Review – Steel & Stone Companion Collection (Steel & Stone, Book 6) by Annette Marie (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 284 pages
Publisher: Dark Owl Fantasy Inc
Release Date: August 21, 2017
ASIN: B0751J8RC1
Stand Alone or Series: 6th book in the Steel and Stone series
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 4/5 stars

“From her first fateful glimpse of the Sahar Stone to the explosive battle in Asphodel, Piper fought with Ash and Lyre beside her. A draconian and an incubus—an unlikely friendship of two skilled warriors, deadly in very different ways, both hiding dark secrets and dangerous pasts.

Now, return to the Steel & Stone world—this time through their eyes. In this collection of short stories set on the same timeline as the original series, Ash and Lyre reveal a whole new side to the trials they faced—both familiar scenes and never-before-seen adventures. Discover Ash’s first impression of Piper, their fight in the Styx ring, Lyre’s secret role in the escape from Asphodel, and more.

This captivating encore to the Steel & Stone series includes 12 all-new stories that complement and expand on the most pivotal moments of the series.”

This book is a companion novel to the Steel and Stone series. Each story is a retelling of chapters in the original series from either Ash’s or Lyre’s point of view. Some of the stories were very good and some were just so-so.

I really enjoyed the stories from Ash’s perspective. He is my favorite character from the original series and he’s always so closed off in the series. It was great to see his internal thought process. A couple of the early scenes between him and Piper were especially well done.

Other than a few of the stories this is a book that I was pretty ambivalent about. Some of the stories provide a bit more background and insight. Unfortunately, I read the rest of the series so long ago that just being thrown into a random chapter from the 5 book series and reading from a different character’s POV was a bit hard to follow. It would have been really helped to have a little description before the story letting us know where we were entering the series at or something.

Overall this is a decent collection of stories that retells chapters from the original series from different POVs. You definitely need to read the Steel and Stone series before reading this or you will be totally lost and run into numerous spoilers. If you are a diehard Steel and Stone fan this does add some to the series. Otherwise I would skip it or maybe just read the stories from Ash’s perspective.