Friday, February 5, 2016

11:120 Otherworld Secrets by Kelley Armstrong

An anthology of Otherworld short stories, most of which have been previously published but in limited runs.  I've read half of these before so while I was hoping for more new material, it is still a treat returning to this universe.

Life After Theft - Hope and Karl have settled down. With one child already and another on the way, Karl has given up his thieving ways and gotten a job with Hope's brother in security so his children can be proud of his job and he doesn't have to hide it. However, other people have different ideas about his retirement and are willing to do whatever it takes to bring him out of it to steal for them.  It was great seeing how Hope and Karl's relationship has grown and seriously, watching him as devoted father is touching.  Fabulous story.

Forbidden - Read in 2013. Previous review found on this blog:
      A new story set in her Otherworld series featuring Elena and Clay.  Morgan has decided to take Elena and Clay up on the offer they made when they were in Alaska and come down to check out the Pack.  Unfortunately, when he makes a pit stop in a small town, he gets more than just dinner.  When he is found naked out in the woods and picked up by the local police, they search his things and find Elena's name and number.  When she gets the call, she and Clay go out there to assess the situation and bring Morgan back to the Pack.  Unfortunately, after they spring him from the jail they find their tires have been slashed as have Morgan's.  From there, things only get stranger and stranger as they are pushed into staying and since they are here, they start poking their noses into everything and uncover more than they bargained for.

I so miss this series and especially Elena and Clay as they were my favorites. This was a wonderful story with them, especially watching them work on their new roles as Alpha and Enforcer while not losing their relationship as husband and wife.  I'm glad that while the main story has been told, Ms. Armstrong continues to bring out these other side stories through a small publisher and hope there will be many more to come.

Angelic - Read in 2011. Previous review found on Shelfari and my personal blog:
     More of a novella than a full novel at just over 100 pages, this is a filler story of Eve and her afterlife as an Angel and servant of The Fates. Basically, The Fates have pushed back Eve's "vacation" time again for yet another job and she's fed up with it and decides to do what they have expressly forbid her to do to solve the case she's on in order to get it done faster. She's hoping that this will cause them to fire her so she can be done with the whole deal but she ends up finding out more about herself and her own motivations while solving this one.

The Ungrateful Dead - While Eve is off on a mission for the Fates, Jamie is being hounded by a particularly annoying ghost.  This ghost died with his cousin and they annoyed another necromancer to be brought back to life but didn't listen when he explained that the only way to do that was to make them zombies. Now the ghost wants his cousin fixed and is pestering Jamie to do it.  Together with Savannah, she's hoping they can find a way to get these guys off her back.

Zen and the Art of Vampirism - Zoe is a pretty basic vampire who is happy to just hang around in unclaimed turf and do her thing but when a new group of vampires come along wanting her out, they find that while she appears meek and mild, she's made some interesting friends.

Counterfeit Magic - Read in 2011. Previous review found on Shelfari and my personal blog:
    Another story that is more of a novella than a full-fledged novel. Not a lot of depth going on. We follow Paige as she and Lucas take a case that threatens to divide and conquer, in more ways than one. It was cute, quick read but nothing fantastic and not one that you need to read to add depth to the rest of the series.

Page count: 405p/3,441p ytd/253,736p lifetime

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