I bought book primarily for the story by Lynn Kurland alone. I love Ms. Kurland's work and I wasnt disappointed with it.

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Romantic fantasy anthology with four unconnected stories.
The first story, by McKillip is only barely either fantasy or romance, it reads more like a fable and is nice but not memorable. The second story is A Tale of Two Swords by Lynn Kurland. If you are a fan of her Nine Kingdoms series, you'll want to get this book for this story alone. It is a prequel to the series and a fine addition. Shinn's story Fallen Angel is set in a world I am unfamiliar with but is apparently part of a series. It is an interesting introduction for me and I would read more. The final story by Delacroix was a poor way to end, a retelling of Melusine, it is not a happy tale.

Four separate stories in the “fantasy/romance” genre – two from successful fantasy authors and two from successful romance authors.

The Gorgon in the Cupboard – Patricia McKillip
The moral of the story is that men put women on pedestals, and the women don’t always appreciate it.
In this tale of a group of artists and their models, the “pedestals” are almost literal. The spirit of the gorgon Medusa speaks to one artist through one of his paintings, helping him to see a woman for who she is as a person, rather than one of the idealized mythological figures he paints women as.
It’s a bit heavy-handed, and the fantasy element is really not even particularly necessary to the story.

The Tale of the Two Swords – Lynn Kurland
You know how sometimes you watch a bad fantasy movie, and the actors look completely embarrassed to be wearing medieval-style costumes, and you can tell they’re barely holding back snickers as they say their “thee”s and “thous”s? Well, this story is kind of like those movies. A completely generic medieval-style setting, generic, unbelievable characters, anachronistic dialogue…. If it were just a bit more tongue-in-cheek, it might succeed as humor, but as it is, I found it to just fall flat. Framed as a story read to a child (which also didn’t work for me), our heroine runs from an arranged marriage, encounters magic, and finds love with a handsome prince. Blah.

Fallen Angel – Sharon Shinn
This one, I really liked. Shinn’s Samaria, setting of several of her novels (which are still sitting on my TBR shelf!), is a Middle Eastern-type land where human tribes and winged angels co-exist, and serves as a well-realized backdrop to her story of a young woman of a wealthy human family who is expected to marry for money and political advantage – but instead falls for a young angel of dubious reputation. A age-old tale – but done here with some original twists, and fascinating characters.

An Elegy for Melusine – Claire Delacroix
The cursed fairy Melusine tells her story to two human women who chance to enter the ruined castle where once she lived with her human lover. Although the character makes a fairly big deal about telling the story from her point of view rather than from the ‘mortal’ point of view that has come down to listeners through the years, the story, as written, is a fairly straight recounting of the basic French legend, right down to the details, without any major changes. Nice, but not exceptional.

I got this book for Lynn Kurland's Story, The Tale of Two Swords. I don't care for the other authors, but I LOVE that story!

The story opens as young Harold is yearning for adventure, and decides he must settle for a story of adventure instead. His father reads The Tale of Two Swords, and we are sucked into the story of Gilrahen the Fae, whose father has just died on the battlefield, leaving him with a palace in ruins, no army, and an enemy who longs to kill him. He has an uncommon amount of magic, but he's not at all sure it'll be enough, and he doesn't care for the engagement he's bound to. Maher of Angesand flees from HER suitor. She runs to the palace, hoping that the king's mage can teach her the spells in her mother's book. Instead she finds a palace in ruins, a man who claims to be no one, yet knows the spells in her mother's book and has a crown and sword hidden under his bed.

I won't ruin the end of the story for you, but both it, and the epilogue (which switches back to young Harold) are fantastic!

PS. This is the story that is referred to several times in Star of the Morning and The Mage's Daughter.

I requested the book for the story by Lynn Kurland-The Tale of the Two Swords. I love Lynn Kurland's and enjoyed this one just as much as some of her other books.

I read only the Sharon Shinn story, which was set on Samaria. I really enjoy being on Samaria and learning about some new characters. My only complaint was that the story got really good at the end, and then it ended! I wanted it to continue much longer to find out what happened to Eden.

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