Virginia Kantra, Tied with a Bow

Tied with a Bow by Lora Leigh
Series: Human Error (World of the Lupi, 8.5)
            An Inconvenient Mate (Breeds, 24.5)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are four stories in this anthology of romance.

The Stories

Virginia Kantra’s Upon a Midnight Clear is an historical romance some years after the French Revolution. A decision made by an angel to rescue a girl from Madame Guillotine results in his becoming Fallen although he later finds Aimée surviving as an unpaid drudge in her cousin’s house when Lucien arrives to court the daughter of the house for her dowry. A cute romance that could have stood more work. That or it needed to become a full-length story as Kantra simply dropped us into situations without developing them. It’s all just too easy.

Kimberly Frost’s First Light was a rather unique perspective on angels with this time traveling angel attempting to resolve a centuries-old feud Definitely an interesting romantic conflict with both parties thinking they knew the other but had no idea how or where. Frost did a nice job in creating an alternate world with few words and creating tension although the ending seemed too abrupt. I’d like to see if this is a series.

Eileen Wilks’ Human Error occurs less than two months after the events in Death Magic with Benedict going to spend the Yule holidays with Arjenie’s Wiccan family. It’s a bit of an uphill row for Benedict as they can’t explain about the mate bond and various members of the family are angry at him; they believe he has used some sort of juju to enthrall Arjenie into doing as he wants. All it takes is a short battle with Coyote and a humongous bear to bring the family ’round.

I like that Benedict is concerned about what his clothes will say culturally to Arjenie’s family.

Arjenie Delacroix’s family consists of the aunt and uncle who raised her after her parents were killed in a car accident (the one that resulted in her limp), Robin, a large animal vet, and Clay, a blacksmith and sculptor and two of their three kids, the twins, Siri and Sammy; Uncle Hershey and his partner Gary; Uncle Ambrose and Aunt Carmen with their kids; Uncle Nathan with his wife Sheila with their three kids; Stephen; and, I’m not sure who Malik, Danny, and Amy belong to as Wilks did a lovely job of creating a sense of boisterous family; and, Havoc the terrier who plays a very important role.

Lora Leigh’s An Inconvenient Mate focuses on Isabelle Martinez and a Coyote Breed, Malachi. It’s an inconvenient time for Mal to find his mate as Rule Breaker and his men are trying to find some Breed survivors on the Navajo reservation and they can’t come right out and tell the tribal Elders this. The primary theme is the man stalking Isabelle. Holden. He doesn’t understand no. Doesn’t care about no. But now he has Malachi to explain the definition. This story takes place during Lawe’s Justice, Breeds 25.

The Cover

The cover is a red and white icicle-strewn background of Christmas with a partially wrapped present of a dew-bedecked, muscled male torso. I do like the positioning of that bow!

My guess is that the title reflects that each story is wrapped up all pretty and tidy at the end.

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