TITLE: Mystic Realms Anthology

AUTHOR: Various Authors, Edited by Krista Ames

PUBLISHER: Romance Collection/ MLR Books

LENGTH: 1152 pages

RELEASE DATE: April 10, 2018

What goes bump in the night?

What causes you a fright?While the answers for each may vary, I promise that these stories will not leave you wary.

From vampires and demons to shifters and creatures that you’d never suspect, this set will leave you breathless in the best possible ways.

So, don’t be afraid. Come, step inside our realm. Allow the mysticism of romance in many shapes and forms fall over you like a veil of sweet, soothing, spine tingling comfort.

We promise… you won’t be sorry.

REVIEW:

CONTENT DISCLAIMER

This Anthology is pretty girthy and has 20 stories of varying length and, while impressive, this review will NOT be for the entire anthology.  There is only ONE M/M story featured in the book while all the rest are M/F and, as this is an LGBTQ review site, the lone M/M story is what will be featured here.  Apologies if you would prefer the entire collection but I’m sure there are other reviews to be found elsewhere.

Recovering from a near fatal, on the job injury, vampire rent boy Harley Scott just wants some peace and quiet to recuperate.  The Wilds of remote Canada during their several months of complete darkness sounds like the perfect Hideaway. That is if he can make it past blizzards, cops, werewolves and– oh, yeah, a death squad of fellow vampires hell-bent on eradicating a damaged vampire from the species. Harley is looking for desolation, but he just might find salvation and healing instead, in the very last place he ever thought it would exist.

I really liked this story. I’m not normally one for books that feature rent boys but the Paranormal aspect of the story and Harley’s character himself overrode any misgivings I may have had in the beginning.  On the run from an encounter gone wrong, Harley finds unexpected kindness from people he would normally expect wouldn’t give him a second look.  This kindness leads Harley farther into Canada than he expected to go and into the arms of the one person uniquely qualified to keep him safe.

The story itself went along at a good pace and I liked both the main characters and the secondary characters featured; they all fit the story quite nicely. I also really, really liked the idea of a vampire being injured enough to almost regain parts of his Humanity while having to deal with the fact that other vampires now find he’s not worthy of saving because of it.

As with other stories from this author, there is a nice little sex scene included that just really worked for me with these characters. Maybe it was Harley’s profession, but nothing felt rushed to me; it just felt right and the connection between Harley and Matt was pretty apparent. The ending itself was a little on the sweeter side of things and wasn’t bad in my opinion but I do really wish that there had been an epilogue included so that perhaps you could see what happened when Abe came back through a month later like he said he would at the beginning of the story.

In general, I thought this was a really enjoyable little story and I would happily read it again in the future. I also certainly wouldn’t say no to a sequel. 😀

RATING: