This was a great little anthology! Some stories were better than others but I feel like I got a little from them all!! More stories were geared to vampires more than anything but a couple of good ghost stories were thrown in there as well.

Would recommend to any teenage girl whose into vampires and the supernatural (and right now, what teenage girl isn't?)

read only Kelley Armstrong's story, Facing Facts!

Review Taken from The Pewter Wolf

There was only two reasons why I wanted this book: Kimberly Derting and Ally Condie. I know, pretty lame reasons, but I love this authors so I had to read these!

Now, the idea behind this collection of short stories is interested. In the US, these authors were involved in a tour called Smart Chick Kick It where authors organised and toured, talking about their kiss-ass heroines and writing. And, to keep the tour experience alive for people who went (or couldn't go), they decided to write a anthology with the theme of road trips, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

Now, as this is a collection of short stories, the first thing you have to be aware is that not every story is going to appeal to you. It's very much a mixed-bag. You have stories about fairies, vampires, angels, zombies, angels and goodness knows what else! But, I think it's kinda important to, sometimes, read outside your comfort-zone and read authors that you weren't aware of. You might discover little gems in there...

And I did. I read them in order (which you don't have to, but as I was going to review this, I felt I had to) and it is very interesting to see where the writers went with the theme "road trips".

Now, here is a major problem with this collection of shorts. There are sixteen stories in this collection and around nine of them were linked to the series the writers are writing or a follow-up to another short story in another anthology. Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, but if you are unaware of the series in question, you might have a "Huh?" moments.

But I found several stories I like, so (because this is my blog so I can) here is five randomly-picked stories I thought "whoa!" over (in book order):

1. RED RUN by Kami Garcia - I know of the Beautiful Creatures series for a while, though never read it. So I read this and couldn't help thinking how gothic it was.
2. THINGS ABOUT LOVE by Jackson Pearce - this is linked to her debut, As You Wish but this was nice story where there was a male lead (yeah) and he was gay and it wasn't a big deal (HURRAH!!!). I would date Lawrence in a heartbeat. Just saying...
3. BRIDGE by Jeri Smith-Ready - Now, I have read Shade and I thought it was ok. But this was an interesting thing to add to the series. And as the story was told in verses (like a song), this was one of the fastest shorts I read!
4. SKIN CONTACT by Kimberly Derting - I love Kimberly! I just love her! And this story, an extra to her Body Finder series (again, with a male lead! How rare in YA paranormal!) got me very excited. And it made me want to read the next book in the series or her new book, The Pledge...
5. LEAVING by Ally Condie - I know some of you guys have mixed feelings about Matched, but I liked it. A lot. And this was another story set in a dystopian future. This was one of the only stories I wished was longer!

This is a mixed bag but there are little gems in here. You juts have to look for them...

Enthralled features 16 stories by 16 of the most popular current YA paranormal writers. Stories range from the appearance of a ghost guarding a road, to twins with unique capabilities, to a vampire trying out a new vending machine. This book is a great sampling of many of the different writers, especially of popular series, that are hot on the market today, and a nice variety for fans of paranormal fiction.

The only issue I had with the anthology was that nearly all of the stories take place in the universes of series. This is either a good or a bad thing: good if you’re a fan of the series and want more, bad if you have never read them and are completely lost. There were a couple of really strong exceptions: “Red Run” by Kami Garcia, “At the Late Night, Double Features, Picture Show” by Jessica Verday, and “I.V. League” by Margaret Stohl are all stand-alone stories. I have to say, Verday’s story was my favorite. It’s completely geeky and raucous fun. How could you not love a story that features zombie girl scouts and a carfull of vampires dressed up, going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show?

This anthology is a must-have for fans of any of the authors featured, and is worth picking up for fans of the genre in general.

Collection of short stories with fantasy themes...some better than others, good intro to some authors who have published full-length novels.

Enthralled was one the better anthologies I've read. Like all short story collections there are the good, the bad and the blah stories, but Enthralled had more good than I was expecting.

Some of my favorite stories were: Automatic by Rachel Caine. This was an awesome addition the the Morganville series, that I really enjoyed. Gargouille by Mary E. Pearson was a beautiful story that I wished would've kept on going. The gargoyle mythology was fascinating. Let's Get This Undead Show on the Road by Sarah Rees Brennan was a hilarious story about a vampire in a boy band. Bridge by Jeri Smith-Ready was a bit melancholic, but written beautifully and kept me very interested in the story and makes me want to check out the series it goes with. The Third Kind by Jennifer Lynna Barnes was obviously good. I have never read anything I didn't like by her. Things About Love by Jackson Pearce surprised me by how much I liked it because I'm not usually a genie fan, but it was pretty funny and I enjoyed it.

All in all, this was a good collection of short stories which contained some of the best YA authors out there right now. I enjoyed stories by some of my favorite authors and found some new authors to check out.

This is an anthology with stories by sixteen "Smart Chicks" authors including Jeri Smith-Redy, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Rachel Vincent, and more. The stories run the gamut from sweet to creepy, from funny to serious, but all are well crafted and interesting.

Like all anthologies, there were stories I liked, and others, not so much. But even the ones that didn't top my "favorites" list were still good. All of them contained paranormal aspects. The crafting of Jeri Smith-Redy's story "Bridge" was unusual enough to make it stand out. Written in free-form poetry style, it was soul-wrenching, poignant and moving. There were others that pulled the heartstrings as well. But there were also ones that made me laugh, or cringe.

Overall, this was an really good anthology that would be a great buy for those who don't have time or don't want to spend a lot of time in a long novel. The stories are short, easy to read and very well crafted.

Recommended for any teen who loves paranormals and a little bit of romance.

Loved these short stories

I picked this up originally because I read all the novellas to my favorite series!

I read:

Scenic Route by Carrie Ryan: 3 Stars (28 pages)
very scary but pretty real situation of what happens when you are hiding out and trying to survive as 2 young girls in the middle of the wilderness in a cabin.

Niederwald by Rachel Vincent: 4 stars (26 pages)
Sabine. Just bleh. I always want to smack her
but it was incredibly interesting to see Sabine and Emma and these other creatures and their interaction. And to know the pieces they held and bartered with meant something later on! I loved it!

Automatic by Rachel Caine: 3 stars (24 pages)
Wonderful. Michael is always good to read about. Any glimpse into his life and the life with Eve is wonderful. But it's easy to forget what he's been through when you are with Claire and not Michael, so I love remembering and seeing the vampire world from new eyes (not human, too!) Ugh, still don't like Oliver.