More Scary Kisses

An Anthology of Paranormal romance by Australian Authors.

As usual with anthologies I liked some stories more than others, and some were just weird.  I did like the Australian flavour to some of them.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

The Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao Zedong altered Chinese history in the 1960s and '70s, forcibly sending hundreds of thousands of Chinese intellectuals to peasant villages for "re-education." This moving, often wrenching short novel by a writer who was himself re-educated in the '70s tells how two young men weather years of banishment, emphasizing the power of literature to free the mind. Sijie's unnamed 17-year-old protagonist and his best friend, Luo, are bourgeois doctors' sons, and so condemned to serve four years in a remote mountain village, carrying pails of excrement daily up a hill. Only their ingenuity helps them to survive. The two friends are good at storytelling, and the village headman commands them to put on "oral cinema shows" for the villagers, reciting the plots and dialogue of movies. When another city boy leaves the mountains, the friends steal a suitcase full of forbidden books he has been hiding, knowing he will be afraid to call the authorities. Enchanted by the prose of a host of European writers, they dare to tell the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to the village tailor and to read Balzac to his shy and beautiful young daughter. Luo, who adores the Little Seamstress, dreams of transforming her from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover with his foreign tales. He succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he might have hoped for.

A lovely story filled with haunting images 

Prince of the Night by Jasmine Cresswell

The peasants called him the Count of Albion and relied on him to keep them safe from the political storms raging around them. But the villagers feared him as much as they revered him. They knew he fought for Italy's freedom, but they couldn't understand why the mysterious nobleman preferred the night hours and the shadows. Sequestered in the isolated villa called the Three Fountains, the count hid his secrets well -- until the arrival of a beautiful Englishwoman, Miss Cordelia Hope.

Cordelia soon understood that the Count kept to the shadows both to hide his secret mission and to shroud his tormented soul. Irresistibly drawn to him, she sensed his pain and craved his touch. They each felt the other's passion in ways she had never before dreamed possible -- and Cordelia was naive enough to believe that love could conquer all obstacles. The Count knew better. And yet he couldn't resist the woman who claimed that he was her destiny: a vampire whose love she would die to possess.

Tortured vampire resisting the beautiful virgin for her own good.  When he finally gives in he finds her love is what will save him....

Better written than I had expected.

Super Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner

SuperFreakonomics challenges the way we think all over again, exploring the hidden side of everything with such questions as: How is a street prostitute like a department store Santa? Who adds more value: a pimp or a Realtor? What do hurricanes, heart attacks, and highway deaths have in common? Did TV cause a rise in crime? Can eating kangaroo meat save the planet?

Whether investigating a solution to global warming or explaining why the price of oral sex has fallen so drastically, Levitt and Dubner show the world for what it really is—good, bad, ugly, and, in the final analysis, superfreaky.
 
Who knew economics and statistics could be so thought-provoking and entertaining. 

Treachery In Death by J D Robb

Naked in a shower in an old, unused gym in the basement of Cop Central, Peabody overhears two cops arguing about their own corruption and conspiracy in murder. One of them is a lieutenant, the daughter of a decorated ex-cop who is a legend and Whitney's predecessor. Knowing that if she is discovered, she is dead, she waits out the tense moments until their argument is over and they are gone. Shaken, she contacts McNabb and Eve to let them know what she has heard. This kicks off an investigation and internal sting operation spearheaded by Eve and in cooperation with their Internal Affairs Bureau. 

Great book, great plot, typical pithy banter....and Roarke. All the ingredients that make this series so addictive. 

Lip Service by M.J. Rose

On the surface, Julia Sterling's life is enviable. She lives on Manhattan's East Side, is married to a renowned psychiatrist, deeply loves her stepson and is forging a career as a journalist. 

When a writing assignment exposes Julia to telephone sex, she glimpses a world that stirs her erotic fantasies but threatens her carefully constructed reality. 

As she probes her emotional and sexual connections to the men she knows and several she will never meet, she confronts evil, perversity and her own passions.

A good read.  The ending was a bit contrived. Really didn't like Julia's husband, glad she left him in the end though it took her a long time to do so.

The Reckless Bride by Stephanie Laurens

Captain Rafe Carstairs is the final hope for thwarting the evil traitor known only as The Black Cobra. Bold and determined to complete his assignment against impossible odds - the mission made suddenly more perilous by the proud English rose, Loretta Michelmarch.

A typical Stephanie Laurens, action, romance and a touch of mystery.