80:120 Holidays are Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, & Vicki Pettersson

Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison ~ A Rachel Morgan short set before the events in Dead Witch Walking.  Rachel is trying to convince her brother to sign the papers to allow her to become a Runner but he is trying to convince her to go back to the West Coast with him and go to college to become a more powerful earth witch.  He compromises and tells her that if she is able to perform this very old and powerful spell to raise their father's ghost and get his blessing on it, he will sign the papers.  She performs the spell but instead of her father, she gets the ghost of a witch who died trying to take out a vampire who was preying on children. A vampire who is still alive, in the neighborhood, and has a new victim.

I've read this one before although I don't remember where but I enjoyed reading it again.  Rachel is a fabulous character and this story is no exception.

Run, Run, Rudolph by Lynsay Sands ~ Jill is watching her niece one morning but when she turns her back to clean up from breakfast, the little one escapes down the stairs into her father's lab.  When Jill goes down to retrieve her, she trips and knocks herself unconscious. Later, after she has left her brother's house, she is stopped by her brother's old partner who confesses that he set up her accident to hit her with her brother's experiment and now wants to take her captive to watch what it does to her.  She escapes him but soon finds out that she is now a shape-changer but avoiding him turns out to be much harder, but also more interesting, than she had imagined.

I haven't read anything else by this author but the story which seems to be part of a larger series was still well contained so I didn't find myself wondering what was going on but at the same time, there wasn't tons of exposition laying it all out. I'm definitely interested enough to search out more of her work.

Six by Marjorie M. Liu ~ Six is an operative for the Chinese government and is sent to find out more about a person of interest.  Her operation is cut short however when another man enters the spa room they are in and things get very weird.  Now she finds herself trapped with this man who is talking about vampires and spiritual energies, who is able to influence people with his voice.  Now they must work together to figure out what exactly is going on.

This is only the second story I've read by Ms. Liu but this was set in a different world, I think.  I was left very confused as to the rules of this world and what was going on and why I should care about any of the characters.  I'm glad I read the other story first because this did not excite me to read more by her.

The Harvest by Vicki Pettersson ~ Zoe has given up her power but not yet her Sign of the Zodiac to protect her daughters and now her granddaughter but the Shadows have discovered her grandchild and stolen her.  Now she must work with her old team in Las Vegas and go back into the lair of the Tulpa and hope she can manipulate him into forgiving her previous treachery against him in order to try and save the child.

I've got a few of these books on my shelves but hadn't read any of them or anything else by Ms. Pettersson but this one was another good example of a story that was obviously part of a larger series but answered the basic questions of the world adequately without tons of exposition.  I'll be trying to move this up on my to read series.

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