Samhain Publishing, $3.50, ISBN 1-59998-716-3
Fantasy Romance, 2008

I love the outfit of that woman on the cover. If I were a thirteen-year old girl who writes poems about being a vampire when I’m not painting my nails black to Within Temptation’s Memories in the background, I would die to have that outfit and hairdo.

Oh yes, the story. Colleen O’Grady is a banshee. No, she’s not related in any way to a particular favorite O’Grady banshee of mine, not in any way that I am aware of anyway. When Colleen died back in 1493, she learned that she was “fortunate” enough to be chosen to become a banshee instead of being allowed to move on to Earth. As centuries pass and Colleen finds herself stuck with the thankless job of wailing her lungs out before some poor dying sod, the poor woman is starting to think that there has to be something more to “life” than wailing day and day out to fulfill the quota of the Banshee Broadcasting Network. Okay, I giggled when I first came across the name of the network. Admit it, you did as well.

With her fellow banshee friend and colleague Esther Shirley tagging along, Colleen thinks that she has found the solution to getting back her mortality. All they need to do is to ask a witch. But the witch in question, a smarmy dude named Samuel Boudelain, wants to be turned into a banshee in return for the great secret solution to losing one’s banshee status, and who knows that the BBN rule book says about turning a man into a banshee without their approval. Still, Colleen thinks she has nothing to lose so she agrees to the bargain. Now all she has to do is to kiss her true love exactly at midnight during the next full moon. How hard can it be? She will make that hot and hunky country singer Sean Kavanaugh fall in love with her in… oh, days. Wish her luck, ladies. Falling in love is one of the biggest no-no in the rule book.

Do I believe in the “true love” thing here? Not really, everything happens way too fast to be credibly convincing, especially when we are talking about a hunky country singer hitting the road while the pregnant wife and the kids stay at home. Are you kidding me? I’ve read way too many issues of Hello! not to know how this story will end. But when it comes to Wailing for Love I have a fun-filled blast of a time. This story is pure fun from start to finish. The events leading up to the big finish are a little rushed but still, this story combines the exhilaration of the concert scene with the quaint notion of a banshee taking the stage by storm.