Terrifying Love – A Halloween Anthology – Review by Stephanie Chapman

Terrifying Love: A Halloween Anthology by Serena Nova
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Terrifying Love is a Halloween anthology of seven short stories and poems. Before each story is a poem by Helle Gade. The First Story is written by Serna Nova and is about Willow and her effort to save a young girl that has been abducted. The title is called Bringing Home and fits well with the plot. Story two is called HIs Dancer and is written by Isobella Dunn. This was my favorite story about a stalker and his obsession to get to BInx. The story alternates between Binx and the stalker’s point of view and is considered to be a prequel to another of Dunn’s books. Story Three is called La Siguanaba by Everly Taylor and is about a woman that wishes to have love instead of royal treatment. Her affair angers the gods and she is punished in a very unusual manner. Reflections Of The Past by Melody Calder is another story I was fond of. A mirror holds a type of portal to an evil ghost bent on exacting her revenge on the families that had killed her and her lovers. The twist at the end was a shocker for sure. Runes and Fangs by Victoria Larque is a story of a vampire and her run in with a witch. This particular vampire is actually a huntress trying to kill off other supernatural beings like witches and other vampires. She finds she needs the witch to assist her in her ultimate goal of killing the vampire that had turned her. Bloody Money by Annalie Jansssen features Anna losing out on a promotion and having to take care of a set of files that she finds are extremely odd. Rumor in the office was that the set of files previous handlers had all died. Anna reports the issues to her boss but he does nothing to rectify the situation. She then reports to the top manager what she was finding. Suddenly, she finds she is receiving death threats and even was attacked. The Final story is called The Spade and the Patio by Ada Rossi. This interesting story was perfect for the end of the book as it is regarding a woman speaking to an interviewer that will decide her fate. The woman tells the interviewer how she was unhappy in her marriage and over the years began to resent her husband. As the woman tells her story, she comes to the realization that her fate was completely in her own hands. She attempts to kill her husband with a spade but her failed attempt causes her to end up in the office with the Interviewer.

This is one of the best short story collections that I have ever read. Each story had a beginning and definite ending with well developed characters and story lines. While this is considered a Halloween Anthology, not all of the stories involve blood and gore. I am rating this collection a full 5 stars because I honestly cannot think of anything I disliked. The pace of the stories was even and every page kept my interest to the end of the book. I recommend this for adults that like reading short stories, I would caution readers as there is explicit content involved in some of the novellas which would make this inappropriate for young readers.

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