"I'm not going to bite her and no, I'm not going to turn her into a vampire" - Ashton

After the huge success of 2010's Scary Kisses it was only a matter of time before rampaging Editor Liz Gryzb would be back with more. The second volume in the unrepentant paranormal romance series sees seventeen more tales set to redefine the sub-genre and at last move us away from the eldritch horror that is Stephenie Meyer. Can PA work as a horror device, or are we still lurking around checking out Emo vampires and heaving breasts? - let's check out what the Editor sends our way.

For anyone still reading More Scary Kisses (MSK) proves the adage "you can't judge a book by its cover". Yes the anthology is firmly set in paranormal romance territory, but no we aren't for a moment approaching the levels of tween chick fantasy that is Twilight or the 101 imitators currently threatening to engulf bookshops around the Country. While on the subject, and a slight detour from the task at hand, tween chicks might have Twilight to get all misty eyed over, but their male counterparts equally have that Transformers bollocks to keep them amused. Something about small things amusing small minds, lost my train of thought there. Anyway, getting back on subject, Liz Gryzb might be sending a bunch of paranormal romance fiction our way, but in doing so she is gleefully ripping the throat out of the genre with an anthology simply dripping in the good stuff. Gryzb is not so much about adding fuel to the feminine fire here as redefining just what that fire is.

Even when this anthology does dip dangerously toward the sort of story that will have Twilight fans breathing just a little harder, there's method to the madness rather than ensuring we're stuck with the sort of fiction Mills and Boons regularly reject. Case in point Philomena and the Blond God, a deceptively simple narrator from the pen of Amanda Pillar that on the surface wouldn't be out of place as a sort of prequel to those horrid emo Vamp novels that are all the rage. Whilst it would be easy enough to accuse Pillar of simply dialling in the lowest common denominator any sort of analysis of the story surprises with duel themes of the outside and social etiquette. There's some teeth snarling on the pages here, but it's coming at you shrouded in the sort of charm that apparently Jane Austen yarns provide. Since this is a review site enough of the heavy vibes, back to the meat and three veg.

Naturally there's a fair smattering of ghost stories to while away stormy nights with, Martin Livings combines with Talie Helene to provide The Last Gig of Jimmy Rucker for example, but don't simply expect phantom lovers and partners now in the beyond. Donna Maree Hanson with The Phantom Lover uses the framework but disregards the protoplasm, while D C White tackles the humour angle in The Dark Night of Anton Weiss, a tale that had me laughing like the village idiot a couple of times. Sorry to bring Tony Abbott into the review. Guess I'm saying expect the unexpected, Editor Grzyb has mined some rich seams with this voyage into the unknown.

The real surprise, well for this Reviewer at least, was the high concentration of Vampires as predators and lycanthrope stories selected for the book. Grzyb isn't holding back on the claret in this regard either as the creatures of the night shake off any feelings of emo remorsefulness and go on full on rampage through the blood and viscera of their victims. Its a thing of beauty sports fans, I was rocking out to the whole fandango thrown onto my plate. Eric Ian Steele hits the back alleys and cesspools of a city in 3am, a story that takes a slightly different spin on the vampire lore we have all probably grown up with. For sure the predators in this one aren't sparkling in the sunlight. Hunting Rabbits throws a particularly nasty curve ball our way as Annette Backshall explores the lycanthrope mythos in amongst eastern European sex slaves. As stated Editor Gryzb isn't so much presenting paranormal romance as dragging it kicking and screaming into the darkness. And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention Kirstyn McDermott's wonderfully different Frostbitten, it's a vampire tale but not as we know it Jim.

Guess special mention should be made of Berries and Incense, Felicity Dowker here taking the idea of the paranormal romance tale and twisting it beyond all recognition. Jason Nahrung's Resurrection in Rec, a tale that revisits Anne Rice's gothic New Orleans. And of course Liz Coley's wonderfully subversive A Marriage of Convience. There's probably a few other stories I should throw some light on, but hey these reviews are meant to have a word limit.

[Editor's Note: Not that anyone actually concerns themselves with that requirement].

To sum up, due to the rapidly escalating volume of this review, Editor Liz Grzyb takes the paranormal romance genre by the scruff of its neck and re-evaluates what it is all about. We get standard horror tropes, the paranormal requirement, and a heck of a lot of at times perverse relationships, the romance quota of the calculation. Mixed in are a lot of blood and guts, and for those of the prime and proper nature quite a bit of sex of the abnormal kind. If this is sounding like every chick moment from a season of Supernatural then have no fear, there are demons lurking on the pages waiting for the unwary.

I'm always somewhat skittish in tackling a paranormal romance outing, besides the very real possibility of some shockingly bad writing, the general lay of the land is one step removed from the Bronte sisters. While Liz Grzyb does allow the odd period piece to stumble into the light, things are by and largely not that much removed from a standard horror anthology. If after a good collection of offbeat dark genre musings then you have come to the right place. Editor Gryzb throws down the gauntlet to non-romance readers and makes you wonder just what you might have been missing in a certain genre. Full recommendation on More Scary Kisses, the cover rocks by the way, for those after writing that is substantially better than your average paranormal romance bodice ripper. The darkness returns, and I'm giving Liz Gryzb a standing ovation for achieving that.

More Scary Kisses is available from publisher Ticondergoga, numerous retail outlets, and of course all good online Distributors. Dive on in kids, there's some meat on the bone here.