Faeries Gone Wild by MaryJanice Davidson, Michele Hauf, Lois Greiman, Leandra Logan

From the Publisher

MARYJANICE DAVIDSON “Tall, Dark and Not So Faery”

Scarlett is not your typical pint-sized faery. At six feet, four inches tall, she’s an unlikely candidate for a match made in heaven. But when she ventures to Cannon Falls, Minnesota, on royal orders to survey its extraordinary residents, she stumbles upon the one man who just may measure up to size…

LOIS GREIMAN “Pixie Lust”

William Timber is a cutthroat developer who refuses to let a few trees come between him and his next million. But when Avalina—a sparkling faery charged to protect all things green—comes to town, William is forced to choose between life as he knows it and the unknown reaches of his heart.

MICHELE HAUF “Dust Me, Baby, One More Time”

A librarian by day and a tooth faery by night, Sidney has absolutely no time to find Mr. Right. Until she flies smack dab into sexy, sun-bronzed Dart Sand, a man who makes her wings a-flutter…and whose allure could get her banished from the Mortal Realm.

LEANDRA LOGAN “A Little Bit Faery”

Tia is mystified when she strikes out on the Luna faery singles scene, in spite of her hourglass curves and vivacious charm. Then she takes off for Manhattan and lands on the doorstep of a steamy firefighter who sets her soul on fire—and shares a strong connection to her secret past.

Publishers Weekly

This lighthearted romance anthology is as flighty and inconsistent as its fey protagonists. The most charming tale is Logan's "A Little Bit Faery," in which appealing young faery Tia Mayberry becomes enthralled by life in Manhattan and a sexy mortal firefighter. In Hauf's whimsical "Dust Me, Baby, One More Time," prudish fairy Sidney Tooth is forced to ally with the arrogant sandman Dart Sand against skeptical humans. Davidson pairs a tiny magical census taker with a half-mortal giant in the choppy, crowded "Tall, Dark and Not So Faery," while Greiman's banal "Pixie Lust" sets up naïve California pixie Avalina and real estate developer Will Timber, whose characterization is as wooden as his name. Even the most forgiving fans are unlikely to be enchanted. (June)

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Cannon Falls, Minnesota

Pop.: 6,661

7:28 p.m. CST Tuesday, during the Law & Order marathon on TNT

She came out of the woods like an arrow, a six-foot, four-inch arrow with the huge diaphanous wings of a dragonfly and the split ends of a beach bum, and she didn’t float, or flitter.

None of her kind did.

She moved smoothly, like a machine, her toes always exactly 1.3 inches off of the grass and, as she neared the house, the gravel.

She was holding a clipboard and a pen, and her eyes were the color of ice. Her hair was the color of tree bark, and hung halfway down her back in a riot of rich brown waves.

She moved up the driveway, eyeing with some trepidation the gray Escape that now appeared much closer than she had first assumed. In fact, it was rolling toward her, the gravel crunching beneath the wheels.

No one was driving, which, although she wasn’t entirely surprised, still made her uneasy. She’d heard rumors, of course, which was part of the reason she was here, but surely all the rumors couldn’t be—

"Nice wings. You look like an escapee from a children’s ice-skating show." The small SUV came to a stop six inches from her toes. "This is private property, you big dumb dragonfly, so why don’t you hit the bricks?"

She was intimidated enough by a fairy’s natural uneasiness around machinery; being spoken to by a vehicle was even more unsettling. "I—I’m here on official business."

The car stereo chortled static. "Official dragonfly business?"

She had no idea if the machine was joking or not. The voice was feminine, with a raspy edge. In her nervousness, her feetsettled to the gravel. She tiptoed around the SUV but didn’t have the nerve to turn her back on the vehicle and continue up the drive. "Official fairy business. I’m a counter."

"Kitchen or bathroom?"

She pondered that for a moment, puzzled, then answered, "Household. I count things."

"Why?"

She blinked and hugged the clipboard to her chest. "Because. Because that is our nature. We count."

" ‘We’ being uptight accountants with wings . . . ?"

"Fairies."

"Huh." The engine thrummed thoughtfully and the headlights popped on, then dimmed. Almost as if—ha-ha!—the machine was deep in thought. "Must be the brat. Must be."

She was edging around the hood and now she was walking backward, still far too rattled to fly. "Yes, well, I have to count."

"It’s just as well," the vehicle called after her as she began an undignified scramble up the steps. "It’s been really dull around here! Hey! Get back here. Where d’you think you’re going? We’re having a conversation, aren’t we? Hellooooo?"

Excerpted from Faeries Gone Wild by Mary Janice Davidson.Copyright © 2009 by Mary Janice Davidson.Published by St. Martin’s Press.

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