Lords of Passion (Virginia Henley, Kate Pearce, Maggie Robinson)

Lords of Passion Anthology (Virginia Henley, Kate Pearce and Maggie Robinson)

Back in 2010, RWA National Conference was held in Orlando, and I was lucky enough to be able to attend. It was an exhausting and exhilarating experience, and during those days I met a number of people I had only interacted with online for years. Among them was writer Maggie Robinson (aka Margaret Rowe), who very graciously gave me an ARC of the anthology Lords of Passion, which has stories by her, Kate Pearce and Virginia Henley.

However, with me being a moody and unpredictable reader, the poor thing has languished in the humongous TBR Mountain Range since. Then, when I saw that the theme for January’s TBR review was shorts, this was the book I reached for. Unfortunately, less than twenty pages into the first novella, I was seeing red and couldn’t continue, so I grabbed the Charmed Anthology for that review instead (with less than stellar results—oh well, there are eleven more months to try for a hit).

I did finish the book, though, and now you get to suffer through my impressions of it.

The three stories are “Beauty and the Brute” by Virginia Henley, “How to Seduce a Wife” by Kate Pearce and “Not Quite a Courtesan” by Maggie Robinson. The dreaded blurb:

What Happens in Vegas… Anthology

What happens in Vegas, anthology by Jodi Lynn Copeland, Anya Bast, Lauren Dane and Kit Tunstall.

The universe seems to be determined to show me how wrong I’ve been in avoiding short stories, by shoving some really good ones in front of me. Mind you, no complaints from this corner. What happens in Vegas is the first erotic stories anthology from Spice Books.

Behind closed doors, the real games begin…
Winning it big. That’s the name of the game at Las Vegas’ Liege Hotel and Casino, where the hottest fantasies hinge on a roll of the dice… and the tantalizing knowledge that anything could happen before sunrise.

Each story is around a hundred pages long—well under my usual comfort zone—and while some missed the mark with me, a couple hit it dead center. Bear in mind, as always, that what bothered me may very well be what other readers like best about each story. So, without further ado, here are the reviews. (I included the short blurbs from the back cover for each story in its review.)