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    Midnight Pleasures: Four Short Novels of Otherworldly Passions
    Unavailable
    Midnight Pleasures: Four Short Novels of Otherworldly Passions
    Unavailable
    Midnight Pleasures: Four Short Novels of Otherworldly Passions
    Ebook439 pages6 hours

    Midnight Pleasures: Four Short Novels of Otherworldly Passions

    By Amanda Ashley, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Maggie B. Shayne and Ronda Thompson

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Handsome and sensual, surrounded by an aura of danger, mystery, and the forbidden, a lover steps from the shadows. But is he mortal? Or is he an ancient god, a sorcerer, or a mythical beast who can possess a woman's heart...and her very soul?

    Four of romance's most popular authors have created this spellbinding collection of stores filled with dark passion and desire. Under the cover of darkness, their heroes inhabit worlds haunted by ageless hungers and deadly forces stronger than any seen by day...and vanquished only by the power of love.

    Now travel into realms where dazzling wonders roam the night, where magic replaces reason, and where a kiss unleashes a raging fire in the blood. And here, if you dare, discover the seduction that begins at the bewitching hour when a man and woman partake in...Midnight Pleasures.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateNov 17, 2003
    ISBN9781429939065
    Unavailable
    Midnight Pleasures: Four Short Novels of Otherworldly Passions
    Author

    Amanda Ashley

    Amanda Ashley is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She is the winner of numerous awards, including a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award. She has published more than 40 novels in a 25 year writing career. Writing as both Amanda Ashley and Madeline Baker, she has been published by Signet, NAL, Dorchester and Kensington.

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    Reviews for Midnight Pleasures

    3.5/5

    164 ratings8 reviews

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    • 2/5
      In the first section by Amanda Ashley, there are some serious plot and timeline flaws. The characters literally manage to set off on a short quest one day and by the following page, we've spanned three seasons. In this story especially, the brevity is jarring and unpleasant. I'm still scratching my head at how these two came to love each other in about 20 pages of descriptive narrative and I have no idea what Darkfest is supposed to actually be. Reading this, you will have many questions - don't bother looking for the answers in the story, they're not there

      Maggie Shayne's story is confusing, not particularly sensual or interesting and I was mostly glad that it wasn't longer. The heightened tension was completely forced and the quickie ending was just strange.

      Sherrilyn Kenyon's story is the only one of the four that I would have loved to read in longer form. I liked her heroine and liked that the hero was seriously flawed. There's an attention to detail that Ms. Kenyon uses that makes you forget you're reading a short story, and I found everything she said about witchcraft to be plausible. This would have been an outstanding long book and encourages me to look for more books by this author.

      The final story by Ronda Thompson was just strange. I know the point of these stories was that they're full of "otherworldly" characters, but the writing doesn't have to be bad, does it? So many words are crammed into each paragraph, it's frustrating when there's still no storyline advancement a dozen pages later. This may have been included because of the werewolf angle, but it really is not any kind of otherworldly romance, it's just a poorly written short story that is unsatisfying.

      Finally, overall I was left with a feeling of, "and that's it?" when I finished this book.
    • 3/5
      I only read "A Wulf's Curse" by Ronda Thompson from her Wild Wulfs of London series. This was just okay. Sterling Wulf, youngest of the cursed brothers is now the Beast Tamer in a traveling circus caravan. Elise Collins, running away from a marriage she's being forced into comes across the caravan and sneaks into Sterling's wagon like Goldilocks and falls asleep in his bed. He finds her and, naturally, he's never felt this way before about a woman, blah, blah, blah. She falls in love with him over a short period of time and they make their way to Liverpool. But, on the way, as much as their passion peaks, he cannot reveal his true nature of a werewolf.
    • 2/5
      I only read the Sherrilyn Kenyon story in this.

      At first I was enjoying it, but toward the middle it just turned weird. The Dream Hunters have never really interested me. In the future I think I'll skip the Dream Hunter books.
    • 3/5
      Story: Phantom LoverI'm not quite sure what I thought of this. It didn't fit into the Dark Hunter series in any respect. Sure it was Dream Hunters, who have been mentioned, but they have never been used, so this story really didn't fit. I was happy to come to the end of the story so that I could move on. I did enjoy the story as a stand alone, but as part of the series? Not so much.
    • 4/5
      I bought this book strictly for the Dark-Hunter story from Sherrilyn Kenyon. And though I wasn't impressed with the first two Dream-Hunter books, this Dream Hunter story was excellent. Even though there are no familiar faces or places from the D-H universe, the story was so well done that I found myself completely engrossed. Erin has been having nightmares - skotos are feeding off her in her dreams until she prays for a champion who actually appears. V'Aiden is not what he seems, and his secret will test the fragile bonds they are beginning to build. This story had a nice twist that I was not really expecting and two very engaging characters. This is one of those rare instances where I don't wish a good story was a novel - it was perfect as it is.
    • 3/5
      Though I didn't care for some of the stories in this anthology all that much, I'm still glad I read it because I did enjoy the story by Ronda Thompson. :)"Darkfest" by Amanda AshleyMy Rating: 3 starsI found this one a bit chintzy and sappy. And then I realized I didn't really care for Amanda Ashley's full-length novel, Desire After Dark, that I'd read either. Romance buffs may enjoy it more but it didn't have enough of an interesting story line to go along with it to hold my interest."Phantom Lover" by Sherrilyn KenyonMy Rating: 4 starsI wasn't too impressed with this story. It was a bit too "sappy romance" for me and the rest of the action was only mediocre. Though I've felt that the romance in Kenyon's full-length Dark-Hunter novels was a bit sappy too, they generally had enough action and sub-plot going on to keep me interested anyway... although I do admit I get a bit glassy-eyed during the sappy love scenes that go on for 3 or 4 pages. But glossing over those parts, the rest of the story is still fairly engaging, which I didn't really find to be the case as much with this short story, probably due in great part to the short-story format and not having enough space to really flesh out a good sub-plot."Under Her Spell" by Maggie ShayneMy Rating: 5 starsMelissa St. Cloud is hired as the technical consultant for a television series, The Enchantress. But instead of simply correcting the technical inaccuracies related to Witchcraft in the show itself, she ends up having to banish an evil spirit who is trying to consume Alex's life... literally!I had mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I liked the background story that went along with the it. However, the way the author approached the parts dealing with Wicca and Witchcraft, though accurate, seemed very much like a Wicca 101 lecture. Yes, granted she's trying to teach the reader something in the process, but for someone who's already experienced with all that like myself, it simply came off as rote, and the kind of thing that should be saved for a non-fiction Wicca 101 text. "A Wulf's Curse" by Ronda ThompsonMy Rating: 7 starsElise is running from her uncle and the arranged marriage he's set for her to a very cruel man. So she stows away in the wagon of a traveling road show, hoping to hitch a ride from London to Liverpool, and ends up right in the arms of the Beast Tamer, Sterling Wulf... and the Wulf part is more than just his last name! ;-)This is my fist introduction to this author, and since I have some of her full-length novels coming in a bookring from CandyDarling, I had wanted to make sure I liked the author. Although this was strictly romance, I liked the author's writing style enough, and there was enough of a storyline outside of the romance with the traveling road show, that I enjoyed it nonetheless. IMO, this was the best story in this anthology.
    • 4/5
      Four stories of wizards, werewolves, Greek demons and witches makes for very interesting reading. I would definately say I enjoyed Sherilyn Kenyon's story of the Oneroi and Skoti the most. I never even figured out the twist in the story until it was over. My second favorite was Ronda Thompson's tale the youngest Wild Wulf of London, Sterling. I'm pretty sure there are stories out there by Thompson about the other brothers that I will definately now be keeping an eye out for. Amanda Ashley's addition about a reclusive wizard and a blind peasant girl was probably the most innocent tale and Maggie Shayne's story about a grey witch and an evil wizard's ghost was entertaining. All in all a very nice anthology to while away the hours.
    • 4/5
      A mixed bag of short stories by some of the big names of the parnormal romance genre. Fun reads even if they're a bit light.