Anne Azel takes us through the story by addressing serious subjects while dealing with them in sensitive, compassionate and entertaining ways. She shows us how these women overcome obstacles while keeping intact their ability to be human and female. This is an enjoyable story that will be having you pondering what could possibly be in the next part of this series.

I can't give the plot away. But I can tell you that you'll find this story compelling, shocking and extremely disturbing. Don't read it if you like the sugar and hearts type of story, but if you like a bit more bite to your fiction, go for it.

Professionally, Devvy's problem manifests itself in a creative block. Personally, it appears in the form of Monica, a beautiful raven-haired demon with a penchant for wearing black lingerie and showing up at all the wrong places. With sharp humor (and even sharper fangs), Monica is about to drag Devvy from the proverbial closet and force her to face her deepest fears, desires and prejudices. If all this sounds a little heavier than a typical romantic tale, trust me: despite the serious look at sexual stereotyping and prejudice, "Devils" is first and foremost a clever and entertaining story. Much like Monica herself, it's both sexy and funny, and sometimes just downright wicked.

ROCFanKat has written some fantastic dialogue, including a few hilariously lethal exchanges between Devvy and her best friend, Cassie Wolfe. Written in the first person from Devvy's point of view, "Several Devils" is also a wonderful technical example of how to advance both plot and character development through dialogue rather than omnipotent narration. As readers, we are not so much "told" this story, we simply experience it. (Followed by the sequel, "The Average of Deviance," unfinished, Parts 1-16 available.)

This little treasure is unlike anything else I've read of Charmer's. Unlike the humor and sexiness of her past stories (of which I'm a big fan), this is a thoughtful, poignant piece. It hits all the right notes and then some. Truly, it's been some time since I've enjoyed a classic XWP short story as much as I did this one.

"Skin Tight" exemplifies Juxian's writing at its best: her amazing ability to weave together dark, disturbing, violent themes with an exquisitely lyrical, poignant tenderness, and her superb style that vividly captures images, sensations, and emotions.

Here, the premise of the Season 6 comedy "Old Ares Had a Farm" -- the mortal Ares is being hunted by warlords with grudges against the ex-God of War, and Xena hides him on her grandparents' old farm -- is reshaped into a completely original story that is anything but comical. In this version, Ares does get captured by a crafty old enemy (who, in a nice touch, is not just a warlord of the week but someone with a connection to an earlier X:WP episode), and Xena and Gabrielle fall into the trap as well. They get out -- but not before Ares is brutally abused on the warlord's orders. Badly injured, he has to stay on the farm until he recovers, and Xena finds herself having to grapple with her complicated feelings toward her former adversary.

Juxian's rich, evocative writing captivates from the opening lines, in which Xena is having a nightmare about being hunted in Chin long ago:

"She remembered pain the best. It returned undeniably real -- mind-numbing, tormenting ache in badly knitted bones -- not just settling there but rising all through her body, resounding even in her teeth at every jerking step she managed. ...

She knew it was hatred that made her move - perhaps the last thread that linked her to consciousness. Sometimes this hatred seemed to her a huge ball of blackness growing inside her head -- one that encompassed everything and everyone in the world."

Juxian refers to "the unbearable clarity of perception" in Xena's dream, and this phrase aptly sums up her own style. In the warlord's dungeon, "the bars of the cell were almost as thick as [Xena's] wrist -- moist and unperturbed as she tried to shake them." The violence inflicted on Ares happens "off-camera," but the scene in which Xena and Gabrielle huddle in their cell in a silence periodically punctuated by his screams is nonetheless harrowing. In the second half of the story, which takes place on the farm, the imagery is as poetic as it is harsh in the first half. (My one stylistic quibble is with the occasional references to Gabrielle as "Gabby.")

One may disagree with a few aspects of Juxian's characterization of Xena (particularly when she tells herself that she has no obligation to help Ares -- even as a psychological defense mechanism, that doesn't quite jibe with what we saw on the show in Season 6). For the most part, however, it is not only spot-on but profoundly affecting. The Warrior Princess in this story is a woman far more comfortable with action than with feelings, and guarded toward other people except for Gabrielle -- yet deeply vulnerable and loving underneath the stoical exterior.

Gabrielle in "Skin Tight" recedes somewhat into the background, but her good-humored warmth and her empathy still shine through. With a few sparse brushtrokes, Juxian paints a moving and engaging portrait of Ares, "softened" by mortality and trauma without losing the edge that makes him ... well, Ares. The former War God's newfound humanity is captured in a sweet (yet never mushy) scene in which Xena finds him feeding bits of apple to a hedgehog and recalls that she used to bring hedgehogs in from the forest when she was a little girl:

"'I didn't,' he said suddenly.

'You what?'

'Didn't have hedgehogs. Stallions, serpents, wolves -- but no hedgehogs.'

'Don't tell me you missed them,' she said but it felt strange for her -- to think about him being a child; it must've been such a long time ago that one might've forgotten about it himself. But no, he remembered.

'Nope.' There were the little wrinkles around his eyes as he smiled at her. 'But it might've been fun if I had them.'"

At the end of "Skin Tight," Juxian brings Xena and Ares together; but she is fully aware of the dark, troubling underside of their relationship and never turns it into a lovey-dovey romance. "It was not right that he could feel so good despite what he was," Xena thinks as Ares touches her face. "But, maybe, she could forget what he was. Maybe, he could forget it."

The Xena/Ares pairing may be relatively unorthodox in Xena fan fiction, but ultimately the themes of this story are classic Xena themes: the ability to survive and transcend darkness and horrific violence, to overcome hate and mistrust, and to find healing and redemption in an unlikely love.

The story begins with Megan Galagher returning to NY via the scenic route from a book signing in Manchester NH. Lost in the mountains, she finds the small town of Cutters Gap just as bad weather sets in. The same threatening storm brings the reclusive Dr. Randi Oakes into town to get supplies, where, naturally, the two meet. But rather than having the romantic sparks flying, Queenfor4 sets up a rather interesting relationship:

"Ms. Gallagher, I’ve read quite a few of your stories. And, while they are gripping mysteries, they all have one recurring and disturbing trend. They all feature gay and lesbian characters. And those characters are always portrayed as being sick, twisted and immoral. That is a malicious, incorrect, and inflammatory stereotype, Ms. Gallagher, and I find it offensive."

Megan’s confusion turned to cold indifference as she stepped back from the taller woman. "I call them as I see them, Dr. Oakes. Those kind of people are an affront to society, and serve absolutely no purpose in this world. I’m sorry if my portrayals of these individuals offend you."

The two would gladly go their separate ways after this exchange, but, with a little help from the weather and Megan's continuing poor luck with directions given by the local natives, they wind up trapped in Dr. Oakes' sprawling ranch house for five weeks. Suffice to say that these two have a more than a few hurdles to overcome in coming to understand and appreciate each other.

Despite what I felt to be a slightly shaky premise for getting the two together, and despite the almost stereotypical occupations of the two leads, Queenfor4 makes this story work, and better yet, she portrays her characters in anything BUT stereotypical fashion. She's not afraid to let Megan make big, walloping mistakes (repeatedly), yet quite believably, nor is she afraid to portray the good doctor as very vulnerable, patient, and compassionate (very un-Xena like). The interaction between the two is gripping and fun to watch unfold. Throw in some believable character history to liven up the plot, some lovely hurt/comfort scenes, and some wonderful character introspection and growth, and I find this to be a story well worth the time to read.

In Snowbound our girls are Randi and Megan, and Megan is severely homophobic, and Randi is very out. Our protagonists are brought together by coincidence and forced to remain together by circumstance, literally ‘snowbound’. But what makes the story stand out is that what separates them is never minimised, and the characters grow through their problems in a fairly realistic way. These traits are not constructed through quick and facile characteristics, and neither are the solutions.

It also helps enormously that despite the above mentioned unattractiveness, they are very appealing and the story is very well written.

The two lovers' voices are clear, poignant and strike right at the heart. To hear Stash talking of her fears, to hear Lariel talking of giving up...this is poignant writing at its best, and is counterpointed with the most evocative choice of song lyrics.

The central image of the candle, representing the brief flickering hope of love, is strongly held through the piece and lends to the mood of half life and half hope that pervades the story. As the candle burns, the light will begin to die in these people's lives unless they grasp the flame that is flickering in and for each other.