What an eclectic group of stories and characters, written by some amazing authors. Some stories I didn't quite *love* (only because the lingo was to "young for me and gods that makes me sound old!!) And others were absolutely amazing, and I have found new authors to stalk later :)

I love what you're doing for charity and I hope it does well.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37571614-resilience" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Resilience: Puerto Rico" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1513653389m/37571614.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37571614-resilience">Resilience: Puerto Rico</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3475793.Sasha_L_Miller">Sasha L. Miller</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2333276066">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I rec'd a copy from NetGalley/Less Than Three Press. <br />Wonderful idea from conception to donation of proceeds to Puerto Rico. My favourite in this anthology was A Faire Encounter by A.M. Valenza. Nifty and magical. <br />Overall 3 stars.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31134832-gail">View all my reviews</a>

First of all, a big kudos to all who were involved with the production of this work as the proceeds will be donated towards the rebuilding of Puerto Rico.

A good description of these short stories would be LGBTQIA speculative fiction stories. It's a good contribution to the realm of fantasy and science fiction, where sadly diverse sexual and cultural representation is still rather poor. However, I will confess to being disappointed with quite a few of the stories because their whole raison d'etre appears to be the LGBT relationships. Take "Dream" by Nicole Field, for example. A painter Mia is being visited in her dreams by Morpheus, god of dreams. There is so much potential material here: Morpheus could be a muse for the artist to produce fantastical paintings, the exploration of the thin line between insanity and artistry, Mia could be a entry conduit for Morpheus into real life, discussion of immortality and beauty. Nope, Morpheus wants to be in a three-some, that is all.

What I did like were some personal real-life vulnerabilities that the characters had that would pop up at odd times. "Sleepwalking and the Single Girl" - sleepwalking and fear of heights. Also loved the mention of Tad Cooper and Galavant. "A Faire Encounter" - hypoglycemia from diabetes. "The Potion Maker" - bullying and student debt.

In "A Faire Encounter", the main characters had Mexican origins and so would sprinkle Spanish words like 'tia' or 'abuela' into their conversations. I like the concept but the words were inserted into speech in a rather awkward unnatural manner. This story seemed best for tweens or middle-graders. The setting of a medieval renaissance fair was interesting but the way the story developed fell flat for me.

My favourite story of this anthology was The Potion Maker by Sasha Miller. Although the culmination of the story again was the gay romance but there was enough other happenings - poisoning, potion making, magical spell of lightening loads, illegal magery, urgent political message to be delivered - to make the whole story entertaining. "A Night In The Beast's Arms" by LJ Hamlin was really just a re-telling of Beauty and The Beast with a homosexual twist.

Thanks to Less than Three Press and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book for review.