Book Review: Bite (Anthology)

Bite

Authors:
Laurell K. Hamilton
Charlaine arris
MaryJanice Davidson
Angela Knight
Vickie Taylor

Paperback: 297 pages
Publisher: Jove Books; First Printing edition (December 28, 2004)

Ratings:

 ★ ★ ★ ★




My thoughts:

Bite is a collection of 5 short stories, (1) The Girl Who Was infatuated With Death by Laurell K. Hamilton, (2) One Word Answer by Charlaine Harris, (3) Biting In Plain Sight by Mary Janice Davidson, (4) Galahad by Angela Knight and (5) Blood Lust by Vickie Taylor.

The first one is an Anita Blake short story by Ms. Hamilton, this happened in between Blue Moon (read my review here) and Obsidian Butterfly. The story is about a girI who is suffering from bone cancer. Her mother found out that she had asked a vampire to turn her and  now her mother  hired  Anita to find her daughter and execute that vamp. Blue Moon was a Richard-Anita book so this one is focused on Jean-Claude and Anita relationship. I haven't read Obsidian Butterfly so I couldnt tell if this story is connected with that book. Book 1 was just an OK story, and I dont think readers who have not read the Anita series would be interested to start with this book.

The second story from Charlaine Harris is about Sookie Stackhouse's cousin Hadley. Her vampire cousin  was a lover of the vampire queen of Louisiana (Eric and Bill's boss) and was recently staked so the queen sent her lawyer to Sookie to deliver Hadley's legacy. I think the story happened after the Witch war (?). I'm not sure - it's been a year or two since I read the series. It must be after Book 3 or 4 because Bill here was just "a friend and a neighbor" to Sookie. Sookie fans doesn't need to read this, as this story added nothing to the series.

I didn't like the third story by MaryJanice Davidson. The plot wasn't interesting to read, too predictable and the characters confused me. The last two short stories surprised me. I was almost ready to give up when the story became a page turner. I haven't heard of Angela Knight and Vickie Taylor but I was impressed with their writing. I liked the fourth one, Galahad story by Angela Knight.  I read that this is also part of the Round Table series (which I would like to start one day). The story is about Caroline who was recently turned into a witch and was getting visions of the future. She saw someone murdering people to create an army of bad vampires. She also saw a vision that  a vampire swordsman would be the perfect man to do the job. The guy in her vision turned out to be Galahad, one of the  best knights of the Round Table. Together they set out on a mission of stopping the bad guys in creating an army of vamps.

Blood Lust, the final story is about a microbiologist, Daniel Hart who invented synthetic blood. After having the synthetic blood perfected, his employer - a vampire, stole his work, his house, everything he has including his fiancee (which was turned into a vamp). He wanted to kill his vampire employer but he realized, he couldn't kill him if he's human. So he finds Deidre, a woman vampire to turn her. So the story goes from there.

I bought this book because I love Anita and Sookie series. I was disappointed because those two stories don't add anything to the series. However, I am considering this a great book for Galahad and Blood Lust.


About the book:

A never-before-published Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter story from New York Times bestselling author Laurell K. Hamilton. A brand-new story from New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris, featuring the much-loved Sookie Stackhouse.

A hot new novella from USA Today bestselling author MaryJanice Davidson, set in the world of Undead and Unwed's Betsy Taylor, the newly, and reluctantly,crowned Vampire Queen.

Introduced in the collection Hot Blooded, and on the heels of the wildly successful Master of the Night, Angela Knight has created a fascinating universe of Arthurian Lore and erotic vampirsim. And a sexy original story from Vickie Taylor, a new addition to Berkley Sensation.