I encountered this series browsing through Amazon.com one day and their various 
customer favorites lists.  It sounded interesting, so I asked around my online groups to 
see if anyone was familiar with the series, but no one had heard of it.  So I thought, 
hey cool, something new to put up on the site that nobody else has seen yet.  Whoo Hoo!  
I picked up the three anthologies, which consist of six novellas, two a piece.  Having 
just finished up the Highlander series by Karen Marie Moning, I was enthusiastic about re-
acquainting myself with the preternatural world and their particular brand of delights.  
Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

In Ms. Wilder’s “shadow” world, all of the preternatural/supernatural entities consider 
themselves one big community with a council that rules over them all. Of course in her 
world, there’s also exceptions to the rule, those who choose their own path rather than 
the collective.  This, of course, sets the background for these stories.  I would say 
that the background story is the biggest reason to pick this series up.  Its gets more 
interesting with each book.  This author also writes heroines from different walks of 
life, each with their own unique background and experiences to bring to the table, which 
is a definite plus in my assessment.  It’s safe to read these stories back to back 
without getting bored.

Ms. Wilder, and her alias J. Adair, have built a reputation on writing descriptive, 
steamy loves scenes.  In my opinion, that detracted from the plot line a little, 
especially in the earlier books,  Though it seemed to even out in the later editions.  
The detraction was not as bad as say, Christine Feehan’s Shadow Game, where it almost 
seemed every move in the story was just another setup to jump into the hero’s pants, thus 
destroying the great potential of the story line’s premise.  No, Ms. Wilder’s skimps in 
the story were centered more around the lack of anticipation in a growing relationship.  
It seemed like the hero/heroine in each story were no sooner shaking each other’s hands 
in greeting, then they were jumping into the sack with one another.  This could have been 
mostly due to the length requirements of novella-sized stories needing to push the story 
along.  Still, the sacrifice was enough to be noticed, but not necessarily so much that 
it was annoying.

Anyway, while these stories may not be the type to be devoured the minute they’re 
released, they are a pleasant enough read.  I would recommend keeping a cold shower 
available at a moment’s notice however.  These pages are hot.  Cheers and good reading, 
folks!