Review: 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine by Various Authors

Note: This ARC was provided by the publisher via InkSlinger PR in exchange for an honest review.

Carrie Ann Ryan, Heather Graham, Jennifer Probst, Christopher Rice, Melanie Harlow, and Lili Valente are all part of the ninth bundle of 1001 Dark Nights novellas. Four of the novellas--Ryan's Hidden Ink, Graham's Blood on the Bayou, Probst's Searching for Mine, and Rice's Dance of Desire--were all previously released as novellas under the 1001 Dark Nights banner, while Harlow's Some Sort of Happy and Valente's Magnificent Bastard were previously self-published novels, and the latter two are being "introduced" here since the first four have published with 1001 Dark Nights before.

All six of the stories included were good reads, though I confess that some won me over more so than the others. These were all familiar authors to me, if not by work, than by reputation, and I was glad that I had the opportunity to read something from the two authors whose work I had never been able to read before. There's a bit of everything when you look at this as an entire collection, and I've always been an advocate of anthologies since you can pick and choose which ones you want to read right away and which ones you can save for rainy day that'll find you curled up on a couch craving for something good to read. 

If I had to choose one among the six that I would recommend to start with, I'd have to go with Dance of Desire by Christopher Rice, followed by Some Sort of Happy by Melanie Harlow. Four of the six stories are part of a series--Hidden Ink with Montgomery Ink, Blood on the Bayou with Cafferty and Quinn, Searching for Mine with Searching For, and Some Sort of Happy with Happy Crazy Love--but they can be read as standalones even if three of the four fall in the middle of the series they belong to, or you can begin a new series with the sole series starter, Some Sort of Happy. Regardless of which one you choose to go with first, I hope you'll find as much enjoyment as I did and like and love all six by the end. 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine gets an average rating of 4.5 stars. ♥

Release Date: 31 January 2017

Date Read: 29 January 2017

Learn more about Heather Graham, Melanie Harlow, Jennifer Probst, Christopher Rice, Carrie Ann Ryan, and Lili Valente.

Purchase 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Nine on Amazon.