Dead of Night: An Anthology

Dead of NightAnthology by Charlaine Harris and Amanda StevensDancers in the Dark is a tale from the time of the Sookie Stackhouse era. Vampires have come out and people must interact with them. They treat them as fascinating and tantalizing. But don’t forget that they are scary too.Rue has secrets to hide and is facing a serious lack of money. Accepting an advertisement for a job, she becomes a dancer for parties. The rich want to see vampires as entertainment. Rue will dance with Sean in order to earn money but she’s not willing to trust her secrets to him, yet.Mrs. Harris’ tale compliments the Sookie series but in a milder way. The dangerous creatures aren’t the vampires but the humans. She weaves secrets and masks who is really the scary ones. It was a nice albeit a little boring story. Full of comfort and feelings about how it’s the people who are your friends that become your true family.The Devil’s Footprints is a crime tale and mystery from the first word. The reader get glimpses of past events but those images are distorted. We learn about a death of a young girl and the fact that her sister found her. However, there is much more to the tale and the whole town has secrets. It seems like no one bothered to tell Sarah (the sister of the dead woman) the truth about her family. Her memory loss after the death seems like a good reason but it only serves to make things easy for the people in the town, not messy and not real. Once Sarah begins to demand and search for answers does the mystery deepen.I really loved the grittiness of the story. Sarah was a likeable character and Ms. Stevens has me doubting her own sanity at times. Could she be the killer? In fact, everyone is suspect since everyone has secrets. It’s a tale you won’t see until the very end.

One is "Dancers in the Dark" by Charlain Harris, which makes up about 1/4 of the book, and the other is "The Devils Footprints, by Amanda Stevens, which comprises the other 3/4.Both are good in and of themselves. I bought it because I'm a Fan of Charlaine Harris, but I enjoyed the 2nd story just as much. Harris' story is typical of her vampire stories, much like her writing in the Sookie Stackhouse series. Stevens' novel is darker and more mysterious, with a twist at the end you may not see coming.I would recommend this book to anyone who loved the stories the the HBO series called True Blood was based on, and anyone who likes a spooky mystery/thriller.

From bestselling author Charlaine Harris and rising star Amanda Stevens come two otherworldly tales sure to haunt readers well after the last page is turned. Dancers in the Dark #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris Layla Rue Le May is no ordinary dancer-her partner, Sean McClendon, is a three-hundred-year-old redheaded vampire. When Layla Rue acquires a stalker, she's forced to face the music...and wonder if this will finally be her last dance. The Devil's Footprints Award-winning author Amanda Stevens Years after her sister's unsolved murder, Sarah DeLaune is haunted by the mysteries of her past when two mutilated bodies are found near Sarah's New Orleans home, the crime scene desecrated by cloven footprints. Sarah has always believed that her sister was killed by a man named Ashe Cain. But no one else has ever seen Ashe. Until now.

OMG, people are so goofy!, just because they thought the whole book was by Charlaine Harris??? You give it 2 or 3 stars??! I thought BOTH stories were incredible and was thrilled that not one but two great Authors had gotten together in ONE book! Amanda Stevens is fantastic in her own right, she has an amazing series, The Graveyard Queen, that is sooo good and I'm waiting on the next book in that series as we speak! I was really entertained by BOTH of these stories and implore you to read them, they are amazing stories and you definitely won't be sorry for spending a little time with this book. Ignore the sour pusses and give this book a chance, it is worth the time, 2 fantastic stories by 2 fantastic writers🙌👏

Okay, first thing you need to be aware of is that this book is not *completely* a Charlaine Harris book."Dancers in the Dark" starts on page 9 and ends on page 123. "The Devil's Footprints" starts on page 127 and continues until the end of the book on page 456.I enjoyed Dancers, although I would have liked for this book to be 'filled out' more... I wasn't able to get as much of a feel for the characters as I'd like. it is one of Harris' vampire stories (no characters we already know, though), and even though there are some inconsistencies to the Sookie books, they are minor.I am working my way through Footprints. So far, it is a murder mystery. I'm 8 chapters in, and I still don't know what's going on with any of the characters. I haven't 'bonded' with any of them, so I'm not really drawn into the story as yet....However, it is a murder mystery. At this point, there are no supernatural beasties of any sort.I'll post an update with more of an opinion of Footprints once I've finished it.But I wanted to dispel any hope that the entire book is a Harris book, or a vampire book.Her story was the 'appetizer'. The other author's book is the 'main course'.At this point, the jury is out on that one

I am not a fan of the Vampire series but encouraged to try them out. Found the first book to be nothing of substance and all about sex.Ran out of reading material and found Dead of Night left over on my kindle. The book was short and I was thinking "is that all it is" when it ended so abruptly. Then I started Devil's Footprints, not realizing it was embedded into the sale of the other book. Now that book was fabulous. Quick pace, interesting characters and a bizarre story line.

Beide Geschichtennsind gut geschrieben und spannend. Vor allem Devil's Footprints hat für Gänsehaut gesorgt!Amanda Stevens hat außerdem ein paar sehr gute Sachen und viel billigen Mist geschrieben. Lesbar von ihr sonst eigentlich nur die Graveyard-Queen.

The stories were highly addictive, couldn't put the book down!