View source for Kiss Me Deadly by Trisha Telep (Editor)

{{infobox
|title=Kiss Me Deadly
|sort=Kiss Me Deadly
|author=Tricia Telep (Editor)
|reviewer=Robert James
|genre=Teens
|summary=While it's unlikely that every story in this paranormal love anthology will appeal, I defy any reader with  the smallest interest in the genre to not find half a dozen they like and a couple they absolutely love.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|paperback=0762439491
|hardback=
|audiobook=1441872159
|ebook=
|pages=432
|publisher=Running Press
|date=August 2010
|isbn=978-0762439492
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762439491</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0762439491</amazonus>
}}

What do Peter Pan, werecats, vampires, teenage zombies, and unicorn hunters have in common? Possibly  very little... but they all appear as central characters in stories in this often enchanting anthology of stories of  supernatural romance.

There's varying levels of success, as you'd expect from a wide variety of 13 authors, but the best stories here are  quite simply stunning. My personal favourite - apart possibly from one I'll come to later - is The Spy Who Never Grew  Up from Sarah Brennan. As the title suggests, it features Peter Pan as a spy, working for the British Secret Service  in exchange for a particular reward. It's simultaneously hilarious, romantic, and not a little tragic, in the best  possible way. Other really impressive offerings include Michelle Rowan's Fearless - in which a trainee witch chooses a  scrawny looking cat as a familiar, only to find out once they're magically bound together that he's a shapechanger who  was hiding in a magic shop - and Maggie Stiefvater's breathtaking The Hounds of Ulster, which is a beautifully written  story of two Irish musicians growing apart thanks to the influence They have on Bryant the narrator's friend Sullivan.  Funnily enough, it's probably best described as the written equivalent of one of the punk songs that Bryant and  Sullivan play - hugely entertaining, brilliantly constructed, and with the only drawback being that it's too short.

One point which is really annoying me, though. I haven't read Becca Fitzpatrick's [[Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick|Hush, Hush]]. I haven't read Carrie  Ryan's [[The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan|The Forest of Hands and Teeth]]. I haven't read the Karen Mahoney short story Falling To Ash. As a result, I was  really confused by their three contributions to this anthology, because I got the impression they were expecting me to  know the characters involved that came from those works. I know that Fitzpatrick and Ryan, in particular, have big  fanbases and they may well expect that most people reading the stories will be familiar with the characters involved -  but they need to do a far better job of easing unfamiliar readers in to the characters, in my opinion. Surely an  anthology is the perfect opportunity to attract new readers?

Diana Peterfreund's Errant is a stunning example of how to do this - it lasts just over 30 pages but packs in as much  character development as some novels do, and is the perfect introduction to Peterfreund's world of unicorn hunters.  This is the story I mentioned earlier as rivalling The Spy Who Never Grew Up for my favourite in the collection, by  the way. Similarly, Rachel Vincent's Fearless is a prequel to her Soul Screamers universe. ''Mara'' Sabine, who feeds  on people's nightmares, is sent to a juvenile detention centre - but has to try and work out why no-one there is  having bad dreams. She's an author who was completely unfamiliar to me prior to this anthology but, like Peterfreund,  is one I'll be eagerly seeking out in the future.

So, hit and miss, but hard to imagine anyone being disappointed overall given the standard of the best stories here.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

Further reading suggestion: Well, the obvious place to go from here is to choose your favourite story and find some  more by the author. Just in case you've already read everything available by your personal favourite, though, I'll  throw a few more out there, depending which ones in the anthology you like.

If you enjoy the humour found in the Peter Pan story and Familiar, then the bizarre but wonderfully entertaining [[Dirty  Angels by Andrew Clover]] may be right up your street. For beautiful writing similar to The Hounds Of Ulster, [[Forbidden Game by L J Smith]] is superb. Finally, if the Generation Dead story Many Happy Returns stood out for you,  Stacey Jay's [[You Are So Undead To Me by Stacey Jay|You Are So Undead To Me]] provides more brilliant zombie fiction. 

{{amazontext|amazon=0762439491}} {{waterstonestext|waterstones=7473198}}

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