The paranormal has always fascinated me. My mother thought it was unhealthy, but I simply wanted to meet a werewolf or a vampire to see if they really were how Hollywood portrayed them. I've yet to meet a vampire or a werewolf or any other paranormal being, but I keep hoping. For now, books will do to satisfy my curiosity.

Forever Midnight is a collection of three stories from three very talented authors. Each story handles a different view of shape-shifters, from traditional to not so traditional.

Silver Cuffs by Kate Hill covers the idea of a curse being a form of werewolf-ism. In modern day New Hampshire, a local businessman is preparing to tear down a historical landmark in order to make room for some apartment buildings he wants. A member of the local historical society, Tabatha Lane, tries her best to change his mind, but his greed gets in the way. When he visits the mansion on the eve before its destruction, he is sucked into a memory of the past that can hopefully change his future.

Shadow-Time Lover was my favorite of the trio. R. Casteel captured the fear of a lycanthrope at the thought of being discovered: the day-to-day knowledge that if someone finds out your secret, you will be greeted by a hunting party bearing torches and pitchforks within a few hours. It was also the first story I've read in a long time that had a woman being part of the "monster". He has made strong people to live in the world he created, and you cannot help but care for them. You hate their enemies and you feel their pain. To me, that is what makes a story good: the characters you can touch and feel with your own two hands.

A Matter of Duty threw me for a loop. Never before had I encountered a story in which the shape-shifter was not a lycanthrope of some flavor. Ms. Jewell has her shifters as something out of left field; they can change their shape into anything they want. I'm not sure if they can become animals of some sort, but they can go from male to female to blonde to brunette.

Piper is celebrating her second anniversary with her husband, Trey, when he finds out that, as a high-ranking part of the shape-shifter community, he must mate with another female of his own ilk. The mating has been approved, and now all they need is for the designated pair to hop to it. The problem is that both of them are married: Trey to Piper, and Nadia, the woman Trey is to mate, is married to Brice, a human man.

Piper accepts this, right up until he suggests that she herself sleep with the female shifter's husband. Trey cannot give Piper a baby. But Brice could give her one, just as he is going to give Brice's wife a child. Everyone gets what he or she wants. But can they handle the price?

Can Piper sleep with a man who is not her husband? Never mind that, can she sleep with another woman's husband? And have a child with him?

While none of us (I don't think) will ever have this dilemma, how she handles it, and the ideas of the possible fall-out from such a thing, is promised to keep you reading long into the night and you won't care that you'll be sleep deprived the next day.

All lycanthropes are shape-shifters, but not all shape-shifters are lycanthropes. It took me a long time to learn that through studying history and myths from all over the world. That being said, take a walk in the dark of night with the people in the pages of these stories and learn something new. Perhaps that howl you hear in the night isn't a neighbor's dog, but a werewolf looking for his mate. Take a good look at the attractive man on the bus tomorrow; maybe he's hiding a face that society won't accept and trying to learn his place in a society that none of us will ever know.

While I'm waiting, and hoping to meet a creature of the night, books like this one satisfy my thirst for the "maybe". And that is more than fulfilling.

Reviewed By Marissa
© February 2005