If you are hunting for just a bit more of your favorite series while waiting for the next installment, this may be the anthology for you. Of the four authors featured here, only headliner Showalter brings us a new world - the rest just take the opportunity to explore side characters or approach their worlds from a slightly different angle. Since I am a fan of all of the series represented here, I liked the connected (but standalone shorts) for Diedre Knight's 'Red' Spartans, Shannon Butcher's Sentinels, and Jessica Andersen's Nightkeepers which all worked as nice little carve-outs to those authors' series.

In the order that I read them:

Crystal Skull by Jessica Andersen ~*~ A woman is drawn to a sacred ruin and uncovers a relic connected to her unknown origins and with the help of a former lover - with secrets of his own - the power which just may save the world ~*~ This Nightkeepers short was a nice little carve out, with different characters not connected to the main group and the pre-existing relationship between the leads made it work in the romance department - it will be interesting to see if Andersen weaves this pair back into the main story line.

The Collector by Shannnon K Butcher ~*~ A Sentinel warrior whose days are numbered seeks an artifact which may be the key to healing a crippled comrade, and instead finds the woman who just may be his own salvation ~*~ I liked this Sentinels short which isset before Living the Nightmare but the romance was really really rushed forcing the heroine who is 'buttoned-up' and who likes to take things slow to do a rapid about face to in order to get to the HEA.

Evernight by Gena Showalter ~*~ On her eighteenth birthday a woman discovers that she is cursed and pulled into a world where humans with her talent are exterminated on sight but when she first walks between worlds she doesn't end up dead but instead bound to a dangerous warlord. ~*~ Showalter story was set in a new world altogether (so no Lords, Atlantean's or Alien Hunters) Her offering was okay, but there was way too big a conflict for a short story resolution to do the ending justice. There was enough to the set up here that Evernight probably deserved to be at least a novella.


Red Angel by Deidre Knight ~*~ Demon hunting Jaime Angel has avoided committment and devoted his life to saving the world, but now that his friends and family are pairing off he can't help but long for an end to the isolation that his quick hookups don't cure - unfortunately, the woman he wants for his very own is one who is forbidden to love him. ~*~ I also liked this one, which is connected to Knight's immortal Spartan's series, but don't know that it would be as much fun for those who aren't fans of the series since there are lots of cameos for past characters.