Thursday, August 8, 2024

Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong by Kelley Armstrong

Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong

My review is broken into pieces following each individual story in the order I read them in. I read six stories from this anthology.

I will say: The Cainsville stories are best injected into the chronological reading order after a first read of at least the first couple novels. The short stories are up front about the Fae stuff where the novels are decidedly mysterious about it at first.

The other three I read while doing my Otherworld read-through and did not review them at the time… so those reviews are from memory and skimming.

"Learning Curve": Twas a thing.

"The List": More of mostly the same. I like Zoe, but these stories are mid at beat.

"V Plates": Eeehhhh… I mean, funky zombies and werewolves. What’s not to enjoy?

"The Screams of Dragons": I was not expecting that to be as seriously dark as it was. Just… wow. Even after the child abuse from Bobby’s grandmother, I was not expecting… wow. This was very well done.

"Devil May Care": I’m not sure how I feel about this one. Not entirely sure I needed Patrick’s side of Gabriel’s backstory, though I do like Patrick as a character. Also, this one is definitely one to read after reading the main Cainsville series, as Patrick’s role in things is a mystery to Olivia and Gabriel.

"The fae understood the concept of give and take, but none more than the bòcan. Treat them well, and they'd return the favor. Treat them poorly, and expect trouble, which was only fair, after all."

"The best stories -- the ones he strove to tell -- were the ones that lingered after that last page was turned. The ones that kept readers thinking and, more importantly, feeling."



"Gabriel’s Gargoyles": Cute, if also somewhat maudlin. Gabriel’s childhood was not the best. I was not expecting a cute Gabriel story, to be honest. 

"Easter was the holiday recognizing the death of Christ, and, while he understood the concept, he thought it rather presumptive to die for strangers."

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