Review: Kisses From Hell

Kisses from Hell by Kristin Cast

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Kisses From Hell is a collection of 5 short stories about Vampires and love, they are written by 5 fantastic Authors who already have successful careers and many fan’s (including myself). Each of these stories is quite different from the next, some are your usual clichéd romance, and some you will need to expand your mind for as they are out of this world different.



The first story is Sunshine by Richelle Mead. Richelle wrote the much acclaimed Vampire Academy series, and in keeping with her series she wrote this short story in the same world she already created. The story is about how Eric Dragomir and Rhea Daniels came to be in love. If you haven’t already read the Vampire Academy series Eric and Rhea are Vasilisa’s parents, so it is a prequel if you like to Vasilisa. And if you’re a VA fan you will just absorb this story as fast as I did, can’t get enough of the VA world.



The second story is Bring Me To Life by Alyson Noel. Alyson wrote the addictive Immortals Series which is about Ever and Damen and their fight to be together. But for this short story Alyson delves into a new world where mist creeps in places it shouldn’t be and things are not as they seem. It is a real gothic Vampire story.



The third story is Above by Kristen Cast. Kristen Cast along with her mother P.C write the compelling House of Night novels. In this story Kristen has let loose her imagination and come up with an artistically written, strange but enticing tale of two races, one living beneath the earth and one above. Rheena does not belong below and longs to be free above, and when she finally finds her freedom she also finds love and her death. This story is very poetic and some will find it hard to follow.



The fourth story is Hunting Kat by Kelley Armstrong. Kelley is the Author of the Otherworld Series and The Darkest Series which I am yet to read. So I cannot comment on or tell you about it, but I can tell you it is on my too be read list. Kelley is a very accomplished writer though, and you can see this over at her website where you can see the list of all of her written works. Man that girl can write! Anyway Hunting Kat is a follow on about a character from Kelley’s The Darkest Series. And just by reading her short story I can that the series is well worth a read. I will get on to that!



The Fifth story is Lilith by Francesca Lia Block. Francesca is another Author whose books I have not read many of, apart from Pretty Dead which I read just before I devoured this collection. I absolutely loved her writing; it’s so gritty, different and poetic. But she did fail to astound me with Lilith, I enjoyed it but it was a sick romance. Lilith is a very dark story with a not your usual vampire. Even so the writing and story is great if not for a romance and Francesca has a huge array of novels that I plan on getting stuck into.



I must admit most of these stories left me feeling like the romance was missing. It’s as if they have been toned down completely so 11 year olds can read them without freaking their parents out about what they are reading. And in some of the stories the romance was strange and disturbed, but I suppose it is called Kisses From HELL. So that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy them, I would go as far to say that they have reopened the short story genre to me as I have never really enjoyed reading them.





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