The idea of an anthology is to give you little tastes of story that you can savor in one delicious bite. It is still one of my favorite ways of enjoying various genre stories, and I have long had science fiction collections sitting by my bed for just that reason. But until I started writing this review column, I had never given much thought to romance anthologies. Boy- was I ever missing a treat!

Short stories take a different kind of writing then a novel. You don’t have all that space to build up characters and involve the reader. You pretty much need to grab them from the first page and just push them headlong into your story. So writing romance short stories can be quite a challenge. Here, then, are a handful of great collections of romance short stories, some old and some new that I thought I could share with all of you out there.

They are the perfect book to have by your bedside for that night when you don’t want to find yourself caught up in some long sweeping romantic novel that wrecks your sleep time (what Me? I never stay up until 5AM to finish that romance novel!). I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did picking them out. They are a gloriously diverse bunch.

Title: Songs of Love and Death: All Original Tales of Star Crossed Love
Author: George R.R. Martin, Neil Gaiman, Diana Gabaldon, Jim Butcher, Jo Beverly, Mary Jo Putney, Peter S Beagle, Tanith Lee.
Release: November 2010
Pages: 480
Genre: Romance

 In this star-studded cross-genre anthology, seventeen of the greatest modern authors of fantasy, science fiction, and romance explore the borderlands of their genres with brand-new tales of ill-fated love. From zombie-infested woods in a postapocalyptic America to faery-haunted rural fields in eighteenth- century England, from the kingdoms of high fantasy to the alien world of a galaxy-spanning empire, these are stories of lovers who must struggle against the forces of magic and fate. 

Title: Hearts Divided
Authors: Debbie Macomber, Katherine Stone, Lois Faye Dyer
Release: June 2006
Pages: 411
Genre: Contemporary Romance

 Grandmothers know best . . . especially these three grandmothers, all soldiers’ brides. Their generation lived through war and peace, good times and bad, love and loss.

5-B Poppy Lane by Debbie Macomber
All her life, Ruth Shelton has loved visiting her grandmother in Cedar Cove, Washington. Now Ruth comes to ask advice about her own romance with a soldier — and discovers a secret in her grandmother’s past.

The Apple Orchard by Katherine Stone
Clara MacKenzie’s granddaughter Elizabeth arrives at Clara’s Oregon farm needing comfort. That’s exactly what Clara offers — and so does a childhood friend named Nick Lawton. But Nick wants to offer Elizabeth more than comfort. More than friendship . . .

Liberty Hall by Lois Faye Dyer
When Professor Chloe Abbot finds herself caught up in a troublesome mystery, she turns to her grandmother. She needs Winifred’s expertise as a wartime code breaker. She doesn’t need suggestions about her love life — all of which involve an ex-marine Jake Morrissey!

Title: Once Upon A Castle
Authors: Nora Roberts, Marianne Willman, Ruth Ryan Langan, Jill Gregory
Release: October 1998
Pages: 614
Genre:  Romance

 First time in print, these new stories of romance and magic begin with one written by bestselling author Nora Roberts with a tale of spells and their consequences. Also along for the ride are three of her closest friends and popular romance authors in their own right, Jill Gregory with a gothic tale, Ruth Ryan Langan who brings her romantic spirit to “Falcon’s Lair” and Marianne Willman’s “Dragonspell” which adds a light fantasy touch. Here are four enchanting tales of castles, spells, and happily-ever-after.

Title: Love Stories
Author: Diana Secker Tesdell (editor)
Release: January 2009
Pages: 400
Genre: Classic Romance

 A new anthology of literary love stories—the third collection in the appealing Pocket Classics format.

Here are nineteen stories from a rich array of writers, and here is every kind of romantic entanglement: from the raw, erotic passion of D. H. Lawrence and Colette to the wickedly cynical comedy of Dorothy Parker and Roald Dahl, from the yearnings of unrequited romantic illusions in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” to the agonizing madness of jealousy in Vladimir Nabokov’s “That in Aleppo Once . . .” The objects of passion in these stories range from a glamorous silent-movie starlet in Elizabeth Bowen’s haunting “Dead Mabelle” to an emotionally opaque heart surgeon in Margaret Atwood’s “Bluebeard’s Egg.”

Jhumpa Lahiri plumbs the depths of despair between a husband and wife separated by tragedy, while Lorrie Moore movingly portrays a husband and wife for whom tragedy becomes a bond. Katherine Mansfield, Tobias Wolff, and William Trevor explore the intricacies of long-term relationships, while Guy de Maupassant, Italo Calvino, and T. C. Boyle portray the initial, elemental force of love. This is a collection as alluring, moving, and intoxicating as its timeless theme.

As you can see there is a little here for every kind of reader. One of the joys of the anthology is that you can read it cover to cover or hop around reading one story here, another back there, sort of like a box of chocolates. You just never know when you will hit the one with the creamy caramel filling!

Deni