Kisses From Hell Anthology

Title: Kisses From Hell
Authors: Kristin Cast, Richelle Mead, Kelley Armstrong, Alyson Noel & Francesca Lia Block
Format: Paperback, 272 pages.

From a fugitive vampire forced to trust a boy who might work for the group bent on destroying her to the legendary romance of two immortals whose love compels them to risk everything, this heart-pounding collection brings new meaning to the words "love you forever." Whether you're into romances that are dark and moody or light and fun, these stories will quench that insatiable thirst for enchanting tales of the beautiful undead.

Rating: 4 stars ★★★★
My Thoughts: Overall, I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to readers that are fans of these authors, the series these stories tie into, or just vampire stories / anthologies in general.

"Sunshine" by Richelle Mead: *squeeeeeeee* This was such an adorable love story. It was so heartwarming and entertaining. A story about being forced into a semi-arranged relationship due to social status, but rebelling from expectation and pursuing true love. It fits in with extremely well with the Vampire Academy series (which I am also addicted to), telling readers the story of how Lissa's parents met for the first time.

"Hunting Kat" by Kelley Armstrong: Loved it. The story and romance was really cute. I liked the premise of the Edison Group and their experiment to create genetically modified vampires, it's something new and intriguing that I've never seen before. Very creative, and the main characters were instantly likeable. I'm not sure how/which series this fits into, but I can't wait to find out! I have some of Armstrong's novels in my TBR pile.

"Lilith" by Francesca Lia Block: Whoa. This story was much darker and creepier than all the others, to the point that I almost felt like it didn't fit in with the rest of the anthology. It was pretty out there, and at times read a little like erotica/smut, which threw me off a little bit. The ending was really eerie and twilight-zone-esque. It wasn't my favorite story but it was interesting.

"Bring Me to Life" by Alyson Noel: I didn't think I was going to like this story, because I wasn't really a fan of her Evermore series, which this story is supposed to tie into, but I actually didn't hate it. It was a little cliché, but not a bad story. It reminded me a little bit of Lauren Kate's Fallen, both have aspects of reincarnation and searching for long-lost love, so if you enjoyed that I think you would enjoy this too.

"Above" by Kristen Cast: I couldn't finish this one due to the avant-garde way it was written. The entire story reads/is formatted like poetry, in a sort of free-form prose (similar to what I've seen in some works by Ellen Hopkins). It just personally wasn't for me; I don't enjoy that style of writing unless I'm reading short poetry.

Warnings: murder, violence, allusions to sex

Cover Musings: I think it's pretty and I like it, but it doesn't really represent the vampire theme. To be honest, I thought the stories had a general paranormal theme up until I started reading them and noticed they were *all* about vampires .....then I took a look at the back cover of the book and, of course, the very first line says: "This irresistible collection features stories of love amid vampires by five of today's hottest authors." Oops, my bad. *facepalm*