Bite is a short story book by favorite great fantasy book writers like Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, MaryJanice Davidson, Angela Knight and Vickie Taylor.

This book contains a diverse range of short stories with one thing in common: the stories revolve around vampires and their distant relatives, the werewolves. The sometimes light-hearted humor and sometimes suspenseful adventure make this collection of fantasy short stories a delightful and exciting one.

Here’s a quick summary of each story:

The Girl Who Was Infatuated with Death by Laurell K Hamilton
This story is about a desperate mother who seeks out the vampire hunter, Anita Blake, for help in finding her daughter. Why? Because her daughter is trying to turn into a vampire in order to escape her cancer. Anita agrees to find her, knowing that if the girl has already become a vampire, she’ll have to stake the vampire that turned her since turning a teenager is against the law. In this tale Anita and her boyfriends, Jean-Claude (a vampire), and Ulfric (the leader of a wolf pack) have their work cut out for them.

One Word Answer by Charlaine Harris
Sookie Stackhouse, a psychic waitress in Louisiana, has another case to solve. While doing yardwork with her vampire ex-boyfriend, Bill Compton, a mysterious man pulls up in a limousine and informs Sookie that her cousin, Hadley, has died and left Sookie all of her possessions. But Sookie distrusts this news and has a hunch that the messenger’s not human and that there’s more to the story than meets the eye. She’s right on both counts for she’s about to be lured into a much bigger and more dangerous mission.

By the way, the latest entry in the True Blood books series, Dead In The Family, will be released May 2010!

Biting in Plain Sight by MaryJanice Davidson
Sophie Trudeau is a veterinarian in a small, quiet Minnesota town. She’s a vet that only tends to sick animals in the middle of the night. She also never seems to grow any older. People know there’s something different about her, but they don’t push it because she’s a great doctor. However when a chain of deaths occur, Sophie suspects a rogue vampire. So Sophie, along with her good friend Liam, set out to solve the crime with the help of a ditzy vampire queen. This story combines humor and a good plotline to make for a wonderful short story.

Galahad by Angela Knight
The setting is Mageverse, and King Arthur and his vampire knights dedicate themselves to saving the day and humanity as a whole, with the help of some witches. However, the witches’ aid comes with a condition; their power can only be activated by having sex with a vampire. Caroline Lang, a new witch, is just starting to learn the ropes when an evil cult threatens to take over the universe. Can Caroline get her magic “activated” in time for her to join the battle? As you can imagine, Galahad is an adventurous and lustful (and I do mean LUSTFUL) tale.

Blood Lust by Vickie Taylor
Daniel Hart has developed what many thought impossible: a flawless synthetic form of blood. But his vampire employer steals both his work and his girlfriend. Daniel, not one to take things lying down, seeks to turn himself into a vampire and go after what was stolen from him. However he discovers that becoming one of the undead is an almost impossible challenge. Blood Lust is an engaging short story with lots of fun characters.

I had a lot of fun reading Bite and comparing the different writing styles of the authors in this funny and sexy fantasy book. Check it out.