The Lost Locket of Lahari Anthology from Patchwork Press - Ashley's Review

*I received a copy of this book as an eARC from Patchwork Press on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

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Title: The Lost Locket of Lahari Anthology

Authors: Erica Crouch, Terra Harmony, Janna Jennings, Ruth Silver, Kellie Sheridan, Kara Baird

Release Date: September 9th, 2014

Synopsis: In a dusty, dilapidated stall tucked away in an alcove of a bustling Bazaar in India, a man with a rickety spine and a spindly beard bends over his work bench, forging a locket with accidental magic. There’s power in a wish, and there’s nothing he wants more than for his children to return home. The locket was intricately crafted, adorned with one dragonfly for each of his children—and the power to find them.

With the guidance of fate, the locket skips through time and journeys across oceans, traveling from person to person in a constant search for the souls whispered into its vessel. Centuries after the magical old man in the Bazaar became near-forgotten myth and whispered legend, the locket has fallen into the hands of those with echoes of the six dragonflies: the empath, the dreamer, the confidant, the adventurer, the dancer, and the mystery.

In the hands of its new owners, the power of the locket adapts, bending and remaking itself to answer need. While the locket never found the children of Lahari, it found the next best thing… Their spirits.

The six novellas of the Lost Locket of Lahari anthology pause a moment in time when the locket finds the ripples of its ancestry. From the Victorian-era to the Roaring Twenties, the 1940s to modern day and beyond, this anthology is a collection of stories as dynamic as the authors themselves.

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Review: I have yet to be disappointed by a Patchwork Press title, so I was really looking forward to reading this anthology as soon as I heard about it. I've loved what I've read from these authors, and the idea behind this anthology is really interesting and unique. When the description says that the stories are "as dynamic as the authors themselves," it isn't kidding at all! 

As with every anthology, there are certain stories and moments that stand out as exceptional and unforgettable. Erica's story, The Empath, is probably my favorite. I've loved everything I've read from Erica, and The Empath was just as exciting and heartbreaking as the rest of her books even though it was a short story. I also really enjoyed Ruth's story, The Adventurer. I'm always looking for a good sci-fi story, and Ruth really hit the nail on the head with this one. 

A few of the stories had parts that just seemed really slow to me, which I think made me like them a little less. I also couldn't connect with some of the characters and it made it hard for me to care what happened to them. The main girl in The Confidant, for example, was really annoying to me and I felt like someone just needed to slap her. The world and the story itself were exciting and exactly what I hoped they would be, I just didn't like the girl. 

For the most part, though, all of these stories could definitely stand on their own. The characters are pretty much all well developed and go through quite a bit in their respective short stories. I enjoyed that I could read one story, put the anthology down, and come back to it later without having missed anything, but I also enjoyed that the stories are all interconnected and represent each of the children. I enjoyed learning the history of the locket in the prologue and seeing the echoes of the people who made it in the characters in the stories. Overall, this anthology was really well done. I'm really looking forward to reading the next anthology from these talented authors soon! 4/5.


--Ashley