I may be a little biased because I contributed the story "The Great Kitty Rescue," but that doesn't change the fact that this collection of stories is phenomenal. You'll read true stories as well as fiction from mystery to fantasy. There is literally everything for every reader and of course it's perfect for cat lovers. What more could you want? If that doesn't beat all, ALL of the proceeds will go to a worthy cause that animal lovers will happily approve. I for one am glad to be a contributor and reader of "The Cat Who Chose Us and Other Stories."

Super cute.

Swanbound is said to bring the beauty of Tchaikovsky's ballet to life, and you certainly get a vibe of Swan Lake while reading this story, which reads like a fairy tale. There's a sorcerer who turns into a beast, a young maiden who is kidnapped, an evil doppelganger, kingdoms threatened by magic, and, of course, true love, as well as curses.

I love Odile, Odette's dark counterpart. What can I say? I'm drawn to evil female character with black hair, bright eyes, and wearing black gowns. ;) I found the characters a little silly, but that's what made me recall Disney fairy tales even more.

If you like fairy tales, Swan Lake retellings, Disney princesses (although not as actual characters), then you'll enjoy this story by Brooke Elden.

A dark retelling of Little Red, Grimbound features Eirwen, a young woman with a big imagination and a gift for seeing magical things, who finds her grandmother dead one day in her cottage.

Brooke Elden writes about grief, death, heartbreak, and manipulation in a very raw way, but it's also poetic. She has a lovely way with descriptions that reads like poetry. Actually, there are verses in this book, and I think it's my favorite thing about it. She's an amazing poet.

In the beginning, I liked Keayr, a stranger Eirwen meets in the woods, because he's dark and mysterious. And, well, I like dark and mysterious guys. ;) His constant terms of endearments comparing her to baked goods started to drive me bonkers (lol), but later you learn just why they're used and so often.

When The Storybook came in, it reminded me of the TV show Once Upon a time and their Storybook and The Writer. I loved that show, and I enjoyed what Brooke Elden did, bringing fairy tale stories to life.

Eirwen learns "not all is as it seems," and that's the perfect way to describe this book! Get ready for some twists!

If you enjoy dark retellings of fairy tales, give Grimbound a try!

***Trigger Warnings: self-harm (cutting), grief/death, depression, mentally abusive relationship/manipulation.

Scarlotte Bloodbourne is the tale of a vampire who knows how to charm and kill anyone she wants.

Brooke Elden's descriptions are captivating, and I enjoyed Scarlotte's character.

The ending makes me wonder if there will be another story. Hmm...

There's a scene with a putrid wendigo that is identical to the scene in Grimbound by Brooke Elden with The Beast. Given Scarlotte becomes a vampire, what happens in this scene, and what the wendigo (Beast) says, it works a lot better for this story. Although, still gross. lol

Do Electric Sheep Eat Artificial Turf - Cute.

A Startling Revelation - The conclusion the characters came to at the end had me chuckling. This story really highlighted what people are doing now (not shaking hands, wiping everything down with antibacterial wipes, etc.) My favorite read from the anthology.

Gone Viral - That's why you read the fine print. lol I liked this story. The ending was perfect.

An Issue of Tissue - Not much of a story, sorry to say.

Nothing to Show - Clever set up and storytelling, I really enjoyed how this one was written, how what happened was told to us, and the vortex part was genius.

The Last Roll of Toilet Paper on Maui - What the family did was funny but poor guy! lol

Debriefing - Not really sure what this one was about. I found it hard to follow.

The Toilet Paper Expansion - Clever story involving toilet paper. I got a real kick out of the MC's dilemma. If only we could be so lucky.

Tough Girl Act - This story had my favorite character in it. I like tough girls. ;)

The Great Toilet Paper Raid - The ending made me chuckle. I enjoyed their raid.

Trail of Carnage - Funny and cute story that all dog owners will relate to.

Better off Alone - On, the things writers discuss. But that ending! LOL

A Perfect Match - Yikes. Kinda made me think of all the victims of domestic violence and what they're dealing with or dealt with during lock down.

The Unbelievable TP Heist - Even monsters want TP.

Top 3 favorite stories (order of appearance) : A Startling Revelation, Nothing to Show, The Toilet Paper Expansion

The only thing that took away from some of my enjoyment was how every story needed to be proofread. They all had missing words, extra words, missing punctuation or quotation marks, etc.

A true story done in graphic novel form that kids can understand. I appreciated it, although, yes, I hate that it happened and is part of our history. I won't give this book a low rating for stating the truth of what happened and how it happened.

Each story has a great ending, which is important for stories as short as 200 words.

The author mentioned her favorite story is Void, and I loved that one, too. I think it's my favorite as well.

Rumble - I've heard noises while listening to music and had to figure out if it was real or the song, so this story gave me a little chill.

Everything Dies - This one would make a great Paranormal-Romance novel.

I personally didn't like that the pentagrams in the stories with witches all summoned demons, but I did like the story Missing Ingredients.

Employee of the Month - A magical twist on scammers in the publishing industry.

I liked reading the stories inspired by the works the author had already published.

Overall, an enjoyable collection of stories. Recommended for anyone who enjoys (or needs) quick reads.

A line in the story reads, “Masters locked away learning ‘cause knowledge is it’s own freedom.” And damn. Doesn’t that just shine even more light on the fact that students aren’t taught the truth about a lot of our American history in school? Why aren’t certain things taught? Why are things altered? Because “knowledge is it’s own freedom.”

This fictional telling of the first Memorial Day (Decoration Day) was very moving.

Now this was what I was expecting when I read Book One. This ebook consists of three short reads. Honestly, there could've been more, but they were longer than the stories in Book One. At the very end there's a page titled "The Folklore Behind the Stories" with short, simple explanations on the folklore and creatures, which was sufficient. The next page is a Resource page with suggested further reading. That's what I had expected with Book One.

Ronel is a fabulous writer who knows how to write detailed stories. Her descriptions are beautiful. I feel that descriptions are her super power. I was captivated right away by Anja and the Veil and her world and all the creatures in it.

My favorite story of the three was the second one titled The Darkest Day. I loved reading about Krampus. Even Befana and Bertha made appearances, which delighted me.

Oh, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the musicians in the first story (The Torn Veil) were Linkin Park, right? I caught that immediately and enjoyed that.

Very well-written. Loved it.