Holidays Are Hell (Short Stories from Hell)

Rachel Morgan, our beloved witch from the Hollows series, is back, but in this endearing novella she is just a child straight out of school and ready to fight the world! Gung ho on working for Interland Security like her father before her, Rachel attempts to manipulate her mother in order to get the application signed. When her older brother Rob comes into town after a five year stint, the two get in way over their heads, and Rachel finds out just how powerful of a witch she really is! This story takes us back in time, and it was truly amazing! To see Rachel at such a young age, and learn first hand how it was to live with her mother, the struggles they both still endure with the loss of her father and just the nostalgia made me all giddy inside. Rachel\’s mother wants her to do whatever she wants to do, BUT she fears working for IS, the very people that her father worked for when he died, has Rachel believing that her mother will not consent. As she tries to figure a way out, her brother Rob comes home for a surprise visit. Rob makes it very clear to her what he wants for Rachel\’s future, and the two make a bet. Oh boy what a bet! Just when I thought the adventure ends, BAM! The thrill of the ride these two take is unbelievable! Rachel was born to kick butt, and she proves this by how she handles her first case doing what she does best…not listening to anyone, lol. OH, and we have a surprise guest! Holy cow, I was like OMG NO WAY! The story surely will pull at your heart strings if you are a fan of the Hollows series. Kim Harrison pulled no punches, and left me with a tear in my eye in the end. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this story!

Review first posted on jenasbookreviews.blogspot.com. Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison ~ A Rachel Morgan short set before the events in Dead Witch Walking. Rachel is trying to convince her brother to sign the papers to allow her to become a Runner but he is trying to convince her to go back to the West Coast with him and go to college to become a more powerful earth witch. He compromises and tells her that if she is able to perform this very old and powerful spell to raise their father\’s ghost and get his blessing on it, he will sign the papers. She performs the spell but instead of her father, she gets the ghost of a witch who died trying to take out a vampire who was preying on children. A vampire who is still alive, in the neighborhood, and has a new victim. I\’ve read this one before although I don\’t remember where but I enjoyed reading it again. Rachel is a fabulous character and this story is no exception. Run, Run, Rudolph by Lynsay Sands ~ Jill is watching her niece one morning but when she turns her back to clean up from breakfast, the little one escapes down the stairs into her father\’s lab. When Jill goes down to retrieve her, she trips and knocks herself unconscious. Later, after she has left her brother\’s house, she is stopped by her brother\’s old partner who confesses that he set up her accident to hit her with her brother\’s experiment and now wants to take her captive to watch what it does to her. She escapes him but soon finds out that she is now a shape-changer but avoiding him turns out to be much harder, but also more interesting, than she had imagined. I haven\’t read anything else by this author but the story which seems to be part of a larger series was still well contained so I didn\’t find myself wondering what was going on but at the same time, there wasn\’t tons of exposition laying it all out. I\’m definitely interested enough to search out more of her work. Six by Marjorie M. Liu ~ Six is an operative for the Chinese government and is sent to find out more about a person of interest. Her operation is cut short however when another man enters the spa room they are in and things get very weird. Now she finds herself trapped with this man who is talking about vampires and spiritual energies, who is able to influence people with his voice. Now they must work together to figure out what exactly is going on. This is only the second story I\’ve read by Ms. Liu but this was set in a different world, I think. I was left very confused as to the rules of this world and what was going on and why I should care about any of the characters. I\’m glad I read the other story first because this did not excite me to read more by her. The Harvest by Vicki Pettersson ~ Zoe has given up her power but not yet her Sign of the Zodiac to protect her daughters and now her granddaughter but the Shadows have discovered her grandchild and stolen her. Now she must work with her old team in Las Vegas and go back into the lair of the Tulpa and hope she can manipulate him into forgiving her previous treachery against him in order to try and save the child. I\’ve got a few of these books on my shelves but hadn\’t read any of them or anything else by Ms. Pettersson but this one was another good example of a story that was obviously part of a larger series but answered the basic questions of the world adequately without tons of exposition. I\’ll be trying to move this up on my to read series.

This is a set of nearly novella length shorts which overall rates a 4. The stories are: Kim Harrison; Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel. Here Rachel deals more with her family and some of her background. Her older brother wants her to move to the coast with him and take advanced classes in witch craft and she wants to join Interlander Security (IS). This book lacks the more detailed world building of the first in the series but can be read as a starting point for the series. Good characters good plot with a decent twist; almost imposable to do better in a short. 4 stars+ Lynsay Sands; Run, Run, Rudolph. Here the author is still having fun with her Molecular Destablizer (if you zap a human with it they become a chameleon able to change into any thing that they can visualize). But they have no information about that thing. Very funny and well written plot is pretty linear which is why it only rates 4 stars. Marjorie M. Liu; Six. This would make a great plot for a movie like \”Crouching Tiger Sleeping Dragon\” as it has all the characters. The orphaned super martial artist agent (shades of Rudyard Kipling), the mentally powerful mysterious guru, the grandmother etc. This would have gotten a 5 star rating as the plot is good as is the humor and characters. But the ending simply leaves too much up in the air with the organization. Vicki Peterson; The Harvest. This story uses a world with Zodiac characters that isn\’t really developed although the plot and characters are well done it is just too much for a short but is better than average and deserves 3 stars.

This was a bit of a mixed bag for me; I\’ve rounded up to 4 stars in total from 3.5 average because this is totally worth getting just for the Kim Harrison story. \’Two Ghosts For Sister Rachel\’ is the best of the bunch and gets 5 stars from me. Kim Harrison just knows how to write an awesome story; this novella manages effortlessly to be heart-warming, funny, action-packed and suspenseful. \’Run, Run, Rudolph\’ by Lyndsay Sands is a cute Christmas time story and I quite liked how it started. I didn\’t think it was as funny as it could have been but it was enjoyable enough: 3 stars. \’Six\’ by Marjorie M. Lui was kind of an odd one. I quite liked the writer\’s style but the story felt rushed and that seemed to render it kind of pointless: 2 stars. \’The Harvest\’ by Vicki Pettersson really intrigued me. I am sufficiently interested to check out her Zodiac series now. It seems as if the concept for the series is based on some interesting if apparently complex ideas. Nice story, I just would have liked a few things to be made clearer: 4 stars, and a cool new series for me to check out! Overall it\’s a kind of uneven mix. For me it was worth it to read the stories by Kim Harrison and Vicki Pettersson. Mostly I\’d recommend it to fans of Kim Harrison; if you love Rachel Morgan you have got to read the story in this book!

The Kim Harrison story was a Rachel Morgan story. As always very easy reading but not up to her normal very high standard. The Lyndsey Sands story was a little naive but very amusing tale concerning the misadventures of a usually naked shapeshifter. The final two stories were not able to keep my interest. The book is just worth the price for the first two stories

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member