Strange Candy
By Laurell K. Hamilton
Dates Read
Jan 2 - 4
2025
Audiobook courtesy of PRH audio
8hr 19min
Blurb:
From a woman who marries into a family of volatile wizards to a couple fleeing a gang of love-hungry cupids, from a girl who seeks sanctuary in the form of a graceful goose to the disgruntled superhero Captain Housework, readers will revel in the many twists and turns of fortune in these fantastical fairy tales and lush parables. Even hardened vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake gets blindsided by the disturbing motives of her clients in the new "Those Who Seek Forgiveness" and in "The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death."
Journal Entry
I picked this one because I want to try reading the Anita Blake series, I read guilty pleasures at the beginning of 2024 but didn't continue the series. Now I want to try the book again and maybe finish the series. I didn't realize there was a prequel novella so I'm starting with that one. Sort of.
Spoiler Alert BTW
Those Who Seek Forgiveness
Huh that one was a little dark. So, Carla wants to raise her dead husband so she can ask him for forgiveness for an affair she had. Turns out Carla was the one who shot him in the face. Yeah bad things happened any way moving on.
A Lust of Cupids
This was kind of cute. So basically our main character Rachel is running from a group of cupid (like the cherub style). Who are trying to make her fall in love. She is saved by a guy named Tom who does woodworking. Yes, she's a lawyer, he does woodworking it's a Hallmark movie, I know.
But anyway. They're both over 30 and unwed therefore the cupids have a vendetta against their singleness.
Rachel ends up liking (not loving) Tom without the interference, but the cupids get them anyway. And they “do the only thing we can do we fall in love. And have a beautiful wedding.”
Turns out both their moms bribbed the cupids with chocolate of all things and now Rachel wants some love revenge.
The Edge of the Sea
This one needs an SA trigger warning.
Starts with Adria finding her best friend being assaulted by a sea creature.
Adria thinks she's gone insane because mermen aren't real, are they?
Then the mercreature comes after her.
It has a pretty dark ending.
Yeah, moving on
A Scarcity of Lake Monsters
So we have a guy who is a ranger at Enchanted forest national park. It is exactly what it says, theirs enchanted creatures includeing a not so shy lake monster named Irving.
There’s also some satyrs that kidnap a group of girl scouts but that is never really talked about.
Irving, our lovable lake monster, gets injured by some drunk guys in a boat. It’s sad.
Very serious save the environment message.
Anyway onward to the next one.....
Selling Houses
This one takes place in the world of Anita Blake
This one was kind of mundane but I think that was the point.
It started pretty dark. Abby our lovely realtor is touring a houst that she is trying to sell. A house that was a victim of demon possession and mass murder. In other words it has evil presence and no one wants to buy it.
The house has been exercised but there’s astill a ghost she has to get rid of. And still has to sell the house that no one wants to buy.
In the end she ends up selling the house to what I assume is a group of vampires. It’s vague.
Our lovely realtor ends up being the number 1 realtor for supernatural beings. I think. The ending was abrupt and vague.
A Token for Celandine
This one takes place inthe Night seer universe. Another universe I am not familiar with (but I do want to be)
A basic quest story. We have Beven who is the body guard of Celandine and they need to get a token to save Celandine’s soul.
There’s prophecies and magic and daring sword fights. And now I’m very interested in reading a book that I had no idea even existed.
A Clean Sweep
Oh this one wsa great it was very short but I found it amazing. If Mr. Clean was a superhero and he slowly devolved into a villain. Its great for such a short one.
“The bones were picked clean and all the rooms in the house were spotless”
The Curse-maker
This another one in the nightseer world.
The warrior Sidra (I had to look up the spelling because Audio book) needs to save her bard friend.
He was cursed with a death curse and she has to find the cursemaker who cursed him. There’s a bloodthirsty sword and magical wards and all sorts of fantasy goodness.
I really need to read Nighseer.
Geese
Possibly the Nightseer universe I'm not sure but sounds like it.
Shap shifting geese, magical revenge, adorable romance.
“You are my mate, there is no form you can take that will not follow.”
Yep one of those
AND HE'S A LITERAL GOOSE
House of Wizards
Nightseer universe again.
Cute and cozy.
Man bringing his new wife home.
He brings his new NON-magical wife to meet his highly magical and eccentric family.
There’s magical shenanigans but he’s an adorable husband who protects his wife.
Here Be Dragons
This one was dark and needs severe trigger warnings for that ending
We have psychic doctor that rehabilitates criminals by punishing them in their dreams.
She’s called back to the government facility that ‘helped’ her as a child, to help another psychic child that has similar abilities to hers.
Scary psychic stuff happens its dark. People are monsters.
Moving on.
Winterkill
A quest for vengance
Another bargain with a demon
A dead sorveress
Curses and crimes
Nightseer universe
Stealing Souls
We’re at Sidra again but an earlier story apparently her name was originally Sebastiana
She needs to steal the soul of her sisters away from the sorcerer that took them.
Leech is such a sassy sword anyway another magical adventure in the world of Nightseer.
The Girl Who Was Infatuated With Death
This one has some serious spoilers if you haven’t read the Anita Blake series. But anyway.
We have a mom that wants to stop her teenage daughter from turning. It’s a race against the clock to stop the girl from receiving her third bite.
There’s some relationship drama between Anita and Jean-Claude. Which puts the girl on the backburner.
They don’t make it in time.
Interesting ending.
Finishing Thoughts
All in all it was an interesting collection of stories. I loved the little snippets of intro that described where the inspiration came from. Little looks into the authors life. It's a good listen but you might want to be familiar with the Nightseer universe and the Anita Blake series before going in.
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