Published: January 12, 2021
I decided to review this anthology because of Rachel Van Dyken’s book The Dark Ones. Though I already own the book I hadn’t read it yet so this was the perfect opportunity. I thought that the whole anthology was really good but I did like some books in it more than others. I was surprised that there were full novels in this anthology since normally the ones I pick up are comprised of short stories or novellas. This was a great way to read the first books in several different series at one time and also introduced me to authors that I hadn’t previously read. I’m not going to go through each book in the anthology in length because that would take to long but I will give my reaction to each book.
I loved The Dark Ones by Rachel Van Dyken. It was a fresh type of paranormal romance where we needed to learn the world that these immortals inhabit and the role that humans play. I didn’t want to stop reading this one and it went really quick. Since I already owned this one and I own the entire series I will be continuing it as well. Bad Penny by Staci Hart wasn’t as good for me. I unfortunately found it too long and a bit boring. There were several points in the book that I thought would work well as endings but it was one that just kept on going. I don’t think I will be continuing the series from this book. King by T.M. Frazier was the first in a duet and thankfully the second book is also part of the anthology. This one took me a bit to get into. It was definitely darker than the first two I had read and didn’t sugar coat anything. Since I’ve read MC romances before I kind of knew what to expect but each author does them differently so no one really knows. I can say that by the end of this book I wanted the next one right away. Tyrant by T.M. Frazier is the second book in the duet and it was a really fast read though it did disturb me more than the first one. What disturb me was the things that the tyrant did to Nikki starting when she was 12 year old. Though that was a really quick scene in the book, I still haven’t been able to shake it. The book ended with an HEA but I’m still dealing with it. The final book in the anthology was The Wright Brother by K.A. Linde and was a super cute contemporary romance that takes place right around the holidays. I liked that it wasn’t an automatic fall into bed with the billionaire type of romance and that it had some substance to it. It was a nice ending after the two heavy books of King and Tyrant, and I plan on continuing the series when I get some time.
Overall, I enjoyed this anthology and would read more of the ones put out by Top Shelf Romance. I know they have released several but I was unaware of them until this ARC. I hope that you read each book in this one but if you don’t I hope that you enjoy the one you read. With a good selection of contemporary, paranormal, and MC romances as well as your choice of light or dark storylines this anthology has a little bit for everyone. So grab your copy today!
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