I like themed anthologies and they are great for dipping into writers that I’m not familiar with. But lets be honest most people are grabbing this because of either Jim Butcher’s or Patricia Brigg’s story. The Brigg’s story has Asil as the POV and it is the best. Butcher’s story has Toot-Toot as the POV and is good and deals with things after the Battle Ground. The other stories were very enjoyable and only a few were settings I hadn’t read something in or a new to me writer. Fans of urban fantasy will be happy with the collection and will sound off about their favorites in the book.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Netgalley ( )

3.5 stars
Advance copy from NetGalley

Uneven collection, closer to 3 stars than 4, but that fabulous story about Asil can’t be in a collection I give a 3 to. Here’s the rundown:

Little Things—Butcher 3.5 stars
Fun to get a story from Toot Toot’s POV, and Mister and Bob were in it too, so yay! I think it’s the shortest story in the collection, and the length works fine, but I would have liked to hang out with these characters a little longer.

The Dark Ship—Bishop 4 stars
Interesting to revisit the Others after quitting the series so many years ago. This story had me second-guessing that decision.

Comfort Zone—Armstrong 3 stars
Darkest Powers isn’t a series I read, and the story was only OK to someone reading it as a newcomer. I can imagine fans of the series will be excited to see Chloe and Derek.

Train to Last Hope—Annie Bellet 3 stars
This one was more about relationships and healing grief than anything else. It was moving, but I think I was expecting more details about confronting what happened to their daughter. My lukewarm rating is maybe a case of my expectations not being in line with author’s focus.

Fire Hazard—Kevin Hearne 3 stars
Reading this reminded me of the roller coaster of emotions I felt reading the first Iron Druid book—enjoying the humor, cringing at the humor, enjoying Oberon, thinking Oberon was too silly, etc.

Grave Gambles—R.R. Virdi 2 stars
I’ve read positive things about the novel series this story is set in, so maybe this type of plot didn’t work as a short story. The motive for the kidnappings came from nowhere, and the hero’s and villain’s actions didn’t make sense. Why play along? That’s my vague question since this isn’t out yet. I didn’t love it.

Silverspell—Chloe Neill 4 stars
I enjoyed this quick mystery. Neill worked well in the space she used to tell the story, and it renewed my interest in her vampire series.

Troll Life—Kerrie L. Hughes 3 stars
I liked main character Harzi, the subway setting, and the sentient trains, but there was no story or character development. Everything was just rather simply explained.

Return of the Mage—Charlaine Harris 3 stars
Pretty high learning curve for the amount of vocabulary and strange names to remember in a story that took 30 minutes to read. I am curious about Vandler’s fate, though, so it grabbed my interest that much. As far as I can tell, these characters and this setting aren’t a part of longer works.

The Vampires Karamazov—Nancy Holder 4 stars
I’m sure this would mean more to me if I’d ever read The Brothers Karamazov, but I still appreciated the writing. It was pretty grim, and I’m not sure I understand the ending.

The Necessity of Pragmatic Magic—Jennifer Brozek 3.5 stars
Short little ditty with two elderly witches combating a cursed object in a museum. I liked the setting and the protagonists. The resolution was rather speedy and underdeveloped.

Dating Terrors—Patricia Briggs 5 stars
I expected this to be my favorite of the collection, and it absolutely was! The editors saved the best for last, placing it at the end of the collection. The longest of the offerings, it had space for a little more development, and I loved seeing the wolves from the Emerald City pack. I can’t wait to see how this plot plays out in the Alpha and Omega series. Asil fans are going to lose their minds. ( )

Loved some stories: “Little Things” by Jim Butcher, “Dating Terrors” by Patricia Briggs.
Other stories were enjoyable and entertaining. Unfortunately, a few stories just bored or annoyed me. I confess I flipped past those.
I won’t name names. I see other reviewers had a different opinion about the anthology as a whole, but none of the stories I didn’t particularly like were called out in other reviews as favorites.
Overall, I call it a mixed bag that I’m averaging out to a 3. ( )

Most of the stories were fun and enjoyable. I really liked the Patricia Briggs story about Asil and the Charlaine Harris story. ( )

A fairly stellar collection of urban fantasy writers have contributed a short story each to this collection. Nearly all of them are from their most famous series - a couple I didn't recognise, but they felt part of larger worlds.

Often the 'hero' is a sidekick from the main plot having a rare chance for action in their own right - eg Toot Major General and Atticus the hound, Others are just characters from remotely referenced settings eg from Bishop's Others.

As always with Anthologies some are stories are more to my likeing than others, but most hit quite well and a couple of the worlds I don't know I intend to look up more about them - about as much as author can hope for! None fo them were terrible. ( )