BEST NEW Paranormal Romance: Part 1

Hey Gluers,

I've got a treat!  I'm reading through an anthology of Paranormal Romance stories... I've gotten half-way and I've decided to give you mini-reviews for each story in the anthology.  This is the book's cover, in case you are driven to go looking for it:

Ok, it's a mixed bag, full of surprises, so I'll get started.

The first story "Follow Me Light" by Elizabeth Bear is kinda strange.  The main character is a very ugly man named Pinky.  And still the narrator sleeps with him/falls in love.  Because she can see his swampy coloured aura, nice.  Also, because, even though he's really really really ugly, he's got an awesome voice.  She says "oh, la" when she hears his voice for the first time. Not to belabor this, he's like a fish god or something, but they're in Arizona, ZOMG DRAMAZ.  Then his fishy brother shows up, things get weird.  It was a strange story.  It was brave to attempt to make a romance with a really ugly fish god man work.  It didn't.  I also don't know why the story is titled as it is.

Story number TWO, "A Maze of Spaces" by Claudia O'Keefe.  I think, well, I read it about a week ago and I can't really remember anything useful about it.  The narrator is the Goddess of Lonely Spaces.  She lives in a creepy part of West Virginia, she falls in love with this guy named Landry.  When they finally consummate their love, she passes her "special gifts" onto him and has to leave the area.  It's weird because she is in control of the whole county, like she can manipulate nature, and the weather.  And she makes people feel lonely, so they leave.  'Nuff said.

Third story is called "The Shadowed Heart" by Catherine Asaro and it takes place in the FUTURE.  And it's on a planet where days and nights are about 30hrs each.  Harrick is 1/4 of a empath team and a bionically modified fighting machine.  The other 3 died in a crash (oh NOES) and he's searching the crash site for something.  He find Rhose.  (LOL!) Rhose got stuck in the crash site because she couldn't make it home before night (which you will remember is about 30 hours). They run into each other, they start to empathize or something... they boink.  Then he goes psycho crazy because the towns people start to attack him (fighting machine, remember).  The only one he won't kill is Rhose, because they are empaths.  It ends well. 

Story number 4. "Walpurgis Afternoon" by Delia Sherman was not romantic.  At least not in the "somebody gets laid" sense of the word.  Maybe in the historical sense or the literary sense.  There are witches.  They are lesbians.  They get married... but that's not the center of the story.  The center of the story is the family next door, and they are already married with children.  Not romantic.  The story is nice and pretty and ends pleasantly.  But it's not romantic.  Get it out!  Gone!

The fifth story is "A Knot of Toads" by Jane Yolen and it is set in Scotland.  This girl comes home because her father has died.  He apparently died of fright.  There's toads everywhere.  Basically it's a witch story, the witches attack the girl.  But at the end of the story... a man saves her!  Wooo!  And of course it's the charming boy from her childhood who's grown into a real man.  However, there is no sex.  Shame.

The 6th story, and final story for this part, is "Calypso in Berlin" by Elizabeth Hand.  This Calypso is the same Calypso from Greek mythology.  She is in love with a man.  More than in love, in fact, he is her muse.  She met him and can't stop painting him.  So she takes him into the forest outside of Berlin and enchants him and paints him for a year and then she lets him go. Sort of anti-climatic...

That's part one... who knows what the rest of the book will bring.

To be continued!