Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond (A Hollows Novella) (Hollows, #2012)

by Kim Harrison

Fans have fallen for bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan. Through banishment and road trips, deadly supernatural duels and lost loves, they have avidly cheered her on, eagerly awaiting the next installment in her adventures. This collection of short works, published together in one volume for the first time, adds a whole new dimension to the Hollows saga, featuring tales involving Rachel and her coterie of friends and enemies. "Untitled" contains original works, including: "Million Dollar Baby" - original novella about what happens when elven tycoon Trent Kalamack and Jenks the pixy team up to rescue Trent's daughter; Spider Web and Grace's Fall - original novelettes set in brand-new fantasy worlds; Here, too, are reprinted short stories, including: "Undead in The Garden of Good and Evi"l - an Ivy novella from "Dates from Hell". "Dirty Magic" - a Mia the banshee short story from "Hotter Than Hell". "The Bridges of Eden Park" - a Kisten/Rachel short from the mass market edition of "For a Few Demons More". "Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel" - a Robbie/Rachel/Pierce novella from "Holidays from Hell".
"The Bespelled" - a Ceri/Al short story from the mass market edition of "The Outlaw Demon Wails". "Ley Line Drifter" - a Bis/Jenks novella from "Unbound".

• ISBN10: 0061974323
• ISBN13: 9780061974328
• Publish Date: 9 October 2012
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 17 June 2016
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Harper Voyager
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

This book is a collection of already published short stories together with a few new ones. As a big fan of Kim Harrison, I couldn’t resist. I hadn’t read any of the already published stories yet (I don’t read many anthologies), so everything was new to me.

Most of my favorites were, of course, the Hollows-related stories. I liked seeing things from other characters’ perspectives, because normally we see everything through Rachel’s eyes. But the other star of the show was “Grace”, which was a completely new world including a different sort of ability — electricity manipulation. This is the sort of story that I would love to see her turn into an entire series, because it’s unlike anything else I’ve read in urban fantasy. Much preferable to yet another fae story, which is what “Pet Shop Boys” boils down to. I didn’t dislike the story, but it really didn’t excite me like “Grace” did.

On the other side of the coin, dryads don’t ring my bell like they obviously do Harrison’s. I found her dryad stories rather boring, and skipped most of “Temson Woods” and “Spider Silk” entirely.

Overall, this did a great job of filling in the time gap between one Hollows novel and the next for me. And my ARC of Ever After arrived shortly after I finished, so the timing couldn’t have been better!

[Melanie]

Listening to the audiobook.

3.5 stars

I've read all the Hollows stories before, but I loved revisiting many of them. Especially, Jenks and Trent's story to get Lucy. I also liked seeing Kisten with Rachel and his sister. I'm still not a fan of Kisten and Ivy's story. It shows a different side to both of them. They are not the confident vamps that we are used to seeing. I didn't like it. I wish there had been at least one new Hollows story.

For the new stories from "Beyond the Hollows", they were okay. I really liked the Pet Shop Boys story. It had a solid ending, but you could see that there is room to keep the story alive, if she chose to do so. Temson Estates was okay. I didn't love it, didn't hate it. I didn't like Spider Silk. It felt extremely unfinished. I wanted to know more about how everything worked out. Grace had the most solid ending of all the stories.

Overall I enjoyed the book. It will tide me over until the next Hollows book comes out. I hear it has a lot of Trent, Al and Jenks. Less Ivy. That sounds like a great book.