Review--Kicking It Edited by Faith Hunter & Kalayna Price

Featuring stories by FAITH HUNTER * KALAYNA PRICE * RACHEL CAINE * CHLOE NEILL * ROB THURMAN * SHANNON K. BUTCHER * LUCIENNE DIVER * CHRIS MARIE GREEN * CHRISTINA HENRY

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Caine has modern-day potions witches Holly and Andrew facing off against a firebrand politician who wears literally killer boots in a Texas-sized rodeo of trouble.

Boot-loving Cadogan vampire Lindsey must team up with off-again, on-again vampire partner Luc when a woman from her past is targeted by supernaturals in New York Times bestselling author Chloe Neill’s all-new adventure.

And New York Times bestselling author Rob Thurman features Trixa Iktomi from her Trickster series dealing with magical vengeance and magical footwear.

Taking kick-ass urban fantasy literally, USA Today bestselling authors Kalayna Price and Faith Hunter bring together the best of the genre to once again prove when you’re fighting supernatural forces, it helps to keep your feet on the ground.

Kicking It edited by authors Faith Hunter and Kalayna Price was quite the entertaining read! Each of the stories by these talented authors wove in an appearance of boots. Sometimes these boots were important to the story and other times, not so much. It was a pretty enjoyable anthology. Some of these authors I don't read, so with their stories, I was at times a bit lost. 

Granted, you don't have to know the author's series to enjoy the short story, but my brain likes to work differently and I read things, knowing I'm missing something and I want to know what it is. It drives me crazy, both that I want to know and that my brain insists I need to know. All right, time to break this down story by story!

Forked Tongues by Rachel Caine was an interesting story about witches, Holly and Andy. This might be a totally fresh new story from the author. It felt like for the most part that there wasn't a whole lot to know of things that have already happened. There's a bit of a history with the characters, but we learn what that is in part. There is quite a lot of hate towards witches in this world, so it doesn't make life easy for Holly or Andy. Especially when hate groups are burning crosses in their front yard. Turns out a councilman of their fairy city--this is revealed early on--has some pretty power boots that's giving him everything he needs to do whatever he wants and it's up to Andy and Holly to stop him. Rating 3.5/5 stars

Shannon K. Butcher's Stolen Goods was an interesting story itself. I haven't read this author before, so have no knowledge of her current series. But in this one we have Simone who's basically a hired thief and she owns a pair of magical boots. Marcus wants to hire her for an impossible job and Simone isn't sure she wants to take it, then Marcus reveals that he was the owner of the boots she stole and will tell her about their powers--ones she may not even know how to access--if she helped him out. It was a decent story, but I couldn't help but feel like I was missing background info again. But not too much. Rating 3/5 stars

The Girl with No Name by Chris Marie Green opened up with a bang! A young woman has no idea who she is. There's no memory of herself, but there's memory of standard things and all that. She sees she's wearing some magical boots that won't come off. She ends up meeting a psychic who helps her out a little, before landing her back into trouble as her old life, the one she can't remember starts to catch up with her. There was definitely some interesting and surprising revelations to this story and I ended up loving it! Rating 5/5 stars

Faith Hunter's The Devil's Left Boot takes place in her Jane Yellowrock series, another one I don't read. But it wasn't too bad as far as story knowledge goes. Twin witches Liz and Cia help out their enemy from high school with finding her missing mother. Even though they despise this woman, doesn't mean they won't help her at a very high cost! Liz and Cia use a spell trying to locate the mother by her missing boot and end up finding a lot more trouble. Trouble with vampires! Luckily, they are sort of, kind of friends with Jane Yellowrock who's an expert with vampires. Rating 4/5 stars

High Stakes by Chloe Neill was one of my favorites in this anthology as it's set in the Chicagoland Vampires world, but this time we get Lindsey and Luc's story! Lindsey is our narrator here and we finally get to know her story of what her life was life before joining Ethan's house. She lived quite the life too during the times of Prohibition. Then someone from her past is threatening her by threatening a member of her family and Lindsey will do whatever it takes to protect her family, even if pushing Luc away. Although that had little to do with the story and more Lindsey being Lindsey. But we all know Luc and how he works, so it's no surprise about where he ends up! I totally loved getting to know about Lindsey's past! A great story! Rating 5/5 stars

Lucienne Diver's The Parlor was quite the intriguing story! She was a new to me author, but I am definitely going to be reading this series that this story comes from! There was a blend of Greek mythology with the gods and a particular myth that come to play in this story and I loved it! Tori is our heroine and PI who goes into a gambling club trying to find her client's husband. But he's not doing anything as scandalous as we might believe. In fact, this club is harboring a few of its own secrets and Tori will have to do something she might regret; asking Apollo for help. Yes, The Apollo! I was totally blown away with this story and immediately did the research to discover that it was a series! Already ordered the first book! Can't wait to start at the beginning with this one! Rating 5/5 stars

Red Really Isn't My Color by Christina Henry takes place between Black Night and Black Howl. Sadly, we still don't get to see Gabriel but for a mentioning. This time Maddy has to find a pair of magical dancing slippers for Lucifer. She ends up running into some witches and a nasty fae who are harboring the shoes, intending to use them and Maddy herself, in order to get to Lucifer for nefarious purposes. I love this series and enjoyed this little tale between books. I guess I was only hoping for more. Not sure what precisely, just more. But it was still an enjoyable tale and one of my favorites. Rating 4/5 stars

Rob Thurman's Snakeskin was probably one of the stories that I didn't enjoy at all. That's not to say it was bad writing or anything like that. I just couldn't get into it. I haven't read this author or her series, so I know nothing about her characters or world. Despite that, I still couldn't get into the story. I didn't even really understand what was going on. We have Trixia who is able to sense lies from people. She has other unknown talents and performs jobs for people at high costs. When a woman comes to her asking for something--we don't learn what it is until the end--Trixia accepts the job. Then we just see Trixia go about life and her other job of running a bar. It's not until the end that major things get revealed and by then I was just totally lost. Rating 1.5/5 stars

Ruby Red by Kalayna Price takes place in the Alex Craft world, but Alex isn't our heroine here. Instead we get Briar and Derrick, two investigators in Magical Crimes Investigation Bureau. I admit, it's been awhile since I was last in this series, so I can't quite remember if I've met Briar and Derrick before. But despite that, I did enjoy this story pretty well. Briar is trying to track down some sort of shadow creatures that have been attacking people and leaving them in cationic states. Derrick, her partner does more on the research level, as his abilities make him a danger to be near or touch. So we mostly followed Briar around as she investigated. It was enjoyable, I just wish I could remember better if I had met these characters already. Rating 4/5 stars


Overall Rating 4/5 stars