Wow talk about your sucker punch to the stomach. I thought Martin and Dozois were just being irritating by holding Diana Gabaldon's story until last in the collection; like promising you cheesecake, but not until after you eat your whole dinner. But now I see why they did it. Nobody could have followed Gabaldon's story "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows." Not Peter Beagle or Neil Gaiman. Not anyone.

I'll review the whole book and then we can get back to "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows."

Touted as a cross-genre collection of "all-original tales of star-crossed love," what it really was is a collection of lovers overcoming awkward obstacles, with a handful of tales of actual star-crossed lovers thrown in. Star-crossed love isn't fun. It's not warm and fuzzy. It's Buffy and Angel, not Bella and Edward. There are no happy endings. All but a handful of authors faltered and gave us forever-afters instead of true impossible loves. These stories, Neil Gaiman's "The Thing About Cassandra," Jaqueline Carey's "You and You Alone," Lisa Tuttle's "His Wolf," Yasmine Galenorn's "Man in the Mirror," Peter S. Beagle's "Kaskia," and Gabaldon's above-mentioned story are the strongest stories in the book and also the ones with the most haunting, affecting storylines.

Happy endings are fun to read, but they can also feel very shallow and contrived. That was the case for Robin Hobb's "Blue Boots," Jo Beverly's "The Marrying Maid," Tanith Lee's "Under/Above the Water," Cecilia Holland's "Demon Lover," and Melinda Snodgrass's "The Wayfarer's Advice." These were all fun, amusing stories to read, but at the end they all rang a bit hollow. The lovers had obstacles, true, but they seemed to all overcome them very easily. Of course, these are short stories; there's not a lot of time for struggle. But the result were a love stories that didn't ring as deep or as true as I wanted them to.

The remaining stories were all either not really my cup of tea (M. L. N. Hanover's "Hurt Me" and Marjorie Liu's "After the Blood") due to genre and theme issues or eye-rollingly cliche and trite (Linnea Sinclair's "Courting Trouble" and Mary Jo Putney's "The Demon Dancer"). The remaining two, Jim Butcher's "Love Hurts," and Carrie Vaughn's "Rooftops," were, I would have said, not really about lovers in the first place and also, while entertaining, fairly unexceptional.

Now back to the truly exceptional: Diana Gabaldon's "A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallow's Eve." This was the story I bought the book for, the one I couldn't wait to read, because Gabaldon promised it was about Roger's parents. I was disappointed to find it last in the book, but deteremined to read the darn book in order. Now I'm glad I did, because everything else (even the really good ones) would be a disappointment after Gabaldon's story which caused my heart to beat faster and raised actual goosebumps up and down my arms and legs and spine. I don't know if the effect would have been as great if I hadn't read all her other books, but at this point it really doesn't matter. This story was truly heart-wrenching, very palpably about lost love, but also about secret, wonderful truths no one (but the reader and Diana and God) will ever know.

Despite the weak stories, I highly recommend this book, and not just for the last story. Wonderful to read, and there's something for (almost) everyone.

Here's a rundown of the stories, written as I went along:

"Love Hurts" by Jim Butcher. I've never read anything by Butcher before, but I did enjoy this story of a gritty PI and his partner as they investigate a rash of romantic murder-suicides across Chicago.

"The Marrying Maid" by Jo Beverly. An engaging story that charmed me despite it's completely cliched predictability.

"Rooftops" by Carrie Vaughn. Cute story about the world with superheroes. Trite moral ending, but still cute.

"Hurt Me" by M. L. N. Hanover. Sheesh, talk about your creepy laying-to-rest-old-ghost stories. This one takes the cake. Glad it's over, though it was satisfying.

"Demon Lover" by Cecilia Holland. Well, that was . . . nice. And again, a little cliche and trite. But not unenjoyable.

"The Wayfarer's Advice" by Melinda Snodgrass. I loved this one so much that it doesn't matter one bit that no one would notice if you changed the captain's name to Mal and the ship's name to Serenity.

"Blue Boots" by Robin Hobb. See now, that story was the definition of cliche and predictable, but I didn't mind one bit! It's all in the execution. Though the end did make my eyes roll, just a little bit.

"The Thing About Cassandra" by Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman is always worth reading. This story was no exception, and the twist was unexpected and well-done.

"After the Blood" by Marjorie Liu. A post-apocalyptic vampire tale. I really just don't enjoy vampire stories, and this one was fuzzily-told. It also, given the ending, sounded more like a setup for a longer piece than a piece that stands on its own two feet.

"You, and You Alone" by Jaqueline Carey. I haven't read any of the Kushiel's Dart books. But, just now, looking them up and noting the title, I realized this story must also be a setup for the novels. However, the story itself was well-told and self-contained enough to also be a satisfying stand-alone story, unlike "After the Blood." This was also one of the few stories that actually tells the story of true star-crossed lovers. Everyone else seems to merely be dealing with inconvenient difficulties or not be lovers at all.

"His Wolf" by Lisa Tuttle. I loved this story, though I did raise my eyebrows at the speed with which the relationship developed. However (having been something of a victim of love at first sight) I'm willing to forgive it, especially given the character Tuttle describes for Cody.

"Courting Trouble" by Linnea Sinclair. More lovers merely overcoming obstacles, not really star-crossed. Also, an unexceptional plot and unexceptional characters. Fairly fun to read anyway, though I don't care for fast-paced racing-the-space-police plots.

"The Demon Dancer" by Mary Jo Putney. Now we're getting into some serious eye-rolling territory. I really had trouble taking this one seriously. Telegraphed twists, ridiculous dialog and plot. Actually, "lots of eye-rolling" sums it up quite nicely. No need to say more.

"Under/Above the Water" by Tanith Lee. This was a very poetic, lyrical Tanith-Lee like story. Lovely, dreamy, and wonderful.

"Kaskia" by Peter S. Beagle. Now that was a satisfying, haunting, beautiful story of star-crossed lovers."

"Man in the Mirror" by Yasmine Galenorn. Here are more true star-crossed lovers! Gorgeous, haunting, well-told story of a haunted house and a haunted soul.

"A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows" by Diana Gabaldon. See above gushing.