Edge of Darkness

by Christine Feehan

Journey to the world of the Carpathians with #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan—joined here by masters of vampire romance Maggie Shayne and Lori Herter—in an original anthology that takes dark fantasy to rapturous new heights.

Dark Crime by Christine Feehan
Blaze knows who killed her father and she has merciless plans for payback. Until a phone call from a seductive stranger pleads with her to wait. Retribution is in his blood, too. Now, he and Blaze will be united in the blood of the guilty. Tonight, vengeance is theirs.

Dead by Twilight by Maggie Shayne
Bloodsuckers may be an accepted minority but one of them is getting away with murder. Until a female vamp teams with a mortal detective to end the killing spree. Now the night belongs to them—and so does every pleasure and danger lurking in the shadows.

Cimarron Spirit by Lori Herter
While excavating an Anasazi ruin, archeologist Annie Carmichael uncovers the resting place of a centuries-old vampire who finds in Annie the liberating mate he has longed for. But how much is Annie expected—or willing—to surrender for the man she now desires?

• ISBN10: 0515156213
• ISBN13: 9780515156218
• Publish Date: 4 August 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Jove Publications
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780515156218

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Dark Crime is right This book is 390 pages long and 216 of them are the Christine Feehan story.  I realise that there are a lot of deep Feehan fans but I find the stories disturbing, full of consent issues and undermining of strong women. I admit that I read many books where consent and agency are problematic but Feehan seems to push many of my buttons and make me quite cranky. 
Some authors pull you past issues and allow you to keep reading but I just can't with Feehan, my internal editor rears her head and spends the entire story pointing at things that irritate rather than going with the story.  She often creates characters that I like initially and then they fall in love and seem to be undermined and turn from strong to weak and stop being the people I liked.  Which is probably most of what I dislike about Laurel K Hamilton. There's also an amount of "this is what women are really like" subtext that rubs me up the wrong way.
 
Blaze is about to take on the men who killed her father and rings the number on a card to tell the person on the other side what's about to go down and instead he comes to her to try to persuade her to live, and that she's his mate and then he fails in woo and adulting. Sorry, I tried, it just annoyed me so much every time they talked.
 
Dead by Twilight by Maggie Shayne starts with some minor slut shaming and then continues into a detective novel with a vampire who has found ways of hiding in the police force and using her night-time skills well and who realises that there is a place and maybe a partner.  I found this a much better story with a lot more agency for everyone.
 
Cimarron Spirit by Lori Herter did show some inexperience but as a story of an old vampire and an archaeologist trying to choose between safe and dangerous men.  It was a good glimpse of possible better stories.

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

Overall, this was a fun set to read. All of the stories involve vampires, so you get to stretch the imagination a little bit. Here are brief reviews of each story:

Dark Crime – 3.5 Cocktails

By far the longest of the stories in the collection, it is pretty close to a full length novel. I have not read the other books in the series this is a part of, but that was not a hindrance to enjoying this one. Dark Crime has an interesting concept and great characters. It also has a lot of sexy time, almost too much really, even though it did help cement the bond between the two main characters. My one complaint about the sexy time was that some of it felt repetitive, especially the wording chosen.

Dead by Twilight – 3.5 Cocktails

A novella that is really a lot of fun. Chloe is a completely different type of vampire and her story is an interesting twist to typical vampire stories – definitely worth checking out. There is some romance, but very little sexy time. I would have liked to have seen more of Chloe and Shep together.

Cimarron Spirit – 3

A sweet novella, but everything seemed a bit stiff. The way things were set up, you never really believed that Annie would choose Brent over Rafael, so it was hard to invest in parts of the story.

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