reviewed by
Lola Sparks
As with any collection of short fiction, a reader will discover stories they love, and stories they genuinely don't give a damn about. So it is with Best New Paranormal Romance, a collection of twelve shorts, all originally published in 2005.
What is paranormal romance? Editor Guran ponders this in her introduction, breaking authors into various camps: those who write paranormal but not romance (Laurell K. Hamilton, Kelley Armstrong) and Romance writers who write paranormal (Nora Roberts, Sherrilyn Kenyon). Many paranormals don't end happily--as romance genre books must. So does "paranormal romance" really work as a catch-all name?
After marinating in it for a while, I've decided I prefer "speculative romance," if the genre must be named. (I picture an immeasurable bookstore in a distant foggy country where the books fill the shelves with no genre divisions, and where a reader might discover Catherine Asaro snuggled against Margaret Atwood; Amy Tan curled into Tolkien.) Speculative in that it involves matters of speculation (what if werewolves fell in love with vampires?), and romance in that it involves romance. (Though if we're pegging it with romance in any way, does it require that happily ever after?)
The stories in Best New Paranormal Romance tend to have a dark flavor to them, which didn't surprise me in the least, since Guran's roots are in the horror community. She has collected twelve stories that feature paranormal elements and romantic elements, and will soon do so again, in the renamed Best Romantic Fantasy. (What's wrong with "speculative romance," I ask you?)
Of the stories here, it's John Grant's "The Hard Stuff" that will probably stick closest to me, where as Rebecca York's "A Hero's Welcome" is forgettable for me. Three of the twelve stories are about war/soldiers--in the world we live in, that somehow doesn't surprise me. Catherine Asaro revisits her Skolian universe in "The Shadowed Heart," Heather Shaw gives life to a house in "Single White Farmhouse," and Sarah Prineas toys with dragons and virgins in "A Treatise on Fewmets."
It's a fine collection, but as with all "best of" collections, best of remains in the eye of the editor; I'm certain I would have chosen different stories from the year 2005--just as you would have.
But what would you have named the genre?
