Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Don Mills, Ontario : HQN, [2009], c2004.
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Romance. HTML: DANCERS IN THE DARK by Charlaine Harris Dancer Layla Rue Le May's childhood prepared her to handle just about anything, including her aloof partner, Sean McClendon, a three-hundred-year-old vampire. But when she acquires a stalker, Layla Rue is surprised to find that Sean is the only one she can trust. HER BEST ENEMY by Maggie Shayne Kiley Brigham refuses to believe there's a ghost in her house, but when an unseen hand leaves a bloody message on her mirror, she's forced to turn to local psychic Jack McCain. As the two work to uncover a long-buried secret, Kiley finds that she's haunted not by spirits, but by thoughts of Jack.... SOMEONE ELSE'S SHADOW by Barbara Hambly Maddie Laveau worries about her young roommate, Tessa, when she stays late to practice ballet in the old Glendower Building...and when Tessa goes missing, Maddie enlists mysterious tenant Phil Anderson to help. But is Phil the white knight she needs, or the predator she fears?.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member SunnySD
Of the three stories in this anthology, one was fairly forgettable. Maggie Shayne's Her Best Enemy takes on the subject of psychic debunking. When her new house turns out to be haunted, skeptical reporter Kiley Brigham finds herself turning to arch-nemesis, psychic Jack McCain for
Barbara Hambly's Someone Else's Shadow is high on creep factor. The old Glendower building's top two floors were destroyed by fire years before trapping multiple young women workers inside where they burned to death. Maddie Laveau and her roommate Tessa have been taking dance lessons in the building's rehabbed lower floors, but when Tessa disappears Maddie encounters an old and malicious evil. Tenant Phil Anderson grudgingly offers assistance, but is he really there to help?
The final entry, and for me, the collection standout, is Charlaine Harris's Dancers in the Dark. Set in the same universe as her Southern Vampire Mysteries series, Dancers focuses on Rue May, a young college student whose financial circumstances force her to apply for a job with the Blue Moon dancers -- a dance troupe whose members partner up in human/vampire couples, and culminate each performance in "the bite." When Rue's abusive past comes back to haunt her, she's finally in good company.
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assistance.Barbara Hambly's Someone Else's Shadow is high on creep factor. The old Glendower building's top two floors were destroyed by fire years before trapping multiple young women workers inside where they burned to death. Maddie Laveau and her roommate Tessa have been taking dance lessons in the building's rehabbed lower floors, but when Tessa disappears Maddie encounters an old and malicious evil. Tenant Phil Anderson grudgingly offers assistance, but is he really there to help?
The final entry, and for me, the collection standout, is Charlaine Harris's Dancers in the Dark. Set in the same universe as her Southern Vampire Mysteries series, Dancers focuses on Rue May, a young college student whose financial circumstances force her to apply for a job with the Blue Moon dancers -- a dance troupe whose members partner up in human/vampire couples, and culminate each performance in "the bite." When Rue's abusive past comes back to haunt her, she's finally in good company.
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LibraryThing member kmartin802
-human dance team and how he helps her get rid of a stalker. The Shayne story has a writer who discredits psychics move into a haunted house and having one of the psychics she is trying to discredit help her settle the ghosts. The Hambly story deals with a haunted building in NYC. This is a reprint
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from 2004 and seems vaguely familiar to me but, if I read it, I didn't keep it then. The stories were nicely creepy. This was a Kindle read. Show Less
LibraryThing member silentq
Dancers in the Dark by Charlaine Harris is set in her world where vampires are a known part of society due to synthetic blood. Rue is a dancer who joins a troupe of vampires and humans that perform at parties, but her past catches up to her and her new (fascinating) partner. A bit too cave-man-y
Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne has a wise cracking heroine who debunks frauds teaming up with a reluctant psychic to figure out why her new house appears to be haunted. The haunting events gave me chills, the attraction was believable.
Someone Else's Shadow by Barbara Hambley was also dark and disturbing, but I liked it best in terms of having the strongest heroine, she pretty much saves her room mate and her love interest from a building that's infused with a dark spirit.
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for me.Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne has a wise cracking heroine who debunks frauds teaming up with a reluctant psychic to figure out why her new house appears to be haunted. The haunting events gave me chills, the attraction was believable.
Someone Else's Shadow by Barbara Hambley was also dark and disturbing, but I liked it best in terms of having the strongest heroine, she pretty much saves her room mate and her love interest from a building that's infused with a dark spirit.
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LibraryThing member stephmo
Night's Edge brings together three authors and three novellas. I originally picked up the book for Charlaine Harris's Dancers in the Dark as part of the Sookie Stackhouse universe and read the other stories as well.
Dancers in the Dark is not so much an integral part of the Sookie Stackhouse saga as
Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne is the strongest story in the group. Kiley spends her days as a columnist debunking all manner of con artist with her latest eye on the bustling Burnt Hill's psychic business. So what happens when the one psychic she hasn't been able to debunk, Jack McCain, becomes her one hope in getting to the bottom of the mysterious goings on in her house? A well-paced story with two characters that seem well aware of how crazy certain moves can seem in the paranormal romance world.
The weakest story of the lot, Someone Else's Shadow suffers not from a bad idea, but from lack of focus. Barbara Hambly brings us more dancers and musicians and some very creepy goings-on at the building where lofts are rented on the cheap for all manner of creative studio space. Maddie Laveau's roommate has become the focus of this evil and she's enlisted the help of Phil Anderson...even though her gut tells her that it may not be a good idea. Although this is all solid enough, things start to erode around the edges. Not the least of which is the problem of Tessa. Tessa's character is clearly used as a prop throughout the story and we're never really given a good reason for Maggie to constantly seek out and protect Tessa in the middle of the night outside of her being "a sweet kid."
Dancers in the Dark is not so much an integral part of the Sookie Stackhouse saga as
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it is a story that simply takes place in the same universe. At the same time, it's nice to see a wholly separate story that is free of the Bon Tempes connection. This story follows Layla Rue Le May's story of joining a vampire/human dance troupe that performs for private parties. Just as she sees her life taking shape, her past comes back to haunt her...but her vampire partner Sean McClendon is determined to protect her. Layla/Rue is not a Sookie clone, so this story does take a wholly different path and is a nice change of pace for Harris.Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne is the strongest story in the group. Kiley spends her days as a columnist debunking all manner of con artist with her latest eye on the bustling Burnt Hill's psychic business. So what happens when the one psychic she hasn't been able to debunk, Jack McCain, becomes her one hope in getting to the bottom of the mysterious goings on in her house? A well-paced story with two characters that seem well aware of how crazy certain moves can seem in the paranormal romance world.
The weakest story of the lot, Someone Else's Shadow suffers not from a bad idea, but from lack of focus. Barbara Hambly brings us more dancers and musicians and some very creepy goings-on at the building where lofts are rented on the cheap for all manner of creative studio space. Maddie Laveau's roommate has become the focus of this evil and she's enlisted the help of Phil Anderson...even though her gut tells her that it may not be a good idea. Although this is all solid enough, things start to erode around the edges. Not the least of which is the problem of Tessa. Tessa's character is clearly used as a prop throughout the story and we're never really given a good reason for Maggie to constantly seek out and protect Tessa in the middle of the night outside of her being "a sweet kid."
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LibraryThing member klarsenmd
This was a collection of three novellas, 2 of which are by a couple of authors I really enjoy. The first by Charlaine Harris is related to the southern vampire mysteries but doesn't involve any of the typical lead characters. I first met Sean and Layla in All Together Dead where they make a briedf
The other two novellas are ghost stories with romantic twists. A lot of fun and quick to read. I enjoyed the group and would recommend it to fans who like a light read that's not too dark or disturbing.
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appearance as the ballroom couple that performs at the the convention Sookie is attending. In this novella we get to hear there story. It was sweet and romantic and had all the charm of her other vampire storie sans the anoying Sookie. I loved it.The other two novellas are ghost stories with romantic twists. A lot of fun and quick to read. I enjoyed the group and would recommend it to fans who like a light read that's not too dark or disturbing.
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LibraryThing member nerdyapple
Just read the Harris short story in this book. It takes place in the Sookie universe but doesn't really have any familiar characters. There is a brief mention of E(E)E, but that is the extent of it.It seemed to me to be a cross between the Sookie series and the Shakespeare series in that it has a
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human/vampire romance and the human is scarred from a previous human assault. Show Less
LibraryThing member Jaie22
A solid collection of short stories with varying degrees of paranormal/urban fantasy.
Harris and Hambly both write about dancers, Shayne about a reporter. All three stories move along well.
Hambly combines three of my obsessions - bellydance, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy and ghosts -
Shayne's story is just rollicking paranormal fun with an old-fashioned haunted house and a psychic who doesn't realize he isn't a complete hoaxer. Moved quickly and was a sheer blast.
Harris's story, although it doesn't include Sookie Stackhouse, concerns characters she meets, and moves rather quickly. Also lots of fun, frankly, although it's an obvious plot device that the "leading man" vamp must hate computers. I'm not sure if I've read anything else where Harris details the process of becoming a vampire quite so closely.
Harris and Hambly both write about dancers, Shayne about a reporter. All three stories move along well.
Hambly combines three of my obsessions - bellydance, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy and ghosts -
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into one story. I loved the first half, but in the second it feels like she suddenly realized she had to get the romance part in there, so the heroine goes from suspecting the leading man is a killer to being in love with him in about three pages, with no good reason given. Romance passages fail to move the story forward, and toward the end the story really drags. Also a bit too much lecture about how to properly appreciate bellydance, and that's saying something coming from me. A little goes a long way, you know? I fully expect to see this as a Lifetime movie one day, however.Shayne's story is just rollicking paranormal fun with an old-fashioned haunted house and a psychic who doesn't realize he isn't a complete hoaxer. Moved quickly and was a sheer blast.
Harris's story, although it doesn't include Sookie Stackhouse, concerns characters she meets, and moves rather quickly. Also lots of fun, frankly, although it's an obvious plot device that the "leading man" vamp must hate computers. I'm not sure if I've read anything else where Harris details the process of becoming a vampire quite so closely.
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LibraryThing member Krumbs
A fun way to spend an hour. Shayne's story is the standard psychic-who-thinks-he's-a-fake-psychic solves a crime and finds out he's really psychic (and hooks up with the skeptical reporter along the way). I think the gruesomeness of the crime was a bit too over the top for this story, so I skimmed
I don't remember previously reading anything from Hambly, and honestly I don't think I'm going to actively look for any. The characterization and interaction were all over the place and her ghostly happening and the action were a bit confusing at the end.
A great installment from Harris. I'd actually love to see a full book set with these characters rather than another Sookie Stackhouse novel.
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the end. I don't remember previously reading anything from Hambly, and honestly I don't think I'm going to actively look for any. The characterization and interaction were all over the place and her ghostly happening and the action were a bit confusing at the end.
A great installment from Harris. I'd actually love to see a full book set with these characters rather than another Sookie Stackhouse novel.
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LibraryThing member EmScape
"Dancers in the Dark" - A story set in the world of Sookie Stackhouse, but not featuring any characters from that series. Rue is desperately trying to escape a horrific event from her past, and avoid the person who inflicted it upon her. Needing money, she joins a dance troupe made up of humans and
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vampires. Her vampire partner, Sean, seems cold and aloof at first, but they dance well together and he becomes enamored with her and tries to figure out her secrets so that he can protect her. This story elucidates more aspects of vampire life and introduces compelling characters. One hopes they will someday interact with Sookie and her friends. Show Less
LibraryThing member krau0098
This was a collection of three novellas. Each novella has a heavy paranormal theme to it along with some romance. All the stories also feature women who have a history of abuse by men and the stories are somewhat about them overcoming that past.
My favorite of the bunch was “Dancers in the
Overall, all of the novellas are decent and I would recommend if you are a paranormal romance fan. I have brief review of each novella below.
Dancers in the Dark by Charlaine Harris (5/5 stars)
Great story about Rue and Sean. Really enjoyed it.
Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne (4/5 stars)
This was a good story about a haunted house. The woman who moves in there debunks psychics for a living and needs to request the help of her great enemy, a psychic named Jack, to get the evil ghost out of her house. The story was good and creepy; I didn’t think the chemistry between the two characters was all that great though.
Someone Else’s Shadow by Barbara Hambly (4/5 stars)
In this story a young woman who teaches belly dance is creeped out by the building she works in. When her roommate, a fellow dancer, starts acting strange she begins to suspect that the building is haunted by an evil presence. This was an okay story; it’s a good creepy mystery but the chemistry between the two main characters was just so-so.
My favorite of the bunch was “Dancers in the
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Dark” by Harris. This story actually made me a bit sad because it reminded me what a great writer Harris was before she stopped editing her books (around the True Blood TV series time).Overall, all of the novellas are decent and I would recommend if you are a paranormal romance fan. I have brief review of each novella below.
Dancers in the Dark by Charlaine Harris (5/5 stars)
Great story about Rue and Sean. Really enjoyed it.
Her Best Enemy by Maggie Shayne (4/5 stars)
This was a good story about a haunted house. The woman who moves in there debunks psychics for a living and needs to request the help of her great enemy, a psychic named Jack, to get the evil ghost out of her house. The story was good and creepy; I didn’t think the chemistry between the two characters was all that great though.
Someone Else’s Shadow by Barbara Hambly (4/5 stars)
In this story a young woman who teaches belly dance is creeped out by the building she works in. When her roommate, a fellow dancer, starts acting strange she begins to suspect that the building is haunted by an evil presence. This was an okay story; it’s a good creepy mystery but the chemistry between the two main characters was just so-so.
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LibraryThing member hopeevey
I was dissappointed with Ms. Harris's story, and didn't read more than a couple pages of the 2nd story, but I loved Ms. Hambly's story! The barrier between the main characters made sense, instead of being contrived. The female lead dealt with her own problems, then invited the male lead to her life
Overall, it's a good enough collection of romance stories. If you're not a romance fan, just read the last story, "Someone Else's Shadow" by Barbara Hambly.
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- she didn't need a man to make her complete. The writing was delicious, and the sexy bit were realistic and quite romantic. I can see myself in this sort of relationship. I kind of have a crush on both the main characters, truth be told :) Overall, it's a good enough collection of romance stories. If you're not a romance fan, just read the last story, "Someone Else's Shadow" by Barbara Hambly.
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LibraryThing member TheYodamom
Three quick and enjoyable tales from three excellent authors. I have only read Charlaine Harris before. I'm not big on anthologies, too short and not enough world building for my taste. I read this as a book club challenge and I am glad I did. All stories have a slightly dark side and light romance.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
2004-10-01
Physical description
109 p.; 17 inches
ISBN
0373774281 / 9780373774289