Heroic Hearts: Edited By Jim Butcher And Kerrie Hughes : A Review

An all-star urban fantasy collection featuring short stories from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jim Butcher, Patricia Briggs, Charlaine Harris, Kelley Armstrong, and more . . .

In this short story collection of courage, adventure, and magic, heroes–ordinary people who do the right thing–bravely step forward.

But running toward danger might cost them everything. . . .

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s “Little Things,” the pixie Toot-Toot discovers an invader unbeknownst to the wizard Harry Dresden . . . and in order to defeat it, he’ll have to team up with the dread cat Mister.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Patricia Briggs’s “Dating Terrors,” the werewolf Asil finds an online date might just turn into something more–if she can escape the dark magic binding her.

In #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s “The Return of the Mage,” the Britlingen mercenaries will discover more than they’ve bargained for when they answer the call of a distress beacon on a strange and remote world.

And in #1 New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s “Comfort Zone,” the necromancer Chloe Saunders and the werewolf Derek Souza are just trying to get through college. But they can’t refuse a ghost pleading for help.

ALSO INCLUDES STORIES BY Annie Bellet * Anne Bishop * Jennifer Brozek * Kevin Hearne * Nancy Holder * Kerrie L. Hughes * Chloe Neill * R.R. Virdi

I feel like I probably say this every time I read or review something like this, but I’m normally not a huge fan of anthologies or short story collections. It always feels like the story ends just when I’m really getting sucked into it or starting to really love the characters. Though, now that I think about it, it’s really obvious that that is the point as I almost always go out and buy more books by the authors in the anthology. Heroic Hearts is no exception because as soon as I finished reading it I started either rereading books by the authors I knew or looking into the books of the authors I haven’t read yet.

There were a lot of good stories in this book and while I enjoyed every one of them, the two that stood out the most to me were by my two favorite authors in the anthology– Jim Butcher and Patricia Briggs. With Little Things by Jim Butcher, I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of what life was like for Dresden post-Battle Ground. The fact that it was told from Toot’s PoV was just icing on the cake. I didn’t think I could love Toot as a character more than I already do but Little Things shows how amazing he is and how much he’s grown.

And Patricia Briggs’s Dating Terrors was just as fun to read like all the other Asil short stories we’ve gotten so far. I love Asil every time he makes an appearance and every time we get one of his date stories I’m just hoping it will go well for him because he’s a character deserving of love and acceptance. I don’t want to spoil anything but I thought Dating Terrors was by far the best of Asil’s date stories we’ve gotten so far and I hope we get to see more of what happens next soon.

While those were easily my two favorite stories in the anthology, I think every story I read was just fantastic. Heroic Hearts definitely introduced me to some authors I’ve never read before and I’ll definitely be checking the books of pretty much every author in this anthology. I enjoyed this book enough that I just bought the audiobook the other day so I can re-experience all the stories in a new medium with some great narrators.

All in all, I thought this book was fantastic and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for something new to read. It’s a great introduction to some really good authors and some of the best urban fantasy series on the market today.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.