Review: Night Shift

NIGHT SHIFT
Anthology
Nalini Singh, Illona Andrews, Lisa Shearin, Milla Vane
Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy
384 pages
Berkley
Available November 25th
Source: ARC from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Four masters of urban fantasy and paranormal romance plunge readers into the dangerous, captivating world unearthed beyond the dark...

New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh delivers a smoldering story with Secrets at Midnight , as the scent of Bastien Smith’s elusive lover ignites a possessiveness in him that’s as feral as it is ecstatic. And now that he’s found his mate, he’ll do anything to keep her.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews’ novella, Magic Steals , when people start going missing, shapeshifting tigress Dali Harimau and jaguar shifter Jim Shrapshire must uncover the truth about the mysterious creatures responsible.

From Milla Vane—a warrior princess must tame The Beast of Blackmoor to earn a place among her people. But she quickly discovers that the beast isn't a monster, but a barbarian warrior who intends to do some taming himself.

It’s seer Makenna Frazier's first day on the job at Supernatural Protection and Investigations, and her first assignment is more than she bargained for when bodyguard duty for a leprechaun prince’s bachelor party goes every which way but right in national bestselling author Lisa Shearin’s Lucky Charms.

MY THOUGHTS
Secrets at Midnight by Nalini Singh
Ms. Singh never disappoints with her paranormal romances, and whether we’re treated to a novella or a full length book, we turn the last page utterly satisfied yet already craving more. Secrets at Midnight takes us back to fiery redhead Mercy’s family, her brother Bastien finally catching his mate’s scent and setting out to woo and win her using all the weapons in his impressive arsenal. Things of course move quickly between them given the short page length, but their romance is a sweet and sexy reminder of why the Psy-Changeling series sits on a shelf of favorites.

Rating: 4/5

Magic Steals by Ilona Andrews
Like Ms. Singh, the writing team of Ilona Andrews has a gift for writing extraordinary secondary characters, and much to our delight and glee Magic Steals thrusts two such characters into the limelight. While this novella boasts a well-plotted mystery, the true highlights are of course Dali and Jim, Dali’s understandable insecurities (given she’s mostly blind with magic that’s hit-or-miss and he’s Alpha of Clan Cat) regarding how fit a romantic partner she is for Jim making us want to reach through the pages and hug her. In our short time with the two of them though, she and Jim work through their various relationship issues, all the while solving a tangled web of a case with their individual senses of humor present and accounted for.

Rating: 4.5/5

Lucky Charms by Lisa Shearin
Lucky Charms is a laugh-out-loud novella that walks us through protagonist Makenna Frazier’s first night at her new job. A new job that includes horny (and naked) leprechauns, strip clubs, and a partnership complicated by both physical attraction and the inadvertent inhalation of an inhibition-lowering drug. Pages fly by as clothes come off (including the clothes of those who make us grateful we can see only words on a page and not the events themselves), and we reach the end ever-so ready for a full novel with Makenna and her partner Ian leading the way.

Rating: 4/5

The Beast of Blackmoor by Milla Vane
The Beast of Blackmoor is a drastic and rather abrupt change in tone from the previous novella, humor and hijinks suddenly followed up by a grittiness that wipes the lingering smile from our faces. The abruptness is in no way the fault of Ms. Vane, but her world is inescapably off-putting to a higher degree than it might have been otherwise given the order of this anthology, the multiple rapes and violence such a departure from the other three that we can’t help but struggle to find purchase. The story itself has an intriguing Beauty and the Beast-type setup with a physically and emotionally strong heroine tasked with bringing a “beast” to heel, it just takes a while longer to really settle in and adjust to the darkness.

Rating: 3/5

Buy Night Shift:

  

Amazon • B&N

This book was sent to me by the author  free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.