Micro-Review Magic Mourns

I just finished the story Magic Mourns; this is Ilona Andrew's contribution to the Must Love Hellhounds anthology.

Great story told from the point of view of Andrea - the beastkin hyena. I really like Andrea's character. I read this story AFTER I read Magic Bleeds;really, this comes right before Magic Bleeds. What I love is that they wrote it from Andrea's pov, first person, and were able to make Andrea's "voice" sound like her own, not like another side of Kate's personality. Good writer's can do this - write about more than one character in the SAME WORLD, first person and make it work.

Magic Mourns is the story of how Andrea and Raphael (that extremely sexy-hot were-hyena) finally get together and how they rescue a ghost from a crazed navigator. There is a hell-hound featured in this story - a huge hell-hound that is protecting something.

There is also a part at the end, told from a completely different point of view - a kind of epilogue. I enjoyed it very much. There was nothing warning me that I was going to be reading a different character's narration- but I could tell right away, because the voice was very different- very masculine. I liked the way it was pulled off.

Even though this story had a romantic focus - as well as the adventure, I didn't feel overwhelmed with sexual encounters. Just enough to think, how nice for them, they finally got together - but not enough to make me feel I should have been reading it under the covers, by myself in a dark room.....