A couple of the short stories were quite good; others not so much. ( )

Excellent short story collection. I discovered several new authors as a result. I particularly enjoyed the Jim Butcher story. The partial destruction of Woodfield Mall tickled me more than it probably should have. ( )

Enjoyed every story. A little out of my wheel house but I could not stop.

Enjoyed every story. A little out of my wheel house but I could not stop. ( )

Dracula Night by Charlaine House - 3
Halloween night the vamps celebrate Count Drakula and Sookie gets an invite.
( )

I worried starting this book. Because we live in the "twilight" generation, vampires are everywhere and their mythology is messed with more than other supernatural creatures. So i was expecting some quite cheesy stories that would make me bang my head on the wall, wishing to be back in the days with proper, classic vampires. But i was shocked. Though some stories weren't great (which is normal reading a book with various authors), most of them i enjoyed. I hoped to finish this book with a new author that i wanted to read more of. I got more than one. [a:Kelley Armstrong|7581|Kelley Armstrong|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1199068298p2/7581.jpg] and [a:P.N. Elrod|723801|P.N. Elrod|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1318578709p2/723801.jpg] already have books on my to read shelf since reading their stories and [a:Jim Butcher|10746|Jim Butcher|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1205261964p2/10746.jpg] and [a:Tanya Huff|1967|Tanya Huff|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207242126p2/1967.jpg] are also on the wish list. Was annoyed that [a:Toni L.P. Kelner|81016|Toni L.P. Kelner|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66-4df4c878d4149c45fac159e88cb784ad.jpg]'s story "How Stella Got Her Grave Back" was a stand-alone because i would love to read more. So, yeah, it was really successful. I enjoyed it and i left with a pile of new authors and series to read, which was the real purpose of me reading this. ( )

Dracula Night: anther Sookie Stockhouse short story. Ok.

The Mournful Cry of Owls: Donika's 16th birthday is approaching. He mother will have to reveal the truth about Donika's birth. It has to do with a different kind of Vampire.

I was a Teenage Vampire: Kate want to have a vampire themed birthday party. Her brother invites a "real" vampire. Carleton doesn't believe in vampires. He finds out how wrong he was.

Twilight: A vampire struggles to make a kill in time.

It's My Birthday Too: Harry just want to give his brother a birthday present. Thomas just once to have a nice night. But of course trouble finds them.

Grave-Robbed: Jack Fleming helps a young girl who widowed sister is being taken advantage of by a fax medium. Very good and funny story.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life: I was dissatisfied with the ending. What is Michael's story? Why is Eve safe at his house?

The Witch and the Wicked: I figured out that Mr. Deveraux's death was no accident right away. It was funny how things worked out for Sophie.

Blood Wrapped: Henry tires to find a birthday present for Vicki and becomes involved in a missing child case.

The Wish: a woman is obsessed with the death of her child.

Fire and Ice and Linguine for Two: I had never heard of the idea that being born on Christmas was bad - that your parents engaging in earthly pleasures at the same time of year the Virgin Mary had been divinely conceiving. The guy stated his birthday was Thanksgiving really spoiled the end for me. Thanksgiving does not fall of the same day every year.

Vampire Hours: Katherine gets revenge on her husband who wants to leave her.

How Stella Got Her Grave Back: Stella and Mark become involved in solving the mystery of her grave and a Jane Doe. ( )

I love these Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance anthology mashups focusing on themes. I have now read the one with weddings (My Big Supernatural Wedding), now here we are with birthdays.

Charlaine Harris opened the anthology with a Sookie book (be still my heart.) Oh my, Dracula Night was SO much fun. It was a delight to read an old-school style Sookie story with Eric there in all his original glory, before Harris decided to flatten with a hammer into a one-dimensional toon. Plenty of Sookie detailing her clothes and hair, Pam's wit, a freaking party at FANGTASIA, hilarious moments, and a fun ending. Loved it, even with the typo on page 1.

The Mournful Cry of Owls by Christopher Golden sometimes seemed awkwardly written, but the story itself is inventive. I guessed something with the owls - title alone! - but didn't expect in. Not a great story, but it's a passable one; it seems oddly placed in this anthology, not quite fitting, just like the character in the story.

I was a teenage vampire was cute and quirky, but not too significant and was meant more as a tongue-in-cheek kind of offering.

Twilight by Kelley Armstrong fit the birthday theme perfectly with an urban fantasy/paranormal twist. It was serious, introspective, but I had trouble holding my interest as I didn't know anything about the characters and there wasn't much action/tension.

It's My Birthday, too - was from the Harry Dresden series. I don't know if it's because it has characters I don't recognize since I'm not far in the series, or what, but I just couldn't get into this story.

Grave-robbed was in the top three for the best. Loved the storyline of breaking up a fake seance. The main character was an intriguing male vampire lead. PN Elrod writes well; curious about reading more of her work.

Speaking of the best, The First Day of the Rest of your life is the winner. I seriously have to start reading Rachel Caine novels - not only did her story win this one, it also won another anthology I read this year. Writing quite simply rocks, the main character is feisty without being obnoxous, individualized but realistic. The story of the town Morganville sounds absolutely fascinating - MUST.Read.Series.First.

The Witch and the Wicked - Look out, a witch is catering a vampire's birthday party. Awesome story because of the humor and quirkiness, all working to make a fun tale. Not particularly eventful but adorably funny - in a wicked way, of course. Really enjoyed this one, a solid 4/5. I hadn't heard of this author before; checking out more of their stuff is now a priority.

Blood Wrapped wasn't necessarily awesome because of it's story - a small, but serious mystery happening at the same time they are planning for a funny birthday, but because of the characters. I've read the five book Blood series from Huff, and her three book spinoff with Tony. It was cool to see he and Lee stayed together, although that character was not in the book. Henry is the main, which = delight.

The Wish by Carolyn Haines was more formally written than the other short stories. I could be wrong, but it seems to be a stand-a-lone short. There is a nifty twist at the end that made it worthwhile, the writing style felt stilted at first but then became beautiful, and I dig the nod toward a Grim Reaper theme.

Obviously the short story, Fire Ice and Linguini for Two must be part of some series. The characters are humorous and likeable, as is the writing style. I like the different element creature added into the mix. Birthdays may make you feel like you're cursed, but at least they can provide interesting stories as in Sebastian's case.

Vampire Hours was...awesome. Not in it's plot, but in the full force effect of "Hell Hath No Fury like a woman scorned." There's wicked revenge and redemption at the end - *evil fist pump?* - so this was a worthy, albeit different, one.

How Stella got her grave back contained not only an interesting mystery and decent characters, but the end was a great, sweet wrapup to this anthology.

Overall an excellent anthology, even better than 'My Supernatural Wedding'. Now I need to get to 'Death's excellent vacation' sometime.
( )

A collection of short stories, mostly from the big guns of the paranormal romance/urban fantasy genre (Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Tanya Huff, Kelly Armstrong...), all relating to vampires and birthdays. They weren't bad short stories, but after reading it last night I can't remember a single one that really interested me. Mostly I think it's because the authors are used to writing novels (and series novels, at that) and aren't used to having so little space. The other problem is most of the authors chose to use characters from their series, so I'm introduced to characters I'm supposed to already care about. Since I don't, and since I don't have any vested interest in whether Character A makes up with Character B, I was bored and frustrated with many of these stories. ( )

Slick, sometimes funny stories, sometimes scary. I found a couple of authors that I would be interested in reading their writings more. Great book for a birthday present ! ( )

A very merry undead birthday to you..... This is a collection of short stories centering around vampires and birthday celebrations. Many of which have redeeming qualities.

My favorite had to be the one where upon her 18th birthday a young woman is forced to make allegiance to a horrendous vampire in order to live out the rest of her natural life in safety. Upon refusing to do so, her family disowns her and she finds herself running for her life and seeking shelter with a young man she barely knew in school. I'm not going to tell you the rest of the story.

The offerings are suspenseful, oft times creepy, and well written. They certainly held my attention. ( )

Good little stories about unusual birthdays ( )

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life - [a:Rachel Caine|15292|Rachel Caine|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1272650500p2/15292.jpg] - 3.5 Stars - My goodness Michael is sweet. There's nothing like a guy who knows how to cheer you up after a beyond crap day. ( )

It's a collection of vampire stories about birthdays. A lot of the authors seem to be having fun with the limits and they also play with the concept of birthday as well, vampires can regard two days as birthdays, the day they were born as a vampire is often used as a birthday as well.

Charlaine Harris has a Sookie Stackhouse story here, Sookie is invited to a birthday party for Dracula, known as Dracula Night, Dracula goes to one of these parties every year, will he be at Eric's, Eric certainly hopes so.

The Mournful cry of Owls by Christopher Golden is a different story, a story of a stolen skin of a strega and a mother overwhelmed by grief who makes choices that will come to roost on her daughters birthday.

I was a teenage Vampire by Bill Crider - a girl wants a vampire for her party, her brother knows someone who knows someone. This will not end well for anyone. The last few paragraphs left me wondering.

Twilight by Kelley Armstrong featured a vampire having to deal with their life bargain. It was one of the better stories.

Jim Butcher's It's my Birthday, Too was fun, Dresden realises that it's his brother's birthday, his brother is at a LARP (where I met my husband) when some vampires with a vengeance come to play. I liked this one the most.

Grave Robbed by P. N. Elrod - a vampire detective uses his powers to investigate a medium who appears to be trying to rob a widow.

The first day of the rest of your life by Rachel Caine is the story of Eve moving into the Glass House as featured in the Morganville vampires series.

The Witch and the Wicked is about a witch catering for a vampire party and vanity getting in her way, a story that makes me want to read more by Jeanne C Stein, it was a clever story.

Blood Wrapped by Tanya Huff is a story with Henry and Tom and with Vicki, or rather her birthday, featuring in the background. Justice for a missing girl is delivered.

The Wish by Carolyn Haines - A haunting story of a woman who could see death choosing not to go with death when it's her time.

Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two by Tate Hallaway features a nordic vampire and a Christmas birthday that goes badly. A different vampire features

Vampire Hours by Elaine Viets is about a woman whose ageing challenges her husband and her decision to get her revenge on him.

How Stella got her Grave back is a vampire going back to her home town and getting her grave back from a murder victim. ( )

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life - Rachel Caine - 3.5 Stars - My goodness Michael is sweet. There's nothing like a guy who knows how to cheer you up after a beyond crap day. ( )

absolutely loved this book. Filled with short stories about vampires? How could I not love it? Here's my review about each story:
Dracula Night - Charlaine Harris: I've read this story already in one of Ms. Harris other Sookie books. Still was worth rereading about Eric planning a party for Count Dracula's birthday.
The Mournful Cry of Owls - Christopher Golden: Very interesting twist on vampirism... owls. I wasn't sure where it was going at first but I liked the fact that we go and find out what the main character goes through her "change" of life.

For the rest of the review, visit my blog at: http://angelofmine1974.livejournal.com/73263.html ( )

The Good: Vampires and birthdays - sounds like a random combinations - really works here. I generally avoid anthologies, but the stories here were almost all winners. I absolutely loved Kelley Armstrong, Jim Butcher and Rachel Caine's stories. This book also introduced me to Tanya Huff, who I'll definitely check out again soon. Tate Hallaway and Jeanne C. Stein's stories also motivated me to start looking into more of their works.

The Bad: The "original" Sookie story isn't all that original to anyone reading the book now, as it was included in the exclusively Sookie anthology "A Touch of Dead." And Christopher Golden's story was just sort of weird and overtly random. ( )

A so-so collection of vampire tales, some better than others but none of them particularly memorable. Glad I checked this one out rather than purchased, and it definitely won't be on my re-read list. ( )

The main reason I bought this book is because it had a short story from the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. It is an anthology with 12 other contributors about vampires. What I liked the most about it was how different each author interprets vampires. It varies between how they can be killed, whether they can go out in the sunlight or not, between the authors. Some of them had a more serious and morbid tone to them while others had dark humor. My favorites were "Dracula Nights" by Charlaine Harris, "Vampire Hours" by Elaine Viets, "Blood Wrapped" by Tany Huff, "The Witch and the Wicked" by Jeanne C.Stein and "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" by Rachel Caine. For vampire fans, this anthology is sure to satisfy because it has something for everyboday.

This review is specifically for "It's My Birthday, Too," the short story by Jim Butcher in this collection.

I would highly recommend NOT reading this until you've read earlier Dresden books (it's set after White Night). The premise of this story is based on a detail that is not revealed until several books into the series. WARNING: The rest of my (short) review below contains spoilers.

This was a fun tale focusing on Harry and his brother Thomas. Of course an occasion for a birthday can't help but devolve into mayhem when Harry's involved. Harry was resourceful as ever, Thomas was in fine form, and their sibling relationship might be stronger for it. There's nothing like fighting side by side for a wizard and his vampire half-brother. ( )

This anthology contains 14 stories from famous authors that mix vampires and birthdays. Some of my favorite stories were the funny ones, such as "I Was a Teenage Vampire" by Bill Crider, and the mystery ones, such as "Grave-Robbed" by P. N. Elrod. Of course, I really enjoyed the funny mystery "How Stella Got Her Grave Back" by Toni L. P. Kelner, which was the perfect ending to the collection. ( )

A very enjoyable anthology built around the twin themes of vampires and birthdays. The stories range from comedy to romance to tragedy and all are well done in their own different ways. Recommended, if this is the kind of thing you like, you will like this. ( )

Great new Jim Butcher story, and another disappointing Charlaine Harris short story solidifies my opinion that she should stick to the longer works. Other authors were ok, but I didn't encounter anyone I hadn't already put on my list. A fun book. ( )

This book was ok , it has short stories based on vampires and similar creatures. It was about 50 /50 for me, I liked about half the stories and the other half I didn't. ( )

There were thirteen short stories, all involving vampires and some sort of birthday. It wasn't terrible, but I found it dull. I guess I just don't really like this genre. Those who do, would probably enjoy it. ( )