Out of the Light, Into the Shadows is a novella with four short stories in it by Lori Foster, Erin McCarthy, and L.L. Foster (I am assuming that this is Lori Foster). The stories just didn't connect well with me, and fell somewhat flat except for the last one which I enjoyed reading the most. I was also assuming that all of the stories would have a paranormal feel, but the first one doesn't.
The first story, Lori Foster's Have Mercy, was okay, but wasn't spectacular. It was a contemporary romance with a heroine who falls in love with the hero who has a tragic past and doesn't see himself having kids. Low and behold, the heroine is pregnant with his child and is afraid of what he will say. Now, I will say that this story had some good steamy scenes, and I liked the hero and heroine, but I've read this storyline before.
The second story, Erin McCarthy's Deal or No Deal, takes place in Vegas with her Vegas Vampires. The premise was really interesting with this one with some of the last tsar of Russia's family members being saved during the Revolution and turned into vampires who are now living in Las Vegas. Maria or Katie is one of them and she is now a black jack dealer. Her boyfriend/fiance from her life in Russia finds out that she is living and takes off in pursuit of her because he is still in love with her after all these years. He thought that she was dead, and she thought that he was a traitor to her family. But watch out, Rasputin is still alive as well, and he is after a necklace that Katie has in her possession. This was a decent read, the ending was somewhat anticlimactic, but the love story itself was what held my attention.
The third story by L.L. Foster, Total Control, was least favorite. The hero was a pushy jerk who needed a good slap across his face. The brother of the heroine from the first story was the hero in this one. But in this one, he has mind powers which can make people do things that he wants so there was a paranormal element to this one. I will say that it did have bucket loads of steam, but I didn't like how the hero tried to use his special mind powers on the heroine.
The last story by Erin McCarthy, Undead Man's Hand, was my favorite of the four. The hero in this one, Nick Stolin, is the vampire who turned Maria/Katie in the second story. He is also protector to her and her thirteen-year-old brother, Peter. There are murders being committed in Vegas and the heroine, Jordan, is on the hunt for the killer. She meets the vampire Nick when she has to question Nick's babysitter and Peter. Nick is highly attracted to Jordan and wants to go out with her. Jordan has some body issues (don't we all), but she wants to get to know Nick better too except she doesn't know that he is a vampire. Kelsey and Ringo are also back from Erin McCarthy's Vegas Vampires series, and they are again being their weird selves. But I like them anyway. I like reading about them and wish that Ringo would get off of the drugs already. But what I love about Erin's writing is that she isn't afraid to show people's weaknesses and how messed up "good" people can really be. She is one of my favorite authors because her writing seems very honest and not flowery when it comes to people's character.
