Must Love Hellhounds

Must Love Hellhounds (2009) Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook

I picked up this anthology solely because I saw Ilona Andrews had a story in it. Charlaine Harris also usually writes decent short stories, but not always. But I figured, I like everything I’ve read by Ilona Andrews, and there should be at least one other decent story in there, so it’s worth it.

The book opens with Charlaine Harris story, “The Britlingens Go to Hell.” First off, this is not a Sookie story, which I liked, because I think authors need to branch out if they’ve been writing a lot of a single characters. Unfortunately, the story felt a bit uneven to me. The world building was not as good as I expect for a story set in a work that is very much not our own. There were plenty of nice touches, but overall it felt like it needed a bit more polishing before being released into the wild.

Two mercenaries are hired to act as bodyguard for a man who needs to go to Hell. I particularly liked the mercenaries/bodyguards. They were rough and strong and no nonsense. And Hell had the potential to be an interesting place–once I made sense of it. I also liked the surprise characters who appeared halfway through the story. I thought that was a nice touch.

What can I say about the second story, “Angels’ Judgment”? By the second page of the first chapter (I found the prologue interesting) I felt like cheezy porno music should be playing in the background. The story was little but “OMG HE IS SO HAWT!” “OMG SHE IS SO HAWT!” “MUST BOINK!” and random bits of plot thrown in here and there as a break from the boinking. It was obvious from the second page that the characters would have sex. I just didn’t realize that the story would be like listening to the brain of a 16 year old male, with sex coming up every thirty seconds. What made it all the more frustrating was that there was almost no explanation of the relationship between vampires and angels, which made the story even less believable. OK, angels make vampires. Because why? Who knows! Probably so they can have sex if the rest of the story was anything to go by.

Third was Ilona Andrews’s story “Magic Mourns” set in the same world as her Kate Daniels books, but featuring Kate’s fellow knight Andrea, and the were Raphael. Kate is still recovering from her misadventures in the last book, so in the meantime Andrea is taking her calls, and ends up heading out when someone calls in to report a dog as big as a house chasing a were. There were a lot of things I really liked about this story. First, I liked that we got to learn more about two important but secondary characters in the series. Second, Ilona Andrews did a very good job with the world building–I think she did a better job in this novella actually than she did in the first Kate Daniels book. There’s not much detail about why things are the way they are, but there are succinct explanations of how things are.

The final story, “Blind Spot” by Miljean Brook, I liked, though not as well as “Magic Mourns.” Maggie has been sent by her boss to “rescue” Geoff Blake, who had been attempting to rescue his sister, but had instead been caught by the demon who had kidnapped his sister. The world building was good in this story, which is good because the characters and their abilities are complex. Although I have to admit that Sir Pup is my favorite of the lot of them. The story is interesting, as is the discovery of the different characters and their pasts. I looked up some of her other books, and their listed as paranormal romances, so although I enjoyed “Blind Spot” very much, I’m not sure about reading a romance series–with boinking. We’ll see.

Publisher: Berkley

Rating: 7/10

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