Strange Candy - Laurell K Hamilton

Okay, back to talking about books. I love books. I love reading. It's creative brain food! Now onto the book...

This is a collection of short stories by Laurell K Hamilton, including a couple of Anita Blake stories (one new and one previously published in the Bite anthology).

I'm a LKH fan so I expected to enjoy this collection and I did. My favorite story was probably "There Be Dragons". This was a very dark story about an empath - Jasmine - who works as a dream therapist with serial killers. She's called back to her old training facility (a place she hates) when a little girl with the same powers starts killing people. The story is about whether Jasmine can stop the child. Very intense.

On the opposite end of the spectrum was "A Lust of Cupids" which is set in a world where baby cupids exist and go around shooting people with arrows of true love. And oh yeah, they can be bribed by matchmaking mothers. Cute story. Made me smile.

Another one I really liked was "A Scarcity of Monsters", about a researcher who works with lake monsters. The monster (Irving) had his own distinct personality, which I thought was awesome, especially within the confines of such a short format.

And then there was, "Selling Houses". This is set in the Anita Blake world but is about the ordinary people in that world, in this case, a real estate agent. Abbie has to sell a house that has very bad karma - the last tenants died after a case of demonic possession led to murder. Now she has to deal with bloodstains that won't disappear and a possible ghost. I was totally rooting for the heroine in this story.

Overall, I thought this was a great collection. I think it shows exactly how broad LKH's imagination is - I especially wouldn't mind seeing more of the world in "There Be Dragons". And if you haven't read LKH before, this is a good place to start as you get an intro into the Anita Blake books as well.

(p.s. How awesome is that cover? I lust after it!)