No longer available for sale.
Betrayals Preorder Pack. Free with any preorder of Betrayals.
Exclusive ebook collection of Cainsville stories for those who preordered, bought on the release week (Aug 9-15), or reserved Betrayals from the library before August 15 2016. Strictly the only way to get this mini-collection—the author's acknowledgement to readers who’ve jumped on board Cainsville.
Contents include:
- The Orange Cat: Gabriel story based on Poe’s The Black Cat, originally in Nevermore
- Bad Publicity: a new Patrick story
- Lady of the Lake: a new Liv & Ricky novella (set right after Deceptions)
In the midist of waiting for a review book, I once again turn to my poorly neglected kindle filled with books and a variety of short stories! I was eyeing the short stories particularly and picked up Kelley Armstrong’s The Orange Cat and Other Cainsville Tales! I didn’t realize this one wasn’t that old, as it was a pre-order gift for ordering Betrayals! Which I did!
As with most short story collections, I’ve broken this down into mini reviews for each story. Being that there were only three should make things rather easy!
The Orange Cat
The first story was the title one! It was an interesting little story involving Gabriel, his client, and his stalker…an orange cat. This takes place when Gabriel was a fresh new lawyer out of school, he’d already won a case, but instead of joining that firm he decided to start his own. Gabriel takes on a case that was rather weird, even for him, but money is money.
His client wants Gabriel’s help in getting rid of a pest. That pest happens to be an orange cat. The cat has done nothing but stare at him ever since one night when the client, in a drunken fit, took out one of its eyes. No matter what he does, the cat always comes back home and stares at him.
It was kind of creepy in a way. And I absolutely loved it!!! The end was rather chilling as well! It’s a befitting story to Cainsville!
Rating 5/5 stars
Bad Publicity
This is a story about Patrick, the renowned author who’s also one of the fae. He’s been watching over his son Gabriel from time to time, but the story is more about when a publicist starts hounding him around town. She’s a young new thing to the industry, looking to make a name for herself and what better way than to represent Patrick! He does his best to dodge her attempts, but then Lisa, the publicist, finds a hole in his contracts where he is obligated to make an appearance should he ever win an award.
Patrick suspects foul play. He’s starting to think his publicist is someone that’s more than what meets the eye. And when the location of the award ceremony is in a shady part of Chicago, well, Patrick will have to do what he must!
Things were definitely surprising in this one. It’s been awhile since I was last in Cainsville, so my memory isn’t too sharp on things, but since these two were sort of prequel stories it didn’t really hinder my enjoyment!
Rating 5/5 stars
Lady of the Lake
This was a bit longer than the previous two stories but still ultimately enjoyable! It takes place after Betrayals, Liv and Ricky are on their road trip vacation and what was supposed to be a brief pit stop for a little fun, turns into an investigation that grips at both of them. There’s a little lake/pond in the woods off the highway where they made their little stop, and they find that it’s not entirely uninhabited.
There’s a particular fae there who has quite the backstory. Well, most of the backstory comes from legends, both human lore and fae lore. We get a more precise rendering of who this particular fae is, not name-wise but story-wise later. It’s after this encounter though, that Liv and Ricky learn that a local girl has lost her baby; mean that she’s gone missing, possibly a kidnapping. It’s unclear. She’s a young mother and completely distraught. Liv and Ricky don’t plan on helping out right away, but they suddenly feel compelled to, that really is more a compulsion of morals than magic!
This was quite the intricate story! Plenty of good fae lore and myths mixed in, as well as the myth we’ve been dealing with for the entire series to date. Which its name and exact spelling are escaping me at the moment. I know it’s not your typical English language spelling, so hence my not recalling it precisely.
This was just a nice little taste of the world of Cainsville and I quite enjoyed the story! It’s hard to pick a “team” for Liv, as both guys have their merit. And then there’s Gabriel, who’s Gabriel. He’s a tough cookie. You never know what to expect from him. And while he wasn’t directly in this story, he was a part of it! A fun little adventure to the series! I cannot wait to see how things will come to a conclusion in the final book in August! I withheld from reading the sneak peek, for two reasons: 1, I still need to read my notes regarding Betrayals so I can get an idea of what happened, and 2, I just can’t bring myself to read samplers. It’s too torturous! LOL!
Rating 4.5/5 stars
This was really one great little set of stories! Highly enjoyable!
Overall Rating 5/5 stars—yeah, I’m rounding up! ;)
This sounds like a great collection. Glad you were able to get a copy.
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