Dead of Night by Charlaine Harris and Amanda Stevens
Dead of Night is made up of novellas by urban fantasy giant Charlaine Harris and romance and thriller author Amanda Stevens. This odd pairing combines an uncharacteristically dull paranormal romance by Harris with a slightly spooky suspense story by Stevens. This strange combination is both disappointing and jarring and not one I would recommend to any paranormal romance or urban fantasy fan.
Harris' story, "Dancers in the Dark," is a predictable, formulaic story about - you guessed it - vampires. Harris combines themes from all of her novels - domestic violence, vampires and lurrrve - in this surprisingly boring story. No matter what your tastes, I would recommend that you skip "Dancers in the Dark." "The Devil's Footprints," Stevens' novella, is a page-turning thriller with spooky notes. As suspense, it wasn't terrible - Stevens builds a good atmosphere, but the resolution is a bit stale.
I still have no idea why these two novellas were combined in Dead of Night. They had nothing to do with each other, in plot, characters, tone or even genre. The transition from Harris's dull paranormal romance to Stevens' trite thriller is jarring and neither story is really very good. This one is not worth reading.
Read this review and more on The Library Lass Book Talk Blog.