Friday, March 7, 2014

The Eternal Kiss-13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire

This is the second book of two, dealing with short stories. Much like the last one I will only say what I liked and disliked about each short story. Want to know why? Go read the first paragraph in my review of Eternal (Six Short Stories). Warning this is going to be a longer entry too because there are 13 short stories in it. Okay here we go!

There was a one page introduction done by Trisha Telep. It wasn't overly long, or too short I think. It makes the reader think about "the eternal kiss" that one could receive from a vampire. The only thing with the introduction being a page long is that all anyone knows about the 13 short stories is that they are about vampires. I would have loved to have had a little overview of what the short stories were going to be about.

From the first book to the second there were a few authors that were the same for both books but wrote a different story. Those authors are: Lili St. Crow, Rachel Caine and Nancy Holder. Though Nancy Holder co-writes with Debbie ViguiƩ.

In this collection of vampire short stories there are (in order that they are read in this book): Falling to Ash by Karen Mahoney, Shelter Island by Melissa de la Cruz, Sword Point by Maria V. Snyder, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black, Undead is Very Hot Right Now by Sarah Rees Brennan, Kat by Kelley Armstrong, The Thirteenth Step by Libba Bray, All Hallows by Rachel Caine, Wet Teeth by Cecil Castellucci, Other Boys by Cassandra Clare, Passing by Nancy Holder and Debbie ViguiƩ, Ambition by Lili St. Crow, and lastly, All Wounds by Dina James.

Falling to Ash was a very nice read, though once it really got going it ended. Which I did not like because I wanted to read a little more, but now thinking back on what was read, it ended at a decent spot. More could have been written, but over all it was okay for the first short story.

Shelter Island I read this before in another book, though where I am not sure. It is an anthology for Dylan in her Blue Bloods series. It is not in his POV but a girls. I liked that the reader got to see a different side of Dylan that you really can't see in the other books. The ending was bittersweet because if anyone has read the rest of the series, they know what goes on. It wasn't very long also and I wanted it to be a little longer just to be able to hold onto Dylan as a character.

Sword Point was a break from the norm when it comes to vampires and I liked that. I would have loved for this to be longer, maybe novel length. I loved the two main characters Ava and Jarett. The ending was very good in my opinion, I just wanted more from Snyder before she ended it.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown if I could only have one of these short stories be made into a full length novel it would be this one right here. When I started this short story I did not put down the book until I finished it. This is again, a different take on vampires. Instead of being changed within a few seconds to a few days after being bitten, the person has 88 days to either drink blood and become a vampire or literally sweat it out. The ending leaves you hanging and craving more. I loved this short story the most.

Undead is Very Hot Right Now, had me laughing a number of times. It was the comic relief needed after reading the last short story. Though it has a sad ending the reader can't help but hope that a happier ending would have came if this were longer, of course. The characters are all very different from each other and that is what makes some things so funny, and being able to picture it happening.

Kat, it was back to being serious in this short story. The reader gets to know a lot about the main character Kat, and why things are happening in the story. The reader is not just dropped in and left wandering and wondering what is going on. The ending is good, I can handle this one being a short story it fits almost perfectly.

The Thirteenth Step, get a little racy at one point in time but doesn't go into hardly any detail. Once again this is a different take on vampires and how they come to be, and again I could handle this being a short story. It was a little drawn out at times and that bugged me because something would happen and then calm for a while. The ending didn't really surprise me too much, the reader almost knows what is going to happen after a little bit.

All Hallows is a continuation almost of the last short story by Caine. The characters are the same, there is just a new adventure for them. This is something that would be great for a younger teen though profanity is said and a few lewd comments are made about a Halloween costume. Otherwise it is a pretty innocent read.

Wet Teeth is sad. At first the reader thinks that it is going to be another happy ending. Not really. I was saddened by the ending and almost was glad that the next short story came along. But not all stories have happy endings, and this is just proof of that.

Other Boys is another on the sad side story. But at the same time the ending made me say "you go girl this is your life and you have had secrets kept from you that shouldn't have and now you are going to make your own path." Though I kept confusing all of the characters till the end came. I had to reread a few spots just to really understand who said what, or who was thinking what. I didn't really like that but it wasn't the worst that I have read.

Passing is another short story that I could handle being a short story. It was almost perfect, and a full length novel would have been too wordy or just too much. A very imperfect alliance is made in the end and it works, kinks and all. I liked the ending it was a great way to end. The reader isn't really left hanging, they sort of know what could come next and I liked that.

Ambition almost had me wondering if it was the same characters from St. Crow's last short story. But they weren't, and it does almost take the same rout as the last one did. I wasn't too happy about that but St. Crow kept it interesting which helped out a lot in keeping me reading. And it was very sweet in parts almost too sweet but that line wasn't really crossed, just danced very close to.

All Wounds, I am not really sure what to say with this one other than it was not what I expected. It isn't a love story at all that I read, which was a good different. I looked up this particular short story on Fictiondb.com and they do not put "(ss)" next to the title meaning that it is a novel so I will have to check that out and see if my library has it.

All in all this was a good compilation of short vampire stories. Not all are from the POV of a vampire, some are from a human, a vampire hunter, an vampire that does not know they are a vampire, and more. Happy endings are not always a given which is again something different. I would buy this book to own if I ever found it being sold near me.

Rating: 4.9 out of 5.

Page Count: 416 (including Introduction, Acknowledgments, and Author Biographies)

Price: $9.95

Next Book: Bled Dry by Erin McCarthy

Thanks for reading!
~Jade

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