This is an anthology of 4 authors.
The first story is about a man from New Atlantis who finds of his soul mate in a dream search and when he wakes, he goes to get her. This is the first story about Atlantis (old or present) I had read and I found it interesting.
The fourth story was also about New Atlantis and I enjoyed it as well.

The second story was a Texas Vampire story.

The third story is my favorite of the four. Lucy Monroe's "Come Moonrise" has werewolves similar to her Scottish historicals, but this one is a contemporary story set in Montana. Ty and Frankie are best friends and she's been in love with him since she was 15, but he's a werewolf and he's never told her. She's moved away and tried to move on, but that hasn't worked and when she comes home to give it one last chance they get trapped in a snowstorm together as the moon is changing. Ty is a strong alpha male, the kind I love to read about.

A fun anthology with a couple authors I hadn't read before. ( )

A steamy anthology, which is not my normal type, but thought I'd try dabbling in the erotic paranormal genre, though there were aspects I liked, there were a few that got to me. I am too much of a realist to fall for some of these stories, but the romantic loved the getting there. ( )

As someone who likes her romance with intelligent, well-developed characters, and strong females, I started this book with high hopes. I was sadly disappointed.

The only story that delivered on those expectations was Diane Whiteside's "Red Skies at Night." Travis and Gillian are each strong characters. Each is experienced in love and sex (a welcome change from "You're my one true love and the only one I've ever banged!"). There is no talk of soul-mate b.s. They meet under dangerous circumstances and choose to spend the night together for their own reasons -- then they are thrown together, clinging to each other for dear life. Their falling in love is natural and real enough to believe. The sex is hot. The story is excellently put together, with all the loose ends being tied up and no little bits left in the reader's mind going "Wait, what about...?"

I give that story, and Diane Whiteside, 5 stars. Very well done, and I'll definitely be looking for more of her writing.

Lucy Monroe's "Come Moonrise" was passable. There was a little too much of jerk-forgiving (that hit a little too close to home, for me) and "True love = virginity until marriage!" for it to get 5 stars from me, but overall the characters seemed real and the love seemed believable. The sex was hot, as well. Overall the story kept me interested. 3.5 stars.

Rebecca York's "Bond of Silver" was just boring. It was so formulaic I knew what was going to happen before it happened. "Oh, I love you, but I'm lying to you, and you'll find out and run away but then I'll save your life and you'll realize how much you love me too!" The "soul mates" from the New Atlantis world seem to have no reason to love each other aside from this spiritual-lust thing that each character seems to go into. It's unrealistic, implausible, and, frankly, stupid. Not to mention the whole "Of course love is more important than my career! I will just pack up and move to your magical home because my vagina is lonely!"

Ugh. 2 stars.

Susan Kearney's "Beyond Limits" was beyond the limits of my tolerance. I could not finish it. I didn't even get to the first sex scene; I skipped ahead and read the last few words to confirm my suspicions: this may be one of the worst romance stories ever written.

Another story in the New Atlantis world, Ari dreams of his "soul-mate", Samantha Bessinger. He not only keeps his identity secret from Samantha, but instead of doing what most normal humans would do and try to get to know her on her own turf, as an interested male (don't give me that "She's a high-powered businesswoman! She's so uber-protected from the rest of the world!" bullcrap; that's misogynistic to the extreme, just like this story), he stalks her for over a year, pretends to be her pilot on her private jet and KIDNAPS HER, crash-lands the plane on a little sandy atoll, and tells her she has to learn to shape-shift to survive.

All in order to get her to trust him.

Ok, newsflash: her falling in love with her kidnapper? There's a word for that; it's called Stockholm Syndrome. And it's not sexy. AT ALL.

Ari demonstrates behavior typical to a psychopath in his quest to get Samantha to trust him -- he alternately does things that she considers sweet (not drowning her) with behavior that's downright abusive (erasing her SOS in the sand, disabling the black box in the airplane). In addition to making her literally physically dependent on him by crashing the plane on a place with no sustenance for her, this story glorifies abusive relationships and misogyny. I half-expected the epilogue to be him killing her and searching the world for his next "soul-mate".

Look, women don't need to be taken down from their high walls of competency to "learn about real love" -- if it were real love, he'd approach her like an equal, and let her keep her career instead of making her so dependent on his abusive attention that OF COURSE she chooses to go to New Atlantis with him. And there wouldn't be any of this stupid lusty thing that "soul-mates" from this world experience, which, as I mentioned before, is completely implausible and dumb.

This story doesn't even get a star from me.

I recommend picking up this book at the library, reading the two middle stories, and skipping the New Atlantis bits all together. They are just not worth it. ( )

****½ "Bond of Silver" by Rebecca York is about Alexander and Claire. Alexander is from Atlantis. When he dreams to find his soul mate, he meets Claire... who not only lives "out in the world," but is the daughter of Bendon, his adopted father. Making things worse is the fact that Claire's mother blames Bendon for abandoning her.

But Alexander has no choice--soul mate bonds keep Atlantis's force field strong. So he decides to keep his identity secret at first.

Well, we all know that's Not A Good Idea. But in spite of that, this is a rich story for such a short one, including emotional growth, lessons learned, and even a secondary romance.

There aren't too many details about Atlantis--just enough to make the story make sense. I hope this isn't the last we'll see of it, though--there's plenty to be explored.

****½ "Red Skies at Night" by Diane Whiteside is about Travis and Gillian. NYPD Lieutenant Travis is looking for the killer of his former partner, and the trail leads him to Gillian, who's an art thief... and a vampire.

Which doesn't shock Travis as much as it might have, because Travis's family has long served Don Rafael Perez, the head vampire in Texas.

They end up on the run and in danger, and there's plenty of excitement and steam. It's unusual for the heroine to be the vampire and the hero to be human, but it works here.

This is part of Diane Whiteside's Texas Vampires series, still one of the more unique vampire series out there, and I thoroughly enjoy it... even if it does make me homesick.

***** "Come Moonrise" by Lucy Monroe is about Ty and Frankie. They're both veterinarians and have been best friends for years. Frankie has been living in another city, but has come to the realization that her feelings for Ty have kept her from pursuing other relationships, so she comes back home with the intention of learning if there's any chance for the two of them or if she needs to let go once and for all.

What Frankie doesn't know is that Ty is a werewolf. Not only that, but they tend to avoid human mates, because even if the human mate leaves or gets a divorce, the werewolf mates for life. Not only that, but Ty is poised to marry a French werewolf. And, oh yeah, it's almost the full moon.

This story really took me by surprise. It's my favorite kind of romance--when friendship turns to romance--and then add the paranormal element, and Ty trying to do the right thing for himself, Frankie, and his clan, and it's just a fabulous romance.

There don't seem to be any upcoming stories about these werewolves, but the world and the secondary characters are just too rich for just one story. I really hope we'll see them again.

*** "Beyond Limits" by Susan Kearney is about Ian and Samantha. Or rather, Ari and Samantha. Samantha is a real estate tycoon, and Ian is her employee--the pilot of her private plane. At least that's who she thinks he is. In reality, he's Ari, an Atlantean, who's shape-shifted to look like Ian in order to get close to Samantha, his soul mate.

Samantha's taken aback when the usually reserved Ian starts flirting with her, and it doesn't take long for him to whisk her off to a private island, where he has to convince her that a) she's his soul mate, b) she's also an Atlantean, and c) she, too, can shapeshift.

The plot and the premise for this story are clever and interesting, but it felt distant to me. I didn't really get to know either character well enough to care what happened to them. They could have been any two people put into this situation--there was nothing that made them individuals.

If you're the type of reader who puts yourself into the plot, I think this story would work marvelously for you. I'm just not that type of reader. ( )