Search - Wolfsbane and Mistletoe: Hair-Raising Holiday Tales

An anthology of short stories all about werewolves and Christmas by a combination of fantasy and mystery authors, this is, on the whole, very well done. They are for the most part, more sentimental and hopeful than "hair-raising" as noted on the cover. Charlaine Harris contributes a Sookie Stackhouse short that doesn't add much to the series, but is a quick visit. Carrie Vaughn's story is a nice look at a moment out of Kitty's life when she helps another werewolf deal with his condition. The other stories, as far as I know are stand alone stories that may touch on some existing worlds of their authors, but are separate characters. The rest of the authors contributing are: Donna Andrews, Simon R. Green, Dana Cameron, Kat Richardson, Alan Gordon, Dana Stabenow, Keri Arthur, J. A. Konrath, Nancy Pickard, Karen Chance, Rob Thurman and Toni L.P. Kelner. A particular standout for me was J.A. Konrath's "SA" - which was laugh out loud funny, I will be looking for the rest of his books immediately.

An above-average anthology! With most anthologies, I find myself reading in between books. This one I actually looked forward to picking up again whenever I had to put it down. Much better than the previous offering by the Harris/Kelner team, Many Bloody Returns, the werewolf/Christmas theme was excellently handled by most of the authors. I particularly enjoyed Donna Andrews's hilarious story - she must have had a ball writing it! Great collection!

The stories here are amusing with light entertainment and if you you aren't currently reading the series of some of them they aren't making much sense.

The stories here are amusing, but not especially great. I'm not big on short stories, though. Some of them relate to established series by the authors so if you're not familiar with the characters, you're a little lost. Light entertainment, that's about it.

A fun, quick way to get a taste of an author. There are 15 different writers, so some of the stories are really short. Some traditionalists may not like some of the Christmas interpretations (Santa only comes out and night and wears red, so he must be a vampire) but the stories are enjoyable.