30. Charmed, only not-so-much (paranormal romance collection)

A romance anthology of 4 stories:

1. Bridal Jitters by Jayne Castle (pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz)

2. Man in the Mirror by Julie Beard

3. Tangled Dreams by Lori Foster 
4. Pandora's Bottle by Eileen Wilks

A grouping of four short stories linked by a Halloween theme, or so it claimed. The concepts for all four stories sounded promising but I am not sure that the Halloween theme was the right link for this collection. In most of the stories, the inclusion of Halloween seemed forced and not at all necessary. 

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The first story, Bridal Jitters, felt overly edited.  

 Virginia Burch, a psychic archaeologist, can't believe her luck when she meets Sam Gage, a ghost-hunter and owner of prime real estate. He offers her his space to live and start up her business. What follows is an even more intriguing proposal--to become his wife. Strictly for professional reasons, of course...Their marriage of convenience would lead to a very lucrative business partnership, Gage & Burch Consulting. Until something throws a wrench into the plan: the undeniably sensual energy that exists between them--and a love so strong it could wake the ghosts below...  

Well, this reader did not see much of that energy and felt lost throughout most of the book.  The setting was not explained very well and led to some confusion throughout the story. 1 star out of 5.

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The Man In The Mirror by Julie Beard tells the tale of a shy young woman who finds her man and her destiny in the past! Through a bizarre series of events, Katie Montgomery is transported back to old England in the time of King Arthur and Merlin! She rescues and falls in love with Tristan of Ilchester. To her enormous surprise, Tristan tells her that Merlin foretold her arrival! What Katie learns about herself and her capacity to love stands her in good stead for her adventures in this far-off age; and when she finally returns through the mirror to her own time she brings with her knowledge that will enable her to change her life forever.

Man in the Mirror has been done before but this version felt rather thin. So far I was not at all impressed with this collection of stories. 1.5 stars out of 5.

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Finally, in the third story entitled Tangled Dreams, I didn't feel like I was completely wasting my time. There was some value and depth and entertainment in the writing. For a short story, it was okay. 3 out of 5 stars. I am becoming a fan of Lori Foster and would love to read a reworking of this novella. And while the synopsis below talks about Halloween, it was a pretty weak link. Still this was the best in the collection.

Chase Winston is stunned when he realizes he can hear every thought in shy little Allison Barrow's head and most of them revolve around her incredibly erotic fantasies of him!  He's hot, hard and can't wait to get Allison alone. Of course he has to negotiate some pretty strange territory on his way to Allison's bed, but once he's vanquished villains, settled some restless spirits and made wild and sensual love to Allison, future Halloweens are going to look pretty tame!  

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The final story, Pandora's Bottle has some real promise with it's story line, but I felt ultimately failed to deliver in the ending. I didn't feel any passion between these two characters.  This djinn should have stayed in the bottle.    2 out of 5 stars.

In a world where magic is real and it's users often discriminated against, a romance between practical John Raven and logical Dora Kitlock runs into some problems.  Both have a secret. Before he asks her to marry him, John has to take Dora to his home tell her his secret. Will magic reign? Or will logic rule over the Halloween.

Based upon the synopsis, I certainly had higher hopes for this collection and found I was quite disappointed with the actual stories.  The concepts for each of the stories had quite a bit of promise but the results were lacking.