I came across My Big Fat Supernatural Honeymoon in Strand Books. It’s always nice to pick up an anthology as they tend to be easy reads.
As a big fan of The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, his story “Heorot”about a kidnapped newlywed woman from an beer festival was enough reason to buy. His story brings back Miss Gard, a mysterious supernatural who consults for the kingpin of Chicago. I always liked her, so was fun to see them momentarily join forces and learn a tiny bit of her [spoiler] valkyrie [/spoiler] origins.
My next favorite entry was “Her Mother’s Daughter” from P. N. Elrod, who edited the collection. It follows a 1930s vampire detective on the case of this time a kidnapped newlywed husband. I’m a big fan of film noir and detective novels, so this was right up my alley. A sassy dame just got married and her husband disappears from the reception. Everyone thinks he’s run off including her mob boss father, but she knows better. She hires him to get to the bottom of it ASAP because nobody is ruining her big day!
The book surprisingly has a short story about Joy and Raphael, the couple who meet in Katie MacAlister’s A Girl’s Guide to Vampires. In “Cat Got Your Tongue?” they are honeymoon-ing in Scotland (jealous!). Instead of being able to bonk all day (no doubt Raphael’s packed that darn massage oil), a ghost interrupts their trip and demands Joy bring her Beloved vampire to the castle. She wants him to get rid of her cheating husband ghost whose wandering about with his damn ghost mistress. They delicately try to explain Joy isn’t really with her soulmate vampire, but she’s having none of it. It’s sorta a twist on high spirits with a shapeshifter twist. I actually enjoyed it alot more than the introductory book.
Another favorite story was from Marjorie M. Liu, an atmospheric almost fairy tale like story about a lost woman in the forest. And I really liked the friends who ended up in the honeymoon suite of “Newlydeads’ by Caitlin Kittredge. Nice flip of the anthologies theme. I’d definitely recommend this book for any fans of the included authors after a light, humorous tale. Most of the stories have this tone except maybe “Where the Heart Lives”.
I’ll definitely pick up the previous collection, My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding for #CBR7.
Read my other reviews on my blog.