The second Bad-Ass Faeries anthology, Just Plain Bad has an additional twenty faerie stories ready to rip all of your preconceived notions of faeries apart. As in the original Bad-Ass Faerie, this one is also broken down into different categories of Fae and also has continuations of a couple of stories featured in the first anthology.

Under the Rebel Fae grouping, The Rescue of Mr. Spaghetti is by returning Bad-Ass Faerie author L. Jagi Lamplighter. ER doctor and mother, Clara has been the repeated victim of car thieves and Detective Mab is on the case. When she tells him that pirates stole her car, Clara is sure the detective will think her crazy. But when Mab tells her that he pirates are the worst of the supernatural scum in Faeriedom, she is the one who thinks HE is crazy. Because the car happened to contain Mr. Spaghetti, her autistic son Sammy’s doll, Clara is bound and determined to get her car back. But she’s not prepared to deal with what she finds when she takes on the investigation herself.

In Whiskey Sour by Skyla Dawn Cameron, we meet rogue Fae Juliette. A bartender, she had taken a customer home with her over a year ago. While some people regret their one night stands for a variety of reasons, Juliette had a very specific reason. Her one night stand, Toby, had infected her with lycanthropy. Now, as far as she knew, Juliette was the only werefaerie and wasn’t exactly jumping with joy about it. When Toby reappears and requests her help, Juliette realizes she has the perfect opportunity for revenge.

Under the Shadow Fae heading, we revisit some old friends from the first Bad-Ass Faerie book. In Danielle Ackly-McPhail’s story Within The Guardian Bell, we catch up with biker fae Lance and his love Suzanne. Still in danger because of his halfling status, Lance is attacked by gremlins while he travels back to Suzanne. Her latest gift of protection for Lance is a small bell that hangs from his motorcycle. When it is disarmed by the removal of the clapper, Lance must use ingenuity and his halfling powers to save the bell as well as his own life.

In the final category, Enforcer Fae, we find a new take on the traditional Rumplestiltzkin tale. Repostiltzkin by James Daniel Ross is one of my favorite stories from this anthology. Sixteen years old, a computer game geek and unpopular, Sam is shocked to find his mother arguing with a man who puts Sam in the mind of some sort of ancient goblin type. As Sam’s mother is unable to fulfill her end of a contract, Sam is taken as payment. He accompanies his captor throughout the day to make more pick ups. Some of their stops include the homes of his more popular classmates where no one else is taken, but valued traits or possessions are. Their last stop of the day is at the home of Janice, the most beautiful girl in school. To save her and her beauty, Sam must figure out the name of his captor to break the contract.

While I found some of the stories in this installment to be a bit more dark and violent than in the first, I still really liked it. There are a variety of stories with varying subjects and a person should be able to easily find something to like. Also, you don’t need to read the first book to read this one. There are a couple of stories that continue over from the first book, but they aren’t tied into the same story line. You can read this series in any order you wish without following a specific time line.

Book Stats:

• Paperback: 284 pages
• Publisher: Marietta Publishing (May 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892669463
• ISBN-13: 978-1892669469

To purchase a print copy of Just Plain Bad: Bad-Ass Faeries 2 click here.

Books in the Bad-Ass Faeries series in the order they should be read:
Bad-Ass Faeries
Bad-Ass Faeries 2: Just Plain Bad

To visit the submitting author’s website go here.

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