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Shards & Ashes (2013)

by Melissa Marr(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

HarperCollins

review 1: I am really into short stories at the moment and I'm not sure why. Maybe just because I don't have the focus to lose myself properly in a book right now. Whatever the reason, this anthology brought a good variety to the table.Hearken by Veronica Roth- if I'm honest, the chance to read more of Veronica Roth's reason was a large part of why I picked up this book in the first place. I thought this was an intriguing story and set up a world I'd like to see more of. A little tamer compared to some of the other stories.Branded by Kelley Armstrong - lot's of double crossing and twists to this. Nothing is really as it seems to be and there is a little bit of a scare element. I thought the future world sounded interesting and this book worked really well as a prequel. It felt a bit... more unfinished and I would love there to be some development.Necklace of Raindrops by Margaret Stohl- A very hopeful story. I felt a bit disconnected from the characters. Not one of my favourites but definitely a nice story.Dogsbody by Rachel Caine - wow. So, not the most uplifting story in the book. Probably had the highest death count. Not much like any of her other books I have read but it was a good story. One of those rare occasions in which the story feels completed. Pale Rider by Nancy Holder - Not my favourite at all. A bit loose and I felt completely unconnected with the characters and the story. Probably the weakest in my opinion.Corpse Eaters by Melissa Marr - Very good, interesting characters and an intriguing world. Again, I actually felt this was resolved really well and didn't need anything more added which is great.Burn 3 by Kami Garcia - very dark vision of the future with good character motivations and relationships. Love is a Choice by Beth Revis - a sort of prequel to her Across the Universe series (which I didn't really get into) I like the main character of this more than I did the series, but as I am not greatly invested in the world I wasn't compelled by this.Miasma by Carrie Ryan - very dark future again filled with human corruption. This one I would actually like to see continued as the two main characters left things a bit unresolved (which I get - it was meant to be that way) but I'd love to see a sort of sometime-later follow up. Overall this was a good collection. There was a wide variety from hopeful to depressing, and sci-fi to fantasy and everything in between. Definitely a good read if you are a fan of any of these authors or you just enjoy dystopians.
review 2: Reall cool collection of short stories by nine different authors. The writing prompt was a dystopian future where the world has been destroyed for whatever reason up to the writers' imaginations. Each book had a different concept, but they all had a similar theme - the two main characters fall in love in most of them, and there's some disease or disaster that makes them need to hide or escape. But each author put their own twist on it, which I liked. My favorite in this book is easily Love Is A Choice, the reason I checked out this book to begin with. A pre-prequl to Across the Universe =DD. A close second is Hearken, since it was a really creative idea and incredible how each of the characters and settings were described so perfectly and the click at the end so remarkable in LESS THAN 40 PAGES. Like WHATMy least favorite was Pale Rider, because even though the details were amazing, we started with a mysterious guy doing magic, then switched to the two of them walking together casually down the beach to a haunted house, which she's totally cool with, then they're in the haunted house either running towards or away from mysterious voices, I couldn't tell which, then the main character's crying because she is told her father has been dead for years by some relative not even mentioned in the parts beforehand. I was literally waiting for "and then she woke up," but it never came. Like WHAT THE CRAP. Overall though I thought this was an interesting book, and incredible how nine different authors take such different approaches at the exact same prompt. Awesome job Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong!! less

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