Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  The Firebird and Other Stories

SERIES:  Beings in Love #5

AUTHOR:  R. Cooper

PUBLISHER:  Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  350 pages

BLURB:  

Magical creatures known as beings emerged from hiding amid the destruction of the First World War. Since then they’ve lived on the margins of the human world as misunderstood objects of fear and desire. Some are beautiful, others fearsome and powerful. Yet for all their magic and strength, they are as vulnerable as anyone when it comes to matters of the heart.

A firebird in 1930s Paris is drawn to a writer with a haunted past. Upon returning from fighting in the Pacific, a jaguar shifter finds a third-gender human on his doorstep. Early rock ‘n’ roll DJ Hyacinth the fairy shocks his listeners with his admiration for his quiet assistant. During the AIDS crisis, a gruff, leather-wearing troll dreams of a settled life with a mixed-species elf across the bar. An imp, who remembers only too well how cruel the world can be, tells himself he’s content to stay behind the scenes—if only his chaotic, impish magic would stop getting in the way. And a shy human tending his poisonous and carnivorous plants is convinced no one will ever want him, certainly not the handsome werewolf grieving for a lost mate. Human or being, all must overcome fear to reach for love.

REVIEW:  

Holy amazeballs, Batman!

I usually end up reviewing collections like this in pieces, but to be honest I got so distracted by the stories themselves that I forgot to write anything for the first couple of stories. Which probably worked in my favor since while each story is mostly self-contained, they build off each other in such a way that they are really pieces of a whole.

And what a whole it is.

There are not words enough to describe the amazetasticness of The Firebird and Other Stories. Each story is finely crafted and slots easily between the preceding story and the following one. Set in chronological order from 1934–soon after fairies come out of the closet in Cooper’s Beings in Love series–to present day, we get to see the supernatural world as it grows and changes the human world around them. A lot of historical facts will seem familiar to the readers–the lead up to WWII, the wild 60’s, the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s–but we get to see these things thru the eyes of fairies, werewolves, firebirds, dragons, and the humans that love them. These stories feel perfect for the times they were set in and as the stories grow so does the world. I loved watching the changes.

While this is book 5 in Cooper’s Beings in Love series–and we do get some quick cameos from characters in the other books–I think the only one you really need to have read is A Boy and His Dragon. The last story in this collection (The Dragon’s Egg) is directly tied to book 2 and I recommend you have had read that before reading Firebird. Though, I just love this series so I would also say read everything you can get your hands on.

This collection of seven short stories is some of the best work to date from R. Cooper. At least in my opinion. Heartbreaking and brilliant and romantic…this book has it all. Kazimir–our firebird from which the title derives it name–slayed me. Especially near the end.  There were no end, it seems, to the tears I was willing to cry over him. And the others. This bok grabbed my heart from the first page and did not let go.

Even now I can still feel it (…because that is how you choose to end it, R. Cooper? Really?? That was just cruel and unusual punishment. I need to know what happened!!)

Given my way I wold give this book like all the stars (or hearts or whatever it is we are using here on Love Bytes). I would grind those million stars up–like my heart was–and throw them into the sky to create a big sparkly glittery star cloud that when it finally rained back down to earth it would coat everything and never ever leave.

But we don’t have a graphic for a million-star-glitter-explosion, so you’ll just have to be happy with five stars instead.

(Kind of a let down, now isn’t it…)

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner

Amazon

ARe