Transcendent Anthology

Discover the secrets of a siren, fly with a hawk girl over the mountains of Montana, and flee supernatural party-crashers as the décor comes to life in this magical journey through paranormal stories.

Along the way, watch for ghosts in a haunted house, or ride through the moonlight with a stranger. Save a comatose boy who has lost his soul, and don’t forget to bring your garlic and wolfsbane—you never know when the shadows will snag you.

Transcendent includes eight stories of magic, love, death, and choice by some of the newest names in young adult fiction.

This was a great collection of paranormal short stories.  As I read I was wishing that some of the stories were made into more of a stand alone novel instead of a short story.  Here are some of my favorites:

Seduction of a Siren By: Lani Woodland and Melanie Piper
Okay, so Jason is ship-wrecked on an island and is saved by someone.  As he is looking around the area where he lies on the beach he hears her beautiful voice and turns toward her expecting a beautiful woman, instead he sees an incredibly distorted monster.  Parts of her body were skinny while others are voluptuous and her hair was part blond and part black strands with red.  As she reaches out to hold him he scrambles backward and trips over Trevor, the boy that is now dating the love of his life.  The "Woman?" now notices that their are two men on her island and seems confused and distraught that there isn't just one.Trevor loudly mentions how ugly she is and proceeds to make fun of her looks calling her a monster and she seems pretty upset and starts saying it is the boys fault.  As the boys make a plan to run Jason looks at her again and notices that instead of anger she seems more sad and helpless.  Wanting to make her stop crying he tells her that she has beautiful eyes, and that was actually the truth. 

Jason was a great guy, I mean a really great guy.  He did have his issues like all humans but he was mostly good.  He found a girl that was Scary as can be and he sits down with her and makes sure she feels pretty in any little way.  Trevor was a jerk.  Most of the story I hated him and if I am being honest I wished some bad things on him.  This is one story that I really, really wanted to be longer.  There was so much more that we could have explored, time in Greece before the shipwreck, time on the island, plans to get off the island and more.  Plus I would have loved a little more time to develop the relationships with Jason and the Siren (Ann)


Spectre By: Wendy Swore
Marcella and her friend Lissae are shopping for decorations for a party they are throwing while Marcella's parents are out of town.  Marcella is looking for the perfect theme and they are having a hard time finding it while in a store called Spectre. While shopping Marcella tells the employee that they are having a Homecoming party and need novelty decorations that have a "WOW" factor.  He has them follow him through the employee only door and they find everything Marcella is looking for from silken robes to scarecrows, plus the man offers to deliver, set up and take down in the price.  The party is ready.
The day of the party Marcella and Lissae go out to by last minute items and hurry home to decorate to find that it is all done and it all looks amazing plus with her student discount is only cost $50.00.  As Lissae looks out she notices that the scarecrows are all facing her now when she could swear they were facing the other direction just a minute ago...   With the party in full swing and everyone enjoying themselves Marcella and Lissae notice that there are a few party crashers wearing the silk robes that neither of them invited, and the party goes epic from there.
This is another story that would be awesome as its own stand alone novel.  Each new thing that would happen would have been great if given more time to expand and give more detail.  Plus there is a little romance with Lissae and Jack that I would have loved more info and time to make better.  Great story though!

Pumpkin Thief By: Evan Joseph
This story starts with Kira getting ready for a costume party and is finalizing her costume, Sally from Nightmare before Christmas, Very cool.  She turns to pick up her Jack-O-Lantern (Jack Skellington's face) for the contest at the party but it is gone.  Her friend Melinda mentions that on the way to her house she saw a guy with a pumpkin head and a cape and thought is was just his costume but he most have taken her jack-o-lantern.  They laugh a little about a man stealing a pumpkin and drive the few blocks to the party instead of walk because a man on a motorcycle was following Kira a few days ago.

At the party were it seems everyone but her had a date Kira is feeling a little uncomfortable and decides to go outside where their are less people making out.  While outside she starts to relax and enjoy the night.  Suddenly she hears noises behind some trees and a man on a horse is galloping toward her wearing her pumpkin on his head!

This was a great story.  Again, I loved the idea of this story and thought that if there were more detail and character development this could make a great stand alone.  Kira was in an already uncomfortable situation, being at a party were everyone was coupled out except her and in rides, quite literally, a hero to be with her.  The banter between her and Jim when they first met was smooth and easy to believe. 



All of the story's in this book had the paranormal elements and most had real romance elements.  Some were just a hug/kiss and others more of a love connection.  All of the books were clean as well so it makes this book easier to suggest to others to read as there is no swearing or sex.  Great job to all of the authors that contributed.

You can find it on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Transcendent-Tales-Paranormal-Lani-Woodland/dp/0615572324/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327900862&sr=1-1