Book Reviews of Bite

I was glad I read this book because it filled in the blanks for some of the series I've been reading by the various authors.

LAURELL K. HAMILTON - "The Girl Who Was Infatuated by Death": Also appears in her book "Strange Candy" so don't get this book if you're looking for something new. Occurs between "Blue Moon" and "Obsidian Butterfly." Basic plot: Mother wants Anita to help her find her daughter before she "goes vampire." Big Question: Will Anita have sex with Jean-Claude?

CHARLAINE HARRIS - "One Word Answer": A must for Sookie Stackhouse fans. This is the story that tells how Sookie found out about her cousin Hadley's death and her inheritance that causes her to go to New Orleans for the story in a full-length book. Helps explain things so you don't feel like you've missed a whole book because of all the references to this one short story.

MARYJANICE DAVIDSON - "Biting in Plain Sight": I was a bit surprised at how much I liked this story since I usually find this author's writing so vulgar. If you're looking for her usual method of inserting foul language every sentence or two for no reason, then you'll have to wait until Betsy the Queen shows up toward the end. This tells the story of how Dr. Sophie Trudeau (vet) and Liam Thompson became a couple. They are two characters who play prominent roles in one of the later books (Undead and Unpopular?). Cute story - I find I like her short stories about peripheral characters much better than the longer ones about the central characters who are so annoying.

ANGELA KNIGHT - "Galahad": Very interesting take on the King Arthur legend, making knights the vampires (Magi) who must feed from females who have magical powers (Majae). Of course, this feeding turns sexual. So, Galahad, a 1600-yr-old vampire, and Caroline, a brand new Maja, must join forces (and several choice body parts) to fight off the vampires conspiring to take over the Mageverse with their evil plot.

VICKIE TAYLOR - "Blood Lust": Evil vampire funds microbioligist's work to create a synthetic blood that would save countless lives. Evil vampire steals the formula and the doctor's girlfriend. Doctor decides to get even by becoming a vampire himself, killing the evil vampire and girlfriend (to free her soul), retrieving the formula for the good of the world, and then killing himself (the freeing-the-soul thing). Will he succeed in his noble endeavor? Will he have sex with the nearest female? Will there be a twist at the end? You'll have to read it to find out....

Ok, this is one of the FEW anthologies of this type and genre that I actually thought worthy of a place on my shelf. Unlike tripe like "My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding" and that sort of poor quality crap, this one actually didn't bite, if you'll pardon the poor pun.

Unlike in a similar anthology titled Cravings, in which the LKH Anita story is merely an excerpt from one of the novels in the series (the beginning of Incubus Dreams, in fact), in this volume, Bite, there's an actual original LKH story, a touching look at Jean-Claude & Anita's developing romance, that takes place between Blue Moon & Obsidian Butterfly. I believe this story also appears in the LKH anthology, Strange Candy (which I really enjoyed).

The Mary Janice Davidson story, while featuring them, doesn't focus on Betsy, the Queen, and her minions, but has a sweet side story about Dr. Sophie, a vampire veterinarian living in a small town. These two alone made this volume a keeper, if for no other reason than to complete the authors' regular series.

The Harris takes place as Sookie learns her cousin is dead, and meets the Demon Lawyer Catalaides for the first time...as he drops hints about Hadley's demise...and before Sookie goes to New Orleans to clean Hadley's apartment (events in the novel Definitely Dead) and is more of a short "fill in the blanks" story...good, but not really moving the storyline forward and therefore not something you'll miss really if you just stuck to the books.

The last two by lesser known authors Angela Knight (Galahad), and Vickie Taylor (Blood Lust)...well, Blood Lust was cute, just ok, but the characters were very likeable in a very short time. However, I thought Galahad was just terrible. Any story where a female character has to say, "Oh, Galahad! Oh, Galahad!" gets a big red X in my book.

This is a sexy vampire book, but not too much sex, just a different look at vampires. It was easy reading and fun.

This is a MUST read if you are a fan of the series by these authors. Especially Charlaine Harris' "Sookie" series and MaryJanice Davidson's "Queen Betsy" series. Both of their stories fill in gaps in the series.
LKH's story is not an esential part of the "Anita Blake" series, but a nice addition.
Angela Knight's story will make more sense if you have read her other Mageverse novels, but if you haven't read them, then this one might get ya hooked on them :)

One of the absolute worst anthologies I have ever read!

Contains sexually explicit scenes. VERY explicit.

Follow a vampire hunter who can be as deadly as her prey. Meet a downhome southern girl who's found out, much to her chagrin, that vampires are her type. Feel the euphoria of fear in the shadow of a reluctant Queen of the Undead. Step closer to the hot-blooded edge of passion as a strange new mythology of the night is unveiled.

Good short story. Read it only for the Sookie Stackhouse, had no interest in the others after reading the other reviews.

A very entertaining anthology by today's hottest urban fantasy/paranormal romance authors.

This book had some good stories. Sometimes I was aggravated because they were short! I want more!

Four vampire stories by well-known authors, featuring sex and romance. Very funny in places.

Not all the stories in this book were great. The only author that I had read previously was Charlaine Harris so I can't attest to how they fit in with their respective series. If you don't read any of these authors and don't care for vampire/sci-fi/romance novels, skip it....they were just too sci-fi/fantasy/romance and not good character development.

LAURELL K. HAMILTON - The Girl Who Was Infatuated by Death - Is about a mother who wants Anita to help her find her daughter who is infatuated with becoming a vampire. Anita has a side story with a vampire that isn't exactly explained (i.e. why is a vampire hunter involved with vampires? Is it like a cop sleeping with criminals?) Since I keep seeing this author's name, I'm glad I was exposed to one of her short stories, I can see that I might like her other writing but this story wasn't a stand-out must read if you don't follow this author.

CHARLAINE HARRIS - One Word Answer - This is the story that caused me to pick up the book. I've gotten through to the 7th book in her Sookie Stackhouse series. As soon as I got started on this story I thought, "good, this is going to fill in where I felt that I was missing a retelling in the 5th book of the series." I could tell that an incident was glossed over when I started that novel and I thought it was just bad story-telling now I see that this story is the reason she didn't go more into detail. This is not a long story as it tells the incident of Sookie being told about her cousin Hadley that causes her to go to New Orleans in the 5th book. This short story helps explain the meeting so you don't feel like you've missed a whole book because of all the references to this one short story but it isn't a necessary component to the series as it is glossed over in the 5th book. The short story ended abruptly so it would be frustrating if you didn't know there was more in the next full-length novel.

MARYJANICE DAVIDSON - Biting in Plain Sight - Not a lot of character development here but this tells the story of Dr. Sophie Trudeau, a small town veterinarian, and Liam Thompson, a resident of that town who has become infatuated with her and wants to move into a relationship with her. He steps in and takes care of every detail for her when she must travel out of town to stop a vampire from causing girls to commit suicide. It was a decent read but also not a stand-out must read if you don't follow this author.

ANGELA KNIGHT - "Galahad" - The only positive thing I can say about this book is that the author found a new approach on the vampire lore by weaving it in with the King Arthur legend. Knights of the Round table are the vampires (Magi) and they have a need to join with witches (Majae) because they must feed from them to keep the witches/females from having a dangerous build-up of blood. I was thinking this was just a line the Magi was feeding a newly created Majae especially when this feeding turns sexual but it wasn't. So, Galahad, a 1600-yr-old vampire, and Caroline, a brand new Majae, must join one another to fight off the vampires conspiring to take over the Mageverse by stealing the Holy Grail. Ugh! Too far out there, not good character development, hate when characters meet and hop into bed right away, just not a good read for me.

VICKIE TAYLOR - Blood Lust - Might have been a good novel but there wasn't enough pulp in this short story. I think given more pages, this story would have filled in nicely. It begins with the beating of a microbioligist and the theft of his fiance along with the research and formulas that create a synthetic blood that would save countless lives and feed the starving/rationed vampires. Since the thug was a vampire, the microbiologist decides to get even by becoming a vampire himself and taking back what is his. His quest to change brings him together with a female vampire who is drawn into his plot after it is explained to her. Maybe I will pick up other books by her and see if this world that she creates blooms in a full-length book.

Hope that helps...CJ

I feel gipped. Hamilton's and Harris' stories each were 1/8 of the anthology, while the other three were 1/4. There's less quality overall. Not to mention, manny typographical errors.

Hamilton's The Girl Who Was Infactuated with Death comes after Blue Moon, which I hadn't read yet, but nothing was spoiled, and the story was still fairly good. The only thing I saw that was new was the lack of Anita Blake's strong resistance to Jean-Claude--but like I said, I hadn't read the book it comes after nor the book before it.

Harris' One Word Answer was my favorite in the anthology. It ties up the loose ends about Sookie's cousin Hadley, whom Sookie mentioned often in the actual series but never fully explained her disappearance.

Davidson's Biting in Plain Sight started off well, but turned out to be absolutely terrible and annoying. Liam, a man with an unnaturally obsessive crush that started when he was a teenager, ends up in a situation with Sophie, the vampire which whom he has the crush on. I couldn't help imagine Liam to be this moronic hick--but then, I felt all of the characters were less than intelligent.

Knight's Galahad. Not bad, not bad. Until you realize how terribly written it is. But, as I've never read any of Knight's series, she writes without confusing about her Mageverse universe.

Taylor's Blood Lust. The writing wasn't bad. But this story made me remember how much I don't like short story romances--the "love" was so fake in this one, I cringed every time Daniel refered to Deadre as "my girl." Blegh.

Oh man, this book is lousy.

There was *no* editing. There is grammar you would not believe and appalling punctuation errors. Those errors loom like a shadow over each story. I take it back: it may have been edited by marmosets.

It gives the clear indication that the publishing group/marmosets in charge of this project only heard the registers at Barnes & Noble opening and closing repeatedly. They should be ashamed of themselves.

Frankly, the only stories worth reading are Harris and Davidson's and they were good enough to earn the two stars for the whole book. The other stories were a little like porn: really weak plots strung along with semi-graphic, not very imaginative sex. If you like that sort of thing, this phoned-in book is for you. I don't ask for much: a plot that suspends my disbelief a little and maybe a well-crafted phrase here and there. With that much complaint laid out, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy Davidson's story. I'm not a fan of her longer work; however, this author's story won some respect for her writing chops. It's not utter genius, but it was enjoyable.

By contrast, the first story was so poorly written, I gave up part way through. Did I mention that there was no editor within miles of this book? Unless you really like those bodice-ripping, hair-grabbing affairs, skip this book in favor of one cared about enough to be looked at before being lobbed at the public.

Laurell K. Hamilton: I have read a couple of her books, but I find it hard to get into Anita's world and connect with the character. The story was good and sexy, but I found myself drifting a few times wondering if I should have purchased this book. LKH is a great author, just not one to continue with.

Charlane Harris: I really liked the Sookie Stackhouse novella. I had never read any of her stories before and I found Bill to be heartwarming and a true guy (even though he is a vampire.) Her vividness of the surroundings make it almost a intregal part of the story.

MaryJanice Davidson: I have to say, I am not a fan of MJD. I do not know what it is and I have read her novellas in both "Mysteria" and "Mysteria Lane." Her characters annoy me and I have a hard time staying involved in her stories. I have tried a few of her books, but I couldn't keep it up. Her story with Sophie and Liam was cute, but was pretty predictable.

Angela Knight: WOW!!!! This author blew me away! I had never read any of her stories and the whole concept of the Mageverse and the Arthurian legends, kept me hooked. I loved the idea that a 1600+ year old vampire could fall so hard for this newly converted Maja. The story was sexy and they way Galahad fed off of Caroline was so sexy, I almost wanted a Magus to come and feed off of me. I kept "Bite" for so long just for this story. (It is the 3rd book in the Mageverse series.)

Vickie Taylor: Her novella is wrapped up in one word: FORGETTABLE. I was not drawn in at all and the action continually fell short. This novella actually made me the most upset with the book purchase.

If you have the opportunity to read this book, hopefully you like a few of the authors. If you haven't ever read any of the authors before, watch out as there are a lot of storylines that can sometimes be hard to follow.

This is an anthology of vampires tales from 5 of the top paranormal authors. Laurell K. Hamilton's all new Anita Blake ,vampire hunter story: The girl Who Was infaturated With Death, takes place somewhere between her two books:Blue Moon and Obsidian Butterfly.
Charlaine Harris gives us a new Sookie Stackhouse story: One Word Answer.
MaryJanice Davidson's story centers on Dr. Sophie Tourneau, a character briefly visited in one of her Betsy books (and Betsy puts in an appearance as well)with Biting in Plain Sight
Angela Knight gives a very HOT story, Galahad.
Vikie Taylor's Blood Lust rounds out the end.

I have to say I really enjoyed all the stories. I haven't read anything by Knight or Taylor before, so it was good to get a taste (no pun intended) of their writing style. If you are a fan of this genre, then you will surely enjoy this one.

A nice break from a longer book, five interesting short stories. I was enticed enough to check out several of the authors other books. Great read!

fun, fast read. very enjoyable.

Very good and hot stories.

Loved this book! These authors do not disappoint the reader at all.
*****

A collection of short stories by different authors, headed up by Laurell K. Hamilton, vampire author extrodinaire.

Entertaining and sexy. I enjoyed it.

Good collection of short stories concerning vampires by popular authors.

A group of stories from all of my favorite vamp writers. This was a lot of fun.

Five short stories by leading authors very enjoyable.

Nice selection of stories. I really enjoyed the Davidson & Taylor selections.

This one was hard to put down....read almost non stop :)

I've not read any of the Anita Blake books so the Hamilton story was blah for me since I didn't know what was going on. The Sookie Stackhouse story (Harris), a series that I absolutely love, was a little dull as well. It just felt like a story to fill up the book and not anything that really advanced any plot or character development. The Davidson story was cute and fun but not really that great either. Then the final two stories in this collection: I didn't really like either one. The Knight story had a good plot but there were two major problems that I had with it: the sex scenes weren't written very well and you just can't have magic being used without any cost - a witch who can just magic anything whenever she wants and not feel tired or need to build up power is just not "believable." The Taylor story could have been okay, but I just didn't feel myself getting into it very much. So, all in all, this collection of stories was rather disappointing.

Enjoyable read. Several short stories in one book.

Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, Angela Knight Great shorts!

I've never read anything by MaryJanice Davidson, and unless she is 8 years old I'll never read her again. "Biting In Plain Sight" was not only bad Jr High crap, it was the most painful 68 page short story I've ever seen!

An ok read. the only story I was excited to read was the Sookie Stackhouse short which shed some light on Waldo. Good for people looking to sample other authors.

I enjoy reading these short stories. It gives me a taste of different writers styles before I dig into a full blown other world created by the writer. I really liked Angela Knight's Galahad and the Magae and Maji of Mageverse. It is a whole new spin on the knights of the round table and the grail. I will be looking for some of her books.

This was a good anthology...I read it to complete my Angela Knight Stories...I had never read any Vicki Taylor of MaryJanice Davison Before...I always think anthologies are a great way to meet new Authors and this one certanly didnt dissapoint I enjoyed all the stories emensly and it was a nice break to read the short stories before starting another full size book

I enjoyed all of the stories. The ones by Harris, Davidson and Hamilton fill in between books like said and the two by Knight and Taylor were good as well. Reading Knight and Taylor gives you two more authors to read if you are interested in expanding your Authors and looking for more to read.

Great book, read it twice... definatley would recomend to my friends and anyone else who asks me about it.

Great short stories.

Love it

This was a great book and showcases several of the current authors of the supernatural genre.

was a wonderful book. easy to read and i love all the authors included in this.

all the stories were awesome!

Possibly if I'd read books by these authors I'd have found the stories more enjoyable. As it was the first three were fairly unfleshed stories. They all started out well, but ended up nowhere. The one by Angela Knight was silly. The only one I really enjoyed was BLOOD LUST by Vickie Taylor.

Good anthology. I'm a die hard Anita Blake fan, so having this book was a must. The story written by Angela Knight had me going out to find the rest of the books relating to that storyline. I enjoyed reading them all.

Great short stories, from great authors such as Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris! Fun, fast reading! :-)

liked it alot. good stories

This book was great because it gave me a sampling of each authors style. I liked them all and tried to find other books written by each one.

Oh Yeah another Anita Blake story! These books with small stories help us find other authors to like, so here I found a Sookie story, and another by Angela Knight and the Mageverse. So erotic and well written! A keeper for my bookself to re-read and enjoy again.

It was very easy to sink your teeth into Bite. I am a big Charlaine Harris fan and that was the reason I purchased this book. All of the stories were enjoyable too. There was a lot of action and romance in almost every story. One of my favorite stories besides "One Word Answer" was "Biting in Sight" by MaryJanice Davidson. If you are a vampire fan or not you will really enjoy these short stories. It was definitely a fast read.

This book gave a nice variety of some of my fav authors, and filled in some gaps in some of the series I have read.

These stories made for a quickie read... finished them in a night... They wet your appetite for more longer novels from each... With summer reading near, it's a must read.. for Charlaine Harris Fans.. as well as the others...

I am familiar with Charlene Harris and this fills in some details between books 5 & 6 Re: Hailey. I also enjoyed finding two new authors to investigate!

This book had a great "fill-in" story on the Sookie Stackhouse series. However, if you have not read the 3 other author's series, you are lost if you start to read them.

I enjoyed each story though some moved faster than others.
IT was a great way to discover new authors.

Five good stories.

This was Okay.It was by no means a great vampire book But it was enjoyable. Perfect for a day off, the beach , or just to have hanging around for a quick read.

I got his book b/c I have never read any vampire stories and wanted to get an idea of some current authors. I like a couple stories and would like to read other stories by LK Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson and Vickie Taylor

I ordered this book because I really like Charlaine Harris. MaryJanice Davidson can be fun, too. I was very, very happy not to have paid full price for this book as I would have thought it a waste of money.

Laurell K. Hamilton does increasingly stranger relationships with vampires- this short story wasn't so bad. As for the other authors, why do stories about vampires so often equate to soft porn?

Me, I think sex is great, but there are limits as to what I want to read about.

What absolute fun!

Interesting stories. Makes for a fast read.

Great stories by some of the best paranormal writers there are!

some of my favorite authors. quick read.

great vampire read !!!

Angela Knight's was the best!

great wee read

Vampire fiction from some of the most popular authors today.

Excellent!

An interesting look at different takes on the vampire story.

Laurell K is my favorite author, this book has a preview of next in Anita Blake series. There are other short stories in the book as well.

5 short vamp stories.........all good. really liked angela knight's the best though.

The stories from Hamilton and Harris are seriously lacking; they are simply teasers for upcoming books. I didn't read the Davidson portion because I find her stories to be tiresome. However, the stories by Knight and Taylor were amazing! Characters were very well developed even by short story status.

I will definately be checking out more material by Knight and Taylor!

5 short stories by leading authors of Vampire fiction: Charlaine Harris, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight, Vickie Taylor
Laurell K Hamilton

Follow a vampire hunter who can be as deadly as her prey. Meet a downhome southern girl who's found out, much to her chagrin, that vampires are her type.

IT'S A HOT,SEXY BOOK!!!loved it so much i read it at work in one day!!

THIS ANTHOLOGY IS ONE OF THE BETTER ONES HAVING VAMPIRES, SHAPE SHIFTERS, ETC. I LOVED THIS ONE. WISH THAT I HAD KEPT IT. YOU CAN NOT GO WRONG READING THIS ONE.

Vampire romance stories by Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight, and Vickie Taylor. The first three stories were good, but I barely got through a page or two of "Galahad" before I gave up.

Excellent! 5 great writers!

An almost perfect anthology. Four out of the five stories are really good, but I thought the last story was awful. Something about it smelled rotten to me. But highly recommended for the other stories here.

Delightful read of short stories. Great for any Vampire fiction fans.

Enjoyable

It's a bunch of different stories about vampires.

I really liked this book, it was a great read.

I didn't like the story by Taylor much, but all the others were good, fun, saucy reading! I like Harris and Davidson the best, I think because they have a sense of fun and whimsy. Really enjoyable read.

four spicy tales of other-worldly love. Galahad was down-right naughty!! You will enjoy these fireside(and fire starting) stories.

follow a vampire hunter who can be as deadly as her prey. Meet a downhome southern girl who's found out, much to her chargrin, that vampires are her type. Feel the euphoria of fear in the shadow of a reluctant Queen of the Undead. Step closer to the hot-blooded edge of passion as a strange new mythology of the night is unveiled. Five authors; Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight and Vickie Taylor make for one good read.
s

very enjoyable read couldn't put it down!

Good stories, but I think Hamilton's was the best written.

Great collection of great authors. Enjoyed all of the stories

I haven't read it, so I cannot give a review.

A great read!

From the back cover: Follow a vampire hunter who can be as deadly as her prey. Meet a down home southern girl who's found out, much to her chagrin, that vampires are her type. Feel the euphoria of fear in the shadow of a reluctant Queen of the Undead. Step closer to the hot-blooded edge of passion as a strange new mythology of the night is unveiled. Five short stories by Laurell K. Hamilton, Charlaine Harris, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight and Vickie Taylor.

Great stories!!

great stories

I liked the stories by Charlaine Harris. Too much sex in the other stories.

Four different authors - four different romantic stories of vampires

Pretty good. Davidson, Knight, and Harris rock. The Hamilton story is pretty much a chapter out of Incubus Dreams

good storys by all!!!

This book had four stories. I liked the last two the best. This book is about vampire fiction and the concepts are interesting.