My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding

most books with multiple authors are rather disappointing but this one wasn't. all the stories were funny, interesting and great to read. i highly recommend this one to anyone who likes supernational and funny stories.

I didn't love it. In fact it took me a month to read it. I'd flip through the stories, read one, skip the next...I eventually read all of them. I didn't like the L.A. Banks story at all, but then again, I hated "Minion." If I tried to write as "ethnic" as she does, my review would say, "Oh vey! The schmaltz in that story made me messhugana! So much mishigas for a little shtup!" Enough already. I liked the Charlaine Harris story, that was worth reading. Overall, phooey on this collection. I've read novels by most of the authors and enjoyed them more than the individual stories here, with the exception of Jim Butcher; I didn't like his Dresden books but thought the story here was well written and interesting. I really like the paranormal genre so this book was a dissapointment for me.

There are three very good reasons to read this anthology. The first is if you are interested in the topic. The second is to discover new authors in a genre without spending a lot of money on paperbacks. The third reason is if you're in any way interested in the process of writing itself is to study whether novelists succeed in shorter works.

First--you're going to get some division on the topic itself. "Paranormal Romance" is a continuum from Jim Butcher on the paranormal end to I'd say Sherrilyn Kenyon writing the more 'romantic' work. You'll probably be happiest with this anthology if you like both romance and paranormals. Given that my preference is toward the paranormal, my favorites were "Something Borrowed" by Butcher and "Tacky" by Charlaine Harris. Kenyon was my least favorite with the other authors arrayed somewhere in between.

Second, some of my best 'finds' in fantasy authors were from the "Sword and Sorceress" series of books edited first by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. While she tended to later rely on a stable of known authors, she'd introduce a new person occasionally and that breathed life into the anthologies. Up til "Supernatural Wedding" I had not read Banks' work. While I realize her Hatfield-McCoy work is not typical of her usual novels, I'm interested enough to pick one of her vampire huntress books up and see what I think.

Finally, it's interesting to read both the short and long fiction of authors you know. Butcher's "Something Borrowed" probably stands up as the best-written of the stories. He keeps things moving, he's got a good grasp of the characters, (he should-Harry Dresden, Murphy, and even the bride and groom have appeared in the "Dresden Files" series as regulars) good ability to plot, and he keeps things moving. I also liked "Tacky". While the characters were new to me, I thought Charlaine Harris did a great job introducing everyone and keeping my interest piqued through the whole story.

Bought this book because many authors I like were represented, and now I'm ready to check out books by a few I didn't know, like L.A. Banks. Her story was a great beginning to the collection--she sure knows how to "keep it real" and mix in the supernatural at the same time. Loved the dialog and her characterizations of the families and friends!

Hadn't read anything by Esther Freisner for a while, and her story here reminded me of all the reasons I enjoyed her earlier novels. Same with P.N. Elrod--loved this story, even though I've never been an Elvis fan.
Once again, Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris and Rachel Caine proved they can do no wrong, and Susan Krinard proved she can write something that I enjoy, which was not the case with her 2 novels. I would be interested to to read more about the likeable characters in this story. Lori Handeland's story was good--I'm not familiar with her fictional world, but this didn't stop me from enjoying the story. Maybe I'll try one of her novels.

IMO, best story was Rachel Caine's "Dead Man's Chest"--it ended too soon, but what a great ending!

Worst story was Sherrilyn Kenyon's "A Hard Day's Night-Searcher"--the reason my rating was only 4 stars. Nothing about this cheesy, simplistic story worked for me, and I will not be reading any of her novels. I know she has a great many fans--most of the negative reviews of this book were written by them--so I will not go into detail here about all the reasons I disliked her story lest I upset them any further. I would suggest that if P.N. Elrod plans a sequel to this anthology (and I hope she does), stories from Kim Harrison, Carrie Vaughn, Kelley Armstrong, Lililth Saintcrow, Kat Richardson or Elaine Cunningham would please more readers than would another story from Kenyon, and Kenyon's fans would not have to be distressed by reading stories they don't like just because they weren't written by Kenyon.

I'm glad I bought this book--99% of the stories made me at least smile, or laugh out loud--and it helps to keep me going until Butcher's, Caine's and Harris' new books are finally released!

Some favorite authors here; and, no, the short stories were not up to par with their usual full length books. At least partially thats because I'm not a big fan of short stories. As others have said, it can be a way to discover new authors. I discovered Ronda Thompson in an anthology and have since hunted down and enjoyed many of her books. Banks, Caine,& Friesner were new to me.Unfortunately, none of them piqued my interest at all. BTW, it should be mentioned that all the stories revolve around weddings. Butcher's bride & groom were characters I knew and liked from his "Dresden Files". So were Handeland's from her "Moon" series. That was a nice touch. Kenyon's story seemed to be the Reader's Digest condensed version of almost every Dark-Hunter book she's written. Sorry, Sherrilyn, but I've read them all and its time to stir the plot. I had not seen anything new from Elrod in an age. Maybe that's why I enjoyed her story best. I've read and enjoyed all of Harris's Southern Vampire series, but her story here did not make me want to sample any of her other books. Krinard has always been a bit unpredictable for me. Loved her werewolf series, but not impressed with her other stuff. Her story here fell into the other stuff category; although, her characters were very interesting. All in all, it was better than the reviews led me to believe, but not as good as the author list seemed to promise.