RELEASE DATE 15th September 2015
Two brand new tales anchor this wide-ranging collection from one of urban fantasy's most successful authors. Here is the first time that best-selling fantasy, YA, and crime author Kelley Armstrong has had her stories collected from Otherworld and beyond. With her signature twists and turns, Armstrong gives a fresh spin on city-dwelling vampires, werewolves, and zombies, while also traveling further afield, to a post-apocalyptic fortress, a superstitious village, a supernatural brothel, and even to feudal Japan.
With tales that range from humorous to heart-stopping, these are the stories that showcase Kelley Armstrong at her versatile best.
Rakshashi - a standalone story
Rakshasi are almost genie-like creatures that are tied to serving a family until they've atoned for their bad deeds during life. Of course, they don't exactly like this arrangement.
Kat - a Darkest Powers story
Kat and Marguerite are on the run from the Edison group but Marguerite is keeping something from Kat.
A Haunted House Of Her Own - a standalone story
A young couple buy a dream B&B - it's supposed to be haunted but that's what they want. The woman discovers maybe she's bitten off more than she can chew.
Learning Curve - an Otherworld story
An Otherworld based short featuring Zoe Takano who we met in Broken. Zoe discovers she's being stalked by someone.
The Screams Of Dragons - a Cainsville story
A Cainsville short where a young boy starts hearing the screams of dragons and haveing weird dreams. Then the Cainsville residents start treating him strange.
The Kitsune's Nine Tales - an Age of Legends story
A guard leads the Kitsune traitor to the Forest of the Dead. He's been warned about all his tricks along the way.
Last Stand - a standalone story
A virus outbreak means the recently dead are back, the dead and alive are at war. Our main character is a leader and fears for her group as the numbers are dwindling.
Bamboozled - an Otherworld story
A small group of people hunt down wanted criminals but everyone's in for a surprise with their latest hunt.
Branded - an Otherworld story
People live inside the Fortress for safety - outside are where the branded supernaturals live. A young mand and woman hatch a plan for leaving.
The List - an Otherworld story
Someone has made a list of vampires living in Toronto so Zoe goes to check the author out.
Young Bloods - an Otherworld story
A man realises there are two vampires on the train trying to intimdate people into confrontation but they don't realise who he is.
The Door - a standalone story original to this book
A young girl grows up learning to stay away from the door, only her dad is allowed to leave and comes back with food and toys. She always obeyed until the time came where she had to leave.
Dead Flowers By A Roadside - a standalone story
A man is haunted by visions of his wife and child. He keeps himself busy by fixing up the family car.
Suffer The Children - a standalone story
A village have recently lost all their young and elderly to disease so when two guys visit and claim to be able to bring them back, they agree.
The Collector - a standalone story
A puzzle solver takes part in an online puzzle that eventually leads her to an office for the last part - a puzzle box.
Gabriel's Gargoyles - a Cainsville story
A young Gabriel searches for all of Cainsville's garygoyles while also dealing with his mother.
Harbinger - a standalone story
A young woman is haunted by the spectres of drowned girls. She tries to talk to them, she tries to ignore them but they won't go away.
V Plates - an Otherworld story
Reese want to help Noah lose his virginity and asks Nick to help so they go to a brothel but it's not just an ordinary brothel.
Life Sentence - an Otherworld story
Daniel Boyd is dying so he uses his money and remaining time trying to find a way to stop it.
Plan B - standalone story
A man and his mistress hatch a plan to get his wife out of the picture but nothing goes as planned - always have a plan B.
The Hunt - a Cainsville story
A hunter decides to step up the hunting game and move up a level.
Dead To Me - a standalone story
A woman tries to stop her husband's ghost from haunting her home.
Devil May Care - a Cainsville story original to this book
Patrick only returns to Cainsville once in a blue moon and he learns of a prophecy when he's there so decides to avoid it all together.
I loved all these stories and a few of them were new to me either because I hadn't read the original anthology they were in or they're original stories just for this one.
I never have a bad thing to say about Kelley's work and I highly recommend this anthology whether you're new to her or a die hard fan like me. Although if you're new to her, some of these stories may be spoiler-ific or not make sense.
There were a lot of books I had on my Amazon wishlist purely because they contain a Kelley story that I've now been able to remove so ... bonus!
Book Depository:
Amazon UK: Led Astray
Amazon UK: Led Astray
