genre: Paranormal Noir,
Romance, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy
Date of Publication: September 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-942840-05-3
ASIN: B0147D7JTU
Number of pages: Approx. 350
Word Count: Approx. 150,000
Cover Artist: Robin Ludwig Design
Book Description:
Six award-winning authors bring you this spellbinding collection of stories about dark desires, mysterious worlds, and danger that lurks in the shadows of the night. Where nothing is black and white; where things might not be as they seem; where magic and mayhem rule.
MARION, MISSING by Rachel Caine
Valentine is a detective with two major problems: he's been offered a kidnapping case that will probably get him killed, and his partner won't let him turn it down. He owes her that much … since his partner's a ghost, and he's the one who killed her. A dark, haunting noir mystery of love, hate and loss.
FEMME FATALE by Cynthia Eden
PI Mick Swayne has seen it all—his clients have included liars, thieves, and even killers. He thinks he can handle anything and anyone. Then she walks into his office. Savannah Moreau is beautiful, seductive, and…a vampire? The gorgeous vamp hires Mick to help her track down a killer who is hunting in Chicago, but as Mick slips deeper into Savannah’s paranormal world, he wonders if he can really trust his new client…
THE CONSORT by Suzanne Johnson
Faulkner Hearne, the captain of the ruthless Fae Hunters, finds his duty at odds with his heart when he’s ordered to capture the consort of Faerie’s cruel Prince of Summer when she flees across the veil into modern New Orleans. Can Faulk turn Liandra over to a certain death at the hands of the prince, or will he risk a war with Faerie in order to save her? An all-new novella set in the Sentinels of New Orleans multiverse.
HEART’S BLOOD by Jeffe Kennedy, a Twelve Kingdoms novella
A dark fairytale retelling of a princess robbed of rank, husband and even her name.
Nix is nothing. The Princess Natilde—her former waiting woman—attacked her on the journey to wed Prince Cavan, stripping her of everything and taking her place. With no serving skills, Nix becomes a goose girl. Perhaps if Nix keeps her promise never to reveal who she really is, Natilde won’t carry out her vile threats. Prince Cavan entered his arranged marriage determined to have a congenial, if not loving relationship with his future queen—for the sake of both their kingdoms. But, his wife repels him more each day and he finds himself absurdly drawn to the lovely Nix....With broken vows, anguish and dark secrets between them, Cavan and Nix struggle to find the magic to restore what’s gone terribly wrong... if it ever can be.
THE DJINN IN THE MIRROR by Mina Khan, a Djinn World novella
A paranormal Cinderella story with a young witch as the heroine and a wicked, sexy djinn instead of a fairy godmother....Dahlia, the step-daughter of a power hungry wizard, promises to free a djinn trapped in a mirror if he rescues her from impending death. But Ashmael the djinn has his own agenda: to trick & seduce his way to freedom. The only problem is he ends up falling for Dahlia. Can he win his freedom and save the girl?
About the Authors:
Rachel Caine is the New York Times, USA Today, and #1 internationally bestselling author of more than 45 novels that span the categories of horror, suspense, urban fantasy, science fiction, media tie-in, historical, and young adult. She’s also the author of more than 100 short stories.
http://www.rachelcaine.com
Twitter: @rachelcaine
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rachelcainefanpage
Award-winning author Cynthia Eden writes dark tales of paranormal romance and romantic suspense. She is a New York Times, USA Today, Digital Book World, and IndieReader best-seller. Cynthia is also a three-time finalist for the prestigious RITA® award. Since she began writing full-time in 2005, Cynthia has written over fifty novels and novellas.
http://www.cynthiaeden.com
Twitter: @cynthiaeden
Facebook: www.facebook.com/cynthiaedenfanpage
Megan Hart is a USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and New York Times bestselling author who writes in many genres including mainstream fiction, erotic fiction, science fiction, romance, fantasy and horror.
http://www.meganhart.com
Twitter: @megan_hart
Facebook: www.facebook.com/megan.hart
Suzanne Johnson is the author of the award-winning Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series. Writing as Susannah Sandlin, she is author of the award-winning Penton Legacy paranormal romance series as well as The Collectors romantic suspense series, including Lovely, Dark, and Deep, winner of the 2015 Holt Medallion and the 2015 Booksellers Best Award winner for romantic suspense. Her new Wildlife Wardens romantic suspense series begins in 2016 with Wild Man’s Bluff.
http://www.suzannejohnsonauthor.com
Twitter: @suzanne_johnson
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorSuzanneJohnson
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include non-fiction, poetry, short fiction, and novels. Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion, an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera, the fantasy series The Twelve Kingdoms, and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under. The first of the Twelve Kingdoms books, The Mark of the Tala, has been nominated for the RT Book of the Year while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose, has been nominated for best fantasy romance of the year. Jeffe lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
http://www.jeffekennedy.com
Twitter: @jeffekennedy
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Author.Jeffe.Kennedy
Award-winning author Mina Khan grew up in Bangladesh on stories of djinns, ghosts and monsters. These childhood fancies now color her fiction. She daydreams of hunky paranormal heroes, magic, mayhem and mischief and writes them down as stories. She is the author of the Djinn World Chronicles, including The Djinn’s Dilemma and A Tale of Two Djinns, as well as Wildfire, a paranormal mystery with cowboys and dragons.
http://minakhan.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @SpiceBites
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Mina.Khan.Author
My Reviews
Overall Review Rating
This is an awesome anthology with some heavy hitting authors. I love most of them, and the few I hadn't read before I will now.
Marion, Missing by Rachel Caine
This was such an interesting, dark, gritty story with racial prejudices, a little torture, and the broken bad boy who has sins finally finding not only his goodness but finding his love even if it's a little too late. A wihite PI goes on the search for the killer of his black partner in a time that woman and blacks didn't have the best treatments. There's so many prejudices. And when a horrible killer is torturing and dismembering black woman, he knows something is connected and he's on a mission to catch him. Valentine is the hero who isn't always the nice good guy, but more broken, jaded, anti-hero. He doesn't want to be a hero. He just wants to catch his partner's killer. It's not a light hearted happily ever after. It's dark, and haunting, and beautifully broken. I seriously had my heart hurt for this one.
Femme fatale by Cynthia Eden
This one is the vampire story of the set. Mick Swayne is a PI, which when Savannah the vampire walks into his office not only blows his mind with the supernatural, but turns him lusty. LOL He's still a good PI and the bad guy is predictable. It was a fun story but not quite as fun for me, maybe only because it felt predictable.
Dance with the Devil by Megan Hart
This one was the most surprise, and yet most heart breaking story of them all. Like wow. A woman sold her soul to the devil for a dream. And with that dream she lost so much. Her husband has custody of her kid, she has fame and fortune. She is known and loved for her books, but she is alone and lonely at the same time. And she must do the tasks for the devil because it's that or lose her soul completely and forever to him. There is some serious plot twists that about made my jaw need to be screwed back on and duck taped for support. This is one of the most emotional stories of the set as well.
The Consort by Suzanne Johnson
I of course love this author!! And we are now learning more about the fae from DJ's world! Hunters are big and bad but princes are freaking creepy! But one prince is the lesser evil. So there's a new drama unfolding with what's going down and I'm absolutely thrilled to see where this will go!! I loved the characters the story, everything!! But I always do when it comes to Ms Johnson!
Full disclosure, I received this arc for Heart's Blood by Jeff Kennedy. I was not disappointed. I love reading about the Twelve Kingdoms and this reinterpretation of the Goose Girl worked for me. I liked the magic. I liked the brutality. I loved the Prince and I loved Nix. They may not have been as complex as Ms. Hart's characters, but they still appealed to me. This story is black and white in villain versus hero. There are no anti-heroes here. There is only betrayal and a rewarding ending a la Grimm style. I loved the ending, even if it was predictable.
The last two reviews are coming soon. I know I know, I'm still behind!!
Heart's Blood
The Djinn in the Mirror
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