{Review} Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong by Kelley Armstrong

Posted by Melanie
Release Date: September 15th, 2015
Finished Date: September 13th, 2015

Publishers: Tachyon Publications
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: For Review
Format: eARC
Pages: 384

Buy: Amazon UK / Amazon US
 

Two brand new tales anchor this wide-ranging collection from one of urban fantasy's most successful authors. Here is the first time that best-selling fantasy, YA, and crime author Kelley Armstrong has had her stories collected from Otherworld and beyond. With her signature twists and turns, Armstrong gives a fresh spin on city-dwelling vampires, werewolves, and zombies, while also traveling further afield, to a post-apocalyptic fortress, a superstitious village, a supernatural brothel, and even to feudal Japan.

With tales that range from humorous to heart-stopping, these are the stories that showcase Kelley Armstrong at her versatile best.

- Rakshashi (standalone)

- Kat (Darkest Powers universe, non-series narrator)

- A Haunted House of Her Own (standalone)

- Learning Curve (Otherworld universe, Zoe)

- The Screams of Dragons (Cainsville universe, non-series narrator)

- The Kitsune’s Nine Tales (Age of Legends universe, non-series narrator)

- Last Stand (standalone)

- Bamboozled (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)

- Branded (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)

- The List (Otherworld universe, Zoe)

- Young Bloods (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)

- The Door (standalone, original to this collection)

- Dead Flowers by a Roadside (standalone)

- Suffer the Children (standalone)

- The Collector (standalone)

- Gabriel’s Gargoyles (Cainsville universe, Gabriel)

- Harbinger (standalone)

- V Plates (Otherworld universe, Nick)

- Life Sentence (Otherworld universe, non-series narrator)

- Plan B (standalone)

- The Hunt (Cainsville universe, non-series narrator)

- Dead to Me (standalone)

- Devil May Care (Cainsville universe, Patrick, original to this collection)

The Review: Kelley Armstrong has to be in my top ten authors to read, her world building and storytelling are brilliant and I really become engrossed in her stories – that being said, this book didn’t really do it for me. Yes the stories are well written, they are intriguing and quite unique…. But what they didn’t do - was excite me. I know that a short story is a tricky thing, it has to pull you in and tell a story in such a short space plus the endings usually make you have to think for yourself and I love all of that but these just fell short. To pick some positivity out of it though I will say that obviously they are well written, when you read the story you are present in that world and interested in the characters. The characters are all intriguing and it makes me want to know more about them particularly the Cainsville series characters and that in turn makes me want to read the series because what we do get from the multiple stories set there, has really interested me and makes me feel the series has a lot to offer. The stories vary greatly in subject and nature, giving a real spectrum of what the author has to offer but to tout this as the ‘Best of Kelley Armstrong’ in my eyes is doing her a disservice because she is better than this. I suppose the stories are very fitting to the ‘Led Astray’ title of the book and a good section stand out as good stories with the potential to be great books but even the appearance of my much loved ‘otherworld pack’ members couldn’t spark the excitement in me. It ended up being a total chore to finish this book and it makes me so sad to have to review it as such.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.