"devilishly delightful tales"
Anne Stuart proves time and again she can do more with 120
pages than any writer I know. She proves this time and
again. Why she is not THE top writer in Romance today is
hard to fathom. Frankly, I attribute it to shortsightedness
of her publisher, since some of her powerhouse backlist
titles like Moonrise, Nightfall, Ritual Sins, To Love a
Dark Lord and about a dozen others are not kept in constant
reprint. That hurts a writer and it's just plain bad
judgment from the publisher. She is the Resident Genius of
dark and deadly bad boys you cannot resist. And she does it
again in the anthology, with a lighter more romantic touch
in her short story "Blind Date From Hell". Don't we all
think blind dates are from there? Well, Stuart takes the
premise and has fun with it. Gideon Hyde has existed in
Hell for so long he cannot recall why he was sent there in
the first place. He is relatively sure it was likely a
jealous husband who removed him from his earthly existence,
but he cannot recall who, what or where and frankly, he
doesn't care. He is tired and bored with the endless
existence, but Ralph "one of Satan's devils" is determined
to shake Gideon out of his boredom. He is sent back to
earth to seduce one Sam "Samantha actually" a gorgeous,
legged professional model that stubborn has held on to her
virginity. It's a fun tale that reaches into your heart and
won't let you go. Gideon is another of Stuart's male who
will haunt you long after you put the book down. Proving she is now powder puff girl, Cherry Adair gives you
a red-hot sexy tale with "Dance With the Devil". This time,
its spy vs. spy romance. Mia Rossi loved her spy partner
Jack Ryan, but the International Playboy was not willing to
commit. So, she quits her job, leaves Jack and says she is
going to be married by Summer. Her mother has been setting
her up with blind dates in the effort. All have
proved "dates from Hell". Mia believes her mother is trying
to make her see Jack is the only man for her. So when her
mother arranges one with a man named Davis Sloan, she is
determined to use Sloan to wipe Jack from her mind. But who
should turn out to be her blind date? Jack's back! It's a
sassy, sizzling tale that is true Adair. It has Mia giving
Jack what for and they have to steal a disk with
information vital to their country. This is a tale you
won't want to miss. Muriel Jensen holds her own with these two heavy hitters
in "Hal and Damnation". Kat is frustrated in her efforts to
get her father to turn over the family restaurant to her,
even though she has proved she is a super manager. She is
more frustrated with the super new waiter Hal, who refuses
to snap to when she barks and order. This one stretches the
premise just a bit, because Hal is not from Hell and he is
not really a date. He is assigned to lure her away from the
restaurant for two days while the cops handled a bank
robbery attempt. The bad guys plan on coming through the
restaurant's wall to the bank. Things go array when the
plane Hal is flying has to make an emergency landing. It's
not as strong as the other two stories - but sheesh, few
writers are at the peak form of Stuart and Adair. So it's
to Jensen's credit her tale is not over shown too much by
the two powerhouse writers. This is one GREAT anthology. Posted August 14, 2004
Reviewed by Deborah Macgillivray
Posted January 8, 2007
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Better the devil you know!
There's the date from hell - the guy in a bad suit and toupee - and the hot date from hell. These men are waaay too tempting. One wicked, sexy grin and, well - who can resist! Certainly not these three women . . . A spy should know better, but this spy gets stuck on a blind-date assignment with the ex-partner who broke her heart. A lot of making up can get done between scaling rooftops and dodging bullets. A hostess discovers what it's like to really crash and burn on her first date with the undercover cop who's been casing her restaurant . . . And if that isn't hot enough, what about a date from hell . . . literally. Satan at his seductive best! It's getting hot in here . . .
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