Title Harvest Moon Series --- Author Mercedes Lackey, Michelle Sagara, Cameron Haley Cover Art --- Publisher Harlequin Books - 2010 First Printing Harlequin Books - 2010 Category Anthology Warnings None Main Characters See below Main Elements See below

• "A Tangled Web"
• "Cast in Moonlight"
• "Retribution"

A Tangled Web by Mercedes Lackey

Kidnapping Persephone should have been an easy task. But in the Five Hundred Kingdoms, nothing's ever simple...and the wrong blonde goddess is stolen by mistake, leaving Prince Leopold witout his new bride. At least until he braves the realm of the dead to get her back...

Cast in Moonlight by Michelle Sagara

Barely a teenager, Kaylin Neya is a thief, a fugitive and an attempted assassin. She also has a smart mouth, sharp wits and mysterious markings on her skin. All of which make her perfect bait for a child prostitution sting in the city of Elantra - if she survives her first meeting with the Hawks!

Retribution by Cameron Haley

In the underwold, there are tricks to killing. Like executing rivals at crossroads so ghosts won't follow you home. But sometimes retribution is hard to avoid - and now a supernatural hit man has a contract on Domino Riley's life. Luckily she knows a thing or two about death...

I bought this book because I'm a huge fan of Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra (of which the second story is a prequel) but it had some good company!

A Tangled Web
I really, really enjoyed this. Kind of a Percy Jackson for adults. I don't think I've ever read anything by Lackey before (I know, hard to believe given she's written so much) and I am definitely interested in her 500 Kingdoms series now. This short story had everything I loved. Mythology, humour, and a whole lot of fun. I'm actually a bit worried I might not like the rest of the series so much because I suspect its more fairy tale oriented. But I loved every moment of this short story.

Cast in Moonlight
You know, I didn't actually have huge expectations of this story, its kind of before the time period that I thought would be particularly interesting. But on the contrary, I loved it. It was great to see how Kaylin joined the Hawks. Saw many of the other characters through her eyes for the first time and learned what their first impressions of her were and why they behave the way they do later on. And the story itself was good, not as complicated as her novels are, but then Kaylin is just starting out and isn't that deep into the magic of her world yet. Definitely a worthy addition to the Chronicles of Elantra.

Retribution
This series and author I knew nothing about, another urban fantasy, this time the main character being a assassin in the employ of a supernatural mob boss. Now breaking up the criminal underworld as gangs of supernatural baddies was an interesting concept. But my one problem was that the main character Dominica is an assassin, and thus for all intents and purposes, a baddie herself. We're not supposed to root for her. The entire story hinges on being an assassin in an important position in the mob. If she hadn't been a bad guy, the other bad guy wouldn't be after her. So I'm not sure how a whole series can be made around that. It's like Dexter, yeah he only kills crimminals, but he's still a psychopatic serial killer, we shouldn't like him. Thus I'm not sure I'll follow up with the series, the world building and characters in it definitely do have some promise.