Book 28: Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

So one of the great finds of the Borders’ Going Out of Business Sale has been the collection of short stories called Wolfsbane and Mistletoe. This book has an impressive list of writers from the urban vampire/werewolf world: Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Keri Arthur and my personal favorite Carrie Vaughn.

I’ve seriously been wanting this book for a while now. Basically since it was published in 2008 although I never purchased it since it can be hard to find short story collections at a book store and I get distracted by other books that I have to have first even when I’m online . The premise alone was really fun: werewolves and Christmas stories. Then take the caliber of writers, it makes for a delicious story.

Sometimes being so excited for a book can lead to a let down. Fortunately that didn’t happen. It was a very fun anthology. Only one story I kinda liked. Nothing was bad. And several of the stories were downright delightful.

One of my favorite stories didn’t come from my usual suspects. Instead it came from “The Haire of the Beast” by Donna Andrews. This is just a great story where a brother and sister look into a grimoiry to that has a spell to transform a person into a werewolf. Then she use the spell in a set of brownies as a test since some of the ingredients could prove to be a bit toxic. Unfortunately her brother steals a bite and is well transformed into a Lhasa Apso since well wolfs hair is a little tough to find on short notice. I loved this story. It was just fun. Plus I liked how it took a different approach into how people became a werewolf.

Don’t get me wrong I still really loved the Kitty story. But it was a Kitty story. Something I just gobble up and love. But in the short story, you don’t get see one of my favorite parts of the Kitty novels, what it’s like to be a wolf. So that richness was missing for me.

But I would recommend this book to those who love the genre. There are some great additions to the genre as well as just good stories. Besides seeing the spell for werewolf transformation, I liked how there was a SA (Shapeshifters Anonymous) and the idea that werewolves came into being as a miracle of God at the birth of Jesus. It was just fun reading.