Death's Excellent Vacation - Edited by Charlaine Harris & Toni L.P.Kelner

Summer's not over yet! There's still time for vacation...or if you can't get away, you could read about Death's Excellent Vacation.  Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have teamed up to edit this great collection of short stories - all with a twist. They all feature paranormals on vacation or the flip side - paranormals intruding on mortal's vacation time.

The first story up was a brand new Sookie tale from Harris. I've become a huge True Blood fan this year and picture the HBO characters as I read. Sookie and Pam from Fangtasia are headed off to Vegas for a little R&R... as far as Sookie knows. Not quite...

I have to say that I really enjoyed Kelner's tale - Pirate Dave's Haunted Amusement Park - which closed the book. She is an author that I hadn't read before, but I quite enjoyed her style - funny and definitely quirky. Joyce, a newly turned werewolf decides to take a vacation at her childhood haunt - Pirate Dave's. Her newly acquired skills come in handy...

I'm familiar with a lot of names in the book, such as Jeff Abbott - I've really enjoyed his suspense/thriller novels. It was fun to see his take on the paranormal bent. Loved his characterization of a televison reporter out to get her story at any cost.

All kinds of paranormals were featured - leprachauns, werewolves, vampires, demons - I found the story about the gargoyle with a heart was a neat twist.

This is a genre I'm just starting to explore and this was a great  'sampler' book - a chance to read authors in the same vein (couldn't resist) - Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost, Lilith Saintcrow and others. Each writer has their own take on their 'paranormal'. For example, vamps in one story may have powers that they don't in another writer's world.

I love short story collections - there's just enough time on a quick break to read one from start to finish.