I'm beginning to like anthology/short story collections -- not really the content as much as the length. Granted, I wish some of the better stories were full-length novels, but eh...I'll take what I can get from my favorites. But short stories work really well for filling in time gaps when I don't have the luxury to grab up a whole novel and start in on it. Sometimes I don't want a full meal, you know? Sometimes I just want a snack. These things are like cheetos for your brain.

This is a foursome from three great authors, and one newcomer I've never read before. The premise is women who "know how to save the day -- and enjoy the rewards at night..." which sounds pretty entertaining. And they are, to a certain degree.

I shy away from anything by Maggie Shayne outside of stand-alones or short stories, simply because I don't care for her idea of vampires or the writing style attached to them. I do, however, like her addition to this one : The Bride Wore a .44. Kira is a deep undercover DEA agent with amnesia after an explosion in Africa that killed her father (does this sound like one too many episodes of Alias?) On her wedding day, her memory begins to return...and the groom is actually the bad guy. And the wedding planner is actually her husband. Much mayhem ensues.

MaryJanice Davidson's offering is The Incredible Misadventures of Boo and the Boy Blunder. Boo is a beautiful, albino bounty hunter vampire killer chick. While hunting down a nasty one, she rescues Boy Blunder from a vampire's all-night buffet. When she finds out that a cop-turned-vampire is the one who hired her in the first place, her rules about the undead go out the window.

As always, Angela Knight's contribution is rock solid. Warfem has cyborgs and secrets and treason and sex in zero gravity. I mean, really...how cool is zero gravity sex? I hear this is like her Jane's Warlord, but I can't make any comparisons since it's on my bookshelf to-be-read.

The last is the newcomer, Jacey Ford's Painkillers. A supermodel/spy/heroine, a hunky hero, and a really bad guy (the best character.) No comparisons yet again, since this is the first time I've read anything by this author.

All in all, in some ways it didn't really live up to its name. Although the stories were well-written and cool and fun, I can only stand so much leather-and-boots outside of BDSM novels. Spies and heroines don't exactly wear this stuff on a daily basis. They'd stick out in a crowd, don't you think? And high heels aren't really good for hand-to-hand combat, but at least you can beat the crap out of someone with a stiletto in a pinch. It's all about "fading into the night," I guess.

And it really can't be kick-ass when they don't even have the ovaries to use Kick Ass without sissifying it with cutesy symbols. We're grown-ups. I doubt the kiddies are trolling through the romance section of Borders, and if they are? They've heard much worse at school. Trust me.

Other than those minor quibbles, it's good stuff.