Dark Places

Dark Places Plot Summary

Here I am, back in the saddle, the urge seems to come in waves.   I have started and discarded several books the past months but none have been worth finishing much less writing about.   I think I was hoping that if I gave it some time I might choose better books.  This is the first book I have liked enough to finish (out of at least 4) all the way through.

    So the title is not lying this is a pretty dark book.  Do not get this looking for a healing story with a happy ending, or if you yourself are in a dark place, this will just make it worse.  Dark Places is a fictional, dramatic, mystery that I twistedly enjoyed.  I have noticed that I like the fictional crime style much more than the dry facts presented in the true crime books (which is one type of book that was discarded).  The author's writing style was frustrating, but very effective at the same time.  Each chapter was written from one of the main character's perspectives at different places in time.  It was frustrating in that you would be invested in a character's part of the story and want to know what happened next, but then the chapter would end and wouldn't pick back up for 3 more chapters! AARRGG!!  This of course leads to the inability to put the book down and promising yourself just one more chapter until the wee hours of the morning.

  The chapters all lead up to one time/event that changed main characters whole life.  The murder of a girls entire family, the conviction of her brother for the crime, the question as to whether he actually committed the crime, and her twisted issues in life are the core of this book.  I actually felt bad for the pathetic main character.  Could you imagine being depressed for 25 years?  Not able to function in society/to get a job/have drive to do anything?  The mystery is what really happened to the family that night.  There is a club of nerds that follow gruesome unsolved/controversial crimes and try to solve the cases where the police failed.  The main character is so desperate for money that she takes money from this club in exchange for investigating her own family's murder.  The main character helping out with the club's investigation forced her to deal with what really happened in her early childhood.  It took the main character 26 years to over come her selfishness and trauma and realize what really happened the night her family died.  Talk about avoidance.  While frustrating I did enjoy having the yo-yo chapters it encouraged the urge to figure out what really happened and who dun it before the book ended.  I did have it mostly figured out before the end, but not exactly in the right way.  Not overly predictable thank hay-zeus who wants that?  I'd say read it if you've got some time and anti-depressants    

Good Dark Mystery

Rating~~2

       

       

In the Woods

In the Woods Plot Summary



I think I am just doing a bad job in choosing books recently.  I have been  disappointed again in what I have read.  This book was good until you get to the end.  One of the main stories that they advertise on the front of this book isn't resolved!  You don't find out what happens! WTH?!  I don't read a mystery/murder novel to not know what happens in the end.  I would say the writing is relatively good.  You can tell the author is from the states though.  The story is set in Ireland but there are a lot of references to issues happening in the United States.  I think there should have been reference to local issues.  Now I have heard that everyone else in the world is more up to date on international issues than we are here but this seemed a bit much.  The second murder story was good and I thought I had it figured it out by the end but I turned out to be wrong.  The main characters were boy girl who were "partners"/"friends" so everyone knows what that means, and as usual I wanted to smack the dude in this book.  Surprisingly not for the normal reason.  I felt like the masculine and feminine roles were reversed because that dude was a HUGE b!tC#.  I get why, but if someone gives you an out take it Hesus Christo!!  He read into everything word and action from his partner like a woman would do.  No offense ladies, I'm all about woman power but lets not kid ourselves, you know we do it.  So bottom line if you don't mind a Soprano's style ending then by all means have at it, but if the end of that show really pissed you off then pass on this book.

 

Good for a cliff hanger

 

 

Rating~~5

Dead Ever After ~~Spoilers~~

Dead Ever After Plot Summary


The end of Sookie's adventure and I have been anxiously awaiting the end to see what great things will happen.  Spoiler begins here Eric leaves, Sookie doesn't become a vampire, and she ends up with the whiney Sam.  What a waste of my time.  All this build up with Eric over half the series and they don't even end up together what a cop-out.  Bullshit is all I have to say.  I guess the author should have ended like 3-4 books ago when Sookie and Eric were happy.  Ugg the cover is nice though and I like the inside flap art as well.  Pretty sad that the only positive comments I have for the finale of one of my favorite series' for several years is for the cover art. 


Rating~~5                                                  

Deadlocked

Deadlocked Plot Summary

The next to the last book.  How will it end?! This book pretty much sky writes what happens.  I hate to say this book is one huge spoiler.  The book cover alone pretty much makes reading the book pointless.  There is some build up for the last book but overall book was kind of a give away, I think anyway.  Sure Sookie finally uses the fairy magic but not the way I wanted her too!  Eric gets into a crap ton of trouble and can't seem to beat off the queen of Oklahoma's advances.  He continues to act like a huge child to Sookie, because he can't get out of this predicament, he expects Sookie to save him without him having to do anything.  Men I swear to god they are useless.  Anyway, I am jumping on the bandwagon that this series is not ending well for me it started out so much better.  Color me disappointed so much so that I finished the book weeks ago and am just now getting to the review.  I haven't wanted to do it and now I can barely remember what happened except for the highlights.  Sam's crazy girlfriend gets busted for trying to over take the pack and has to fight it out.  This does not turn out well for one of the attendee's and insert fairy wish here.  PS no sex like at all sooo lame, and Sookie doesn't get beat up those are like core requirements that are not present.

Rating~~5

Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning Plot Summary

  Action packed book love it, we immediately start off with the action which is  a big plus for me.  One of Sookie's numerous enemies possibly of shifter origin attacks her at the bar and nearly sets it on fire.  Once again Sookie's personal life interferes with the business of the already suffering Merlotte's.  When Eric storms in to play dominate male she begins to suspect that Eric is keeping a very important secret from her; Pam is all but screaming it at her but, Pam is not allowed to talk about the secret.  Due to this big disagreement her and Eric roll around fighting hard core in Sookie's kitchen turns out Pam is a much better "friend" than Sookie originally thought.  To add mystery Sookie is starting to question her fairy guests and why they are really hanging around her so much.  She has declined a relationship with both of the men (thank God, incest is not cool) but, it turns out the proximity to the fae makes her more beautiful and youthful! Why look a gift horse in the mouth right?!  But she had to push the issue so the fairies sort of explain their motives and that the fairy war and the closing off of fairy was pretty much all her fault.  Also, when fairy was closed a bunch of fae creatures were left out so now there is a whole other group of folks that hate her! Geez.  Anyway, Eric is starting to fall from my good graces because he is being a giant douche.  He shows up to take Sookie to the new vamp bar that good ole Vic opened just to be a bastard.  Vic tries to trick the vamps into drinking fairy blood which would have sent them bouncing off the walls and possibly giving Vic a reason to stake them both (Pam was there too).  The fairies, against their will, help Sookie clean out her attic of a lot of old family crap; in the process of dispersing an antiquarian finds a secret drawer that held a letter from Sookie's grandmother and what looked like a green compact.  Overwhelmed with emotion, she hides it away to look at later.  Later on at the bar, poor Sam he really should fire her for the good of his bar, four drugged out huge dudes show up to kidnap Sookie.  At the request of a certain demon lawyer some detectives conveniently show up at the exact right moment to tell her that a certain angry bitch is after her and she better watch out.  After that drama Sookie goes home  to read the letter she found written by her grandmother.  She finally got her answers about why her grandmother did what she did and hold her accountable so to speak.  What she thought was a compact was actually bit of powerful fairy magic that I imagine everybody under the sun will want to steal..yay.  So after the attempted kidnaping before the bar closes the crazy B shows up and outright pulls a gun on Sookie.  Crazy B is again unsuccessful and ends up in the hospital.  All these attempts on Sookie's life I am amazed she is still breathing I mean really this girl puts a cat to shame.  The most annoying thing is that being around vampires all the time and constantly injured she is never injured bad enough that it comes to choice between conversion or death which is such a disappointment.   I want to see if the vamps really love her and let her die like she wants and not make her a vamp...I'm such a bad person.  Yet another attempted kidnaping goes wrong and Sookie ends up dripping wet and naked in Bill's daytime hidey hole.  This result in an anticlimactic ending in the sex department but a disturbing one for the kidnapers as it turns out.  Sookie's buddy Amelia shows up to re-enforce the wards around the house and tell Sookie the quasi-good news, she found a way to break the blood bond with Eric.  Oh no! now we have the moral debate should I or shouldn't I?  I say don't do it!  The point of this book is the quest to kill that bastard Victor.  This plan includs the best/worst vamp in the book other than Eric, BUBBA! yay!! love him and he puts on a concert as a ruse for his big fan Vic.  Well both crews show up at Fangtasia and a war breaks out with four humans stuffed in the middle.  Sookie escapes harm by some miracle only to be greeted at home by the crazy B who finally DIES!  I guess Sookie and the gang are taking care of her enemies one at a time, doesn't seem fast enough but whatever. 

Rating~~1

Almost set on Fire                  Almost shot by              Almost shot                         Attacked by

                                                  druggies                  by crazy                              Kidnapers

   

 

Dead in the Family

Dead in the Family Plot Summary


So Sookie has family poppin outta the woodworks.  Every time she turns around there is someone saying hey I'm related to you!!  Sookie I am your father or whatever.  Not super impressed with this one, but that could be because I like action and when the storyline is slow I'm kinda like meh.  The book starts out on a downer with Sookie's roomie moving out, her having to recover from the traumatic injuries, the constant nightmares, and struggling with depression in the aftermath of the fairy war.  The death of Claudine +1 and Trey hit her especially hard because she felt their death was her fault (which indirectly it was) and that was tough for her to get over, like any sinful girl she lost herself in Eric (yum) for a while but it didn't work.  I say she just wasn't trying hard enough Eric would make me forget everything!!  After a visit from Claude Sookie snaps out of her funk and resolves to be more positive.  During all of her mourning Bill is across the cemetery literally wasting away.  When Sookie see's Bill like this she drops her hate torch and does what any woman would do; she breaks into his house while he is asleep and steals a copy of his vampire data base to find his "sister."  This sister is the only person that can help Bill now because they share a blood bond with Lorena their maker who because of Sookie is dead.  Oops, Sookie is just one bad side effect after another she should have a warning label " if you know/befriend me you will be injured you may be killed" but in all fairness Lorena deserved it.  So she finds the sister and discovers that she is a super clingy vamp obsessed with Bill which was why he didn't call her to begin with.  This is why she shouldn't put her nose where it doesn't belong!!  Pam comes to get Sookie one night to talk to Eric and on their way back they are attacked by Victor's best fighters because of Pam's awesomeness and Sookie's good luck they defeat the duo and there is  nothing ole Vic can do about it because he did it behind the kings back Ha HA!!  Not to mention that a second body shows up in Sookies woods and the supes got rid of what turned out to be the body of Alcide's new second buried in her woods, fortunately for Sookie, because the law shows up the next day with an exact location of the body not weird at all right?  Meanwhile during this little thing Eric's maker shows up with a new child, who is 13 I  might add, who turns out to be previous Russian royalty. Kid and his maker are both douches who hate Sookie.(which seems to be a developing pattern) Because of the super violent way the kid died (a Romanov)he  has some serious mental issues and tends to go off on killing sprees with no way to  stop him.  As if things were not bad enough the crazy great uncle dermont Jason's twin shows up at Sookies babbling nonsense when she realizes that he is under a spell of some kind then runs off into the distance.  A few days later Sookie gets a call from Alcide saying he wants her to come to a Were trial and he agrees for protection that she can bring Jason.  When she arrives he suckers into being their Shaman and silly Sookie just hops on board and drinks a glowing potion.  Here little kid wanna get in my van? So stupid.  So she drinks it and everyone starts glowing and she gets what I expect would be a LSD trip.  The special drug helps here pinpoint the guilty parties in the trail for the death of the new second and that was the end of those guys.  Sookie makes more enemies, she should really keep her mouth and brain shut.  After leaving Alcides Sookie goes to Erics and finds that the kid has lost his shit and killed a bunch of people at Erics and ran off.  He shows up  at Sookies looking for Jason while Claude and a mystery fairy fight him off the mystery fairy is Claudine's baby daddy who blames Sookie for killing his child big surprise.  So kid and maker die that night via fairy (b/c he was trying to kill Sookie) and mystery fairy is then killed by Dermont the crazy great uncle.  Claude breaks Dermont from his spell in the most ridiculous Disney way and then the whole family hops into bed together to sleep and energize their fairy batteries.  WEIRD


Rating~~3


Attacked by Minions                                                  Attacked by Mystery
                                                                                               Fairy

Dead and Gone

Dead and Gone Plot Summary

It's amazing how much and how quickly one can read when you aren't glued to the television!  It really does suck out your brain cells but, I  love it.  Big news Sookie gets hitched in this book!! well sort of if you consider an archaic tradition that she participated in because she had no idea what she was doing or that it meant such a huge thing a marriage.  As I would be she was pretty pissed initially but their stupid bond has made her weak and he gets off easy for his treachery, but I guess there are worse things.  He gets away with all kinds of stuff now because "he knows best" bleh chauvinist she is such a pushover.  The Were's come out to the world finally and this does not work out as well as hoped Arlene freaks out in front of everyone and quits.  She was a close minded idiot anyway, she would and did believe anything a man told her see book one.  This plays out badly for Sookie later though because in her misguided hate of Sookie Arlene sets Sookie up to be crucified. Yes really Jesus style.  Quinn pops up briefly to everyone's displeasure but Sookie quickly turns him away again, but not before Bill makes an appearance and the two get into a brawl that ends with Sook unconscious.  Neither man can seem to let go of Sookie even though she wants nothing to do with either of them. If that were women chasing after a man we would be crazy or pathetic for men its romantic.  Double standard!! Anyway when she awakes she finds prince charming at her side nursing her back to health, her lovely new husband.  I do love him even if he is an egotistical bastard they finally get down to the business again yay!!! So there are some steamy yummy pages in this book which elevates it considerably in my eyes, there just isn't enough yummy in the books for me.  That could be because i'm a perv or it could be because when you have a bunch of beautiful men chasing after you how could you not take advantage? seriously. The FBI comes knocking at Sookie's door (not an unfamiliar experience to her) but this time it was about what happened in Rhodes.  They wanted an explanation on how she did it, who she was with, and possibly to hijack her to come work as a lie detector just like everyone else in the world.  Crystal is killed by persons unknown and strung up in the Merlottes parking lot, which is no great loss to humanity/weres.  Side note I am surprised people even go to the bar of death anymore; I mean seriously it's like THE place for bodies to show up.  It is not always or even mostly Sam's fault,  it's Sookie's fault because she brings her problems to work or they follow her there.  The choices she makes in her life seem to directly affect Sam and his business, if I were him I would seriously rethink letting her continue working there that is why you shouldn't employ people you wanna bone; it always turns out badly for the love sick puppy.  So, Crystal and her unborn baby are dead and the residents of Hotshot are on a rampage to find out who did it.  While I say that losing the baby is tragic and unnecessary, Crystal was small time white trash so good riddance to bad rubbish. Next! The killer fairies start after Sookie because of her grandfather.  Because of all the impending doom and warnings about the fairies from everyone Sookie finally calls in the favors owed to her by the vamps and the weres to protect her hide.  Fat lotta good it does her considering the vamp is BUBBA!!! yay love him too but not the most reliable protector and the guard from the weres gets sucked in by a fairy and poisoned so once again Sookie is left defenseless other than some water pistols filled with lemon juice and an iron garden trowel, not exactly an arsenal.  On her way home from work Bill meets her to check on her sick guard and finds a huge pool of blood at his house, they rush home to check on the roomie and right as Sookie enters onto her back porch she is abducted by aliens!! or fairies you know whatever, before Bill can save her.  They fairies that abduct her proceed to torture her relentlessly for hours cutting, biting, and beating her within an inch of death until her rescuers finally arrive.  It was not her prince to save the day though which I thought was kind of bogus but I guess beggars can't be choosers.  Needless to say those fairies died quickly but, one managed to poison Bill with silver quite effectively and incapacitated him.  They were moved to a hospital where Sookie had to ingest large amounts of vampire blood just to be able to move and speak.  Claudine was in charge of watching over Sookie in the hospital when she announces that she is pregnant! So you know what that means time to die, sorry Claudine bad luck for you, it seems that Sookie is bad for the health of her friends.  Claudine's death and the death of several others take place when the angry fairies overtake the hospital and start/finish a war with the humans/vamps/weres.  Overall a very eventful night for Sookie.  Yet, after all the fighting, death, and pain the grandfather decides to close off fairy land forever which is irritating once you read the book.  Pointless and irritating.

Good for the action

Rating~~1


Attacked in her Garden       Caught in the middle        **Arlene attempts to          **Shot at by back
by Fairy                            of Quinn and Bill's fight     to have her crucified              woods extremists

     Tortured by                                                               Attacked during the
       Fairies                                                                       Fairy war

                                                                               

From Dead to Worse

  

   From Dead to Worse Plot Summary

So I am cruzing right along in the Sookie books which is a good thing considering that the final book has been released and I haven't even bought it yet.  I am looking forward to reading it and hopefully the ending doesn't suck!  I don't read a story for this long to get a real world ending I want a happy ever after with Sookie and Eric, though I know that prolly won't happen!  Any way that is still several books away so not an issue for discussion yet.  So, the build up of a very busy book begins with Sookie discovering a new and interesting family member whom causes her to re-think her grandmothers sweet innocence.  Turns out Sookie wasn't just a victim of a crazy gene mutation, her family is more paranormal than we originally thought and it explains why the giant douche Jason is so desirable to the opposite sex.  This is not the only family revelation Sookie has in this book, turns out she has more family than she ever thought.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your outlook she is not the only one with gifts passed down from her paranormal heritage.  Quinn succumbs to his predicted fate, though later than guessed, in this book whomp whomp...out the door he goes because of his bat sh!t crazy family that will always come first in his life.  Anyone whose dated a mama's boy/daddy's girl knows how unfun it can be to be considered second no matter what. The umbilical cord was not only reason Sookie tossed him out, after Rhodes Quinn just evaporated and we hear nothing for weeks, not saying he didn't have a good reason but what do you expect?!  She can only assume he bailed on her and move on, but nooooooo he expects her to be waiting and pining after him for months with no word...men.  Next hurdle, Sookie seems to have evolved from being the wrong place wrong time girl to the object of  a lot of death plots girl; she is always on the brink of death in all of these books(otherwise where is the fun?) but it hasn't really been her fault up to now, it had to more to do with who/what she associates with.  Now several people are actively seeking HER out not only as a vamp lover/ sympathizer but as a telepath and a meddler.  She gets beaten up for these reasons often enough but this time around we see several groups of people looking for her specifically.  Because of this I think at this point I will not only keep count of the times that Sookie gets beaten to a pulp, but also her numerous brushes with death.  It's really kind of ridiculous when you see them all lined up and the time between  each attempt.  Considering Sookie is mortal and relatively fragile she had proven very hard to kill, maybe its just her good fortune or maybe it is the vampires and weres and fairies always hovering around her because she is not exactly a force to be reckoned with.  I don't know what it is but I wish I had just a little of her luck to play the lotto!  Finally there are the vampires and their mess of problems.  We left the Queen legless, Andre dead, several dead sheriffs, and a very weakened state for the LA vamps.  Well, somehow Sookie is once again caught in the middle of a dangerous situation, why she can't leave things alone or say no is beyond me, so a vamp war ends at her door.  It ends better than expected but the violence is never ending 

Good for the feminists Sookie holds her own sort of...if there is such a thing against supes

Rating~~2

 **means that Sookie wasn't physically hurt                 

 

                                                                                                             

 ***Sookie is nearly                       *** Sookie is ambushed              Beaten and bitten   

     shot by crazy Were                                   at library                       during Were War

    

**Sookie is cornered by

    legion of vampires

All Together Dead

                                                     

The much anticipated vampire summit or convention if you will has finally come, Sookie and the LA vamps are off to Rhodes.  The summit was originally scheduled for March but was postponed due to a questionable weather witch and then again because of hurricane Katrina.  Hurricane Katrina was such a major event I was pleased to see the author incorporate it into the story; it affected so many and the
economy of LA so much that it would
have seemed a cop-out if it hadn't been referred to.  It actually plays such a big part in the queens story I wonder what the author had planned before the storm occurred.  From the groups arrival in Rhodes you can tell there is some kind of plan forming because of all the odd things that happen at the pyramid hotel.  There are several different plots afoot in this book not only on the fellowship side but from the vamp side as well.  On this trip Sookie starts to realize the precarious line she walks in the vampire world, especially as more people find out about her ability.  The queen and her flunkies notice how beneficial it is having a telepath at their beck and call and because of this her freedom in life and of choice is nearly ripped away from her on more than one occasion.  This does not go over well and fortunately because Eric always seems to be just around the corner he sort of saves the day.  She is forced to choose either take Eric's blood or be tied to Andre the queens right hand for the rest of her life Andre is a pretty scary dude so she chooses Eric.(naturally) What she didn't know was that the 3rd blood exchange (which was this one) is a significant one.  Sookie starts to feel Eric's presence much more strongly and gets more comfort from him just being around which considering her relationship with sexy tiger is a little awkward.  On the other side of things Eric feels all of Sookie's emotions to the n'th level which he finds troublesome when he ends up in the pathway of a bomb.  This book just continued my deep love for Eric though.  He is so badass that he was able to break his hotel window slide down a pyramid and fly all during the daytime, fighting the vamp urge to sleep and the overwhelming pain of sizzling in the sun, while saving not only Sookie but Pam as well.  That is his second time saving Sookie in this book alone...I love him so much she needs to just give in to him.  Meanwhile the sexy tiger Quinn made it past my book and a half prediction it seems but I'm wondering if he is on his way out of Sookie's good graces, he doesn't do anything to deserve this but she is easily distracted.  Quinn does spend alotta time down and out in this book mostly because he is protecting the ever in distress Sookie.  I do wish she would just become a vampire so she isn't so "poor me I need a big strong man to save me"  as much, she could be bad ass like Pam.  Barry the telepath from book three shows back up and does have a significant roll and we see Sookie expand her gift with the help of Barry which is definitely a change from the last time they met up.  There is a lot of death and destruction this time around but the casualties seem to be more on the vampire side than the human side.  **No plot summary link because of computer problems   


Good for the action

Rating~~3

 

Sookie nearly blown                             Sookie nearly impaled          Sookie nearly blown
up by Dr. Pepper                                        by an arrow                         up in the hotel

                                    

Definately Dead

Definitely Dead Plot Summary     

So hopefully this book begins the uphill rise of the bell curve in the Sookie saga.  It was definitely better than the previous book.  Bill falls very far from grace in this book, finally, and thank god.  He crossed the line that prevented Sookie from ever being able to forgive him, I guess nearly draining her and raping her was ok but this, this was too far, women are soo weird like that.  Anyway, Sookie moves on to the sexy tiger Quinn in this segment though given her history he will only last about a book and half at most and then from there he will ache and brood after her from the sidelines.  P.S. why does she always have these delicious men following her around that are never good enough?  The one sad note in their relationship was a very pathetic attempt at a sex scene.   It was roughly quoted as "the best I've had"  when it was just dry humping and groping almost fully clothed.  This ridiculous statement proves that they are either really inexperienced or just easily satisfied, needless to say I was very disappointed.  Quinn is a tiger; I want crazy hot talons and animal sexiness not teenage grope fest arrg.  Now that, that is said, the peril that Sookie faced this time around seemed like much less of a stretch. For the first time Sookie leaves po-dunk Louisiana for the big city of New Orleans; her trip is initiated by the Queen of Louisiana to clean out her now twice dead cousin's apartment who was also coincidentally the Queen's play toy.  Turns out the queen had more of a motive for having Sookie to come right just now.  In anger Hadley (cousin) had hidden something belonging to the queen that would lead to war if not recovered.  Alas, this mystery object is not the only thing waiting for Sookie in her cousin's apartment ,she also discovers a half vampire half werewolf in the closet when he tries to eat her, which is not a new experience for her, but afterwards vampire or Were doesn't know quite what to do with him.  We get to see some very interesting magic from several of the witches of N.O. and by the end Sookie gains a roommate!  Hopefully this will deter the revolving door of unauthorized visitors in and around her house.  On that note Debbie's obsessive family is still poking around Sookie because they swear she knows more than she is telling; this is when we meet Debbie's similarly crazy adopted sister.  She blows them off as she has twice before, but this time it bites her in the a$$ literally.  So a big party, the Pelt family, a brief appearance from the sexy Eric, very little to no Bill, witches, a super sexy tiger and the king of Arkansas (my home state) sum up this very active book.  I really liked it, refills my faith in the series

good for the mystery solver

Rating~~1

 

Attacked  by                  Attempted meal for     Kidnapped and

drugged up Were's           baby vampire             beaten by ??

Dead as a Doornail

Dead as a Doornail Plot Summary

So I finished this book eons ago and due to several simultaneous technical malfunctions, I am just now getting around to doing my review; so long that I've almost forgotten what I've read.  I remember enough to say that the fifth installment of the Sookie adventures left me disappointed.  Since this is such a long series (13 books) instead of my usual trilogy I say that puts her right on par with the horrible middle book curse.  This is referring to the problems that are in most sequels, but in longer series it tends to be the middlish book. You have the end of the first book/story and the build up to the final story.  This book tends to be mostly filler of information that may come in handy later but at this early stage seem to be useless unrelated information.  In proper style there was brutal action and some teasing sexy activities, neither of which really contributed to this books story line.  The villain/s seemed like a reach from writers block hell and there is little appearance from my favorite characters.  There were a few bright spots in the book like the new sexy were in town, and the packmaster competition while brutal kept my interest up.  There was also an appearance of a new character Claudine who seems to show up at very useful times in Sookie's life or soon to be end of anyway.  The cheeze of her being a "fairy godmother"  is almost too much, but not quite because I love her innocence amongst all the evil.  I feel like this book is just one big pouty face from all the men in the series directed at Sookie for not being what they want which usually is theirs.  I don't like the direction Alcide is moving in either, I liked him with Sookie even despite his crazy girlfriend, but I guess you can't get over a girl killing the dysfunctional love of your life.  There seems to be a jumble of stories going on in this book and none of them have anything to do with the other.  I find this very frustrating but since I am a Sookie fan I will read on to the bigger and better adventure.  Unfortunately, since it has been so long I may not be accurate on my typical Sookie a$$ kicking tally to the blog mostly because I don't remember all of them.  I know that is terrible but I didn't want to re-read it not really worth it.


Good for the lover's of the two natured

Rating~~4


   Sookie Nearly Dies in a Fire          Sookie is Shot              

     

Dead to the World

Dead to the World Plot Summary

Book 5 of the Sookie books.  I remember this being my favorite of the Sookie books, mostly because as I've said previously I love Eric and this is a book all about him as his "innocent" uncorrupted self.  Sookie drives home after work to find a deliciously naked Eric running down her road for a very strange reason.  Eric refuses to fang a witch so she poofs him to Bon Temps with no memory of who he is or any of his very long life.  Well of course he gets shacked up with Sookie, because Bill was conviently out of the country at the time.  Its nice seeing Eric not being a huge douche and the harlequin story line does well to bridge the gap between him and Sookie's strained relationship.  Sookie pretended to put up a fight in the beginning but who could resist she sterotypically falls for the vunerable Eric and they finally fang!! So exciting!  The skank Debbie was back and in her typical trashy form, Jason got more than he bargained for by dating into a incestious were community; like that cliche back woods redneck family exhibited in the South.  Jason gets an eye opener to what the world is really about in a bad way.  Finally we have the witches the easy going wiccans and the crazy ass magic power hungry kind.  Sookie gets her ass kicked yet again and was once again crucial to the winning of the war between magical creatures.  I am starting to see a pattern in these books but I can't bring myself to put em down.  Also very importantly Bubba makes a cameo in this book he only has a milla second of time but just his name makes we giggle.  Oh vampires

Good for the magical romance lover and of course Sookie/Eric fan



Rating~~1

A$$ beat at the witch war by

everybody



Club Dead

Club Dead Plot Synopsis     

SOooKkie...in a sexy vampire voice.  I think that I will start a countdown as of  now; how many times does Sookie comes to the brink of death in each book.  If I can figure it out it'll be cute little pictures on the bottom of the blog, but if anyone can tell me how to speed it along I would appreciate it.  =)~  So book number four the appearance of Alcide the Werewolf..mmmm he is so sweet exactly what you want southern men to be like in real life, complete with a skanky white trash ex girlfriend with jealousy issues.  I enjoy the books more as we go along the series, and reading them all together makes things much clearer on how things happen.  Sookie gets a glimpse of the not so sexy side of  Bill and is reminded that Bill is a vampire and dangerous.  Eric might as well have been riding a white horse in this book the author is really building him up for something.  This tactic worked because I love Eric!  Eric has a thing for Sookie sometimes just sexual but I think there is something more back there.  I can't wait to see what he does I'm sure it will be evil and selfish somehow.  The up to now key relationship takes a turn off a cliff.  In order to make up for the lack of sexual heat from S and B the author surrounds Sookie in completely opposite handsome men.  The sexual tension between her and the men is palpable and makes you want to be her, part of the time anyway, not so much when she gets her ass kicked constantly. The most depressing part of her situation is that she just pisses both those beautiful men away.  I hate her so much!! I guess Bill was her first everything so its hard to let that one go sigh...heart wrenching.  Sookie does grow some balls toward the end of this book refreshingly,  her inevitably risky lifestyle choice keeps putting her in very dangerous and stressful situations which finally spawned an accept and deal with it attitude she so desperately needed.

Good for the hot southern gentlemen lovers

Rating~~1

               Staked by                Eaten and Raped by           Werewolves 

  Fellowship Nutso                         Bill                       beat her a$$

                                           



Living Dead in Dallas

Living Dead in Dallas Plot Summary

Needless to say these books are a pretty quick and easy read.  I will have to say that Ms. Sookie is a magnet for bad luck its enough to make you feel bad fo the girl even if she kind of gets herself into it.  She tries to be the bad ass human working with the vampires, but she just ends up bloodied, bruised, and mostly dead more for her trouble.  I wish Sookie wan't so damsel in destress, I kinda wish they would just turn her so she could be as badass as she thinks she is otherwise that mouth is gonna get her in trouble.  Now some of her troubles I wouldn't mind having such as having multiple superhuman sexy beings fighting over me girl take that opportunity and run with it!..prrrrr...  You get much more sexy time with Bill and Sookie in this book and a very lovely description of Eric in spandex mmmm.  Eric has always been my favorite even if he is a douche, his little plea towards the end makes me melt.  Bill is still there and but now he is more boring doing the same ole thing, conservative and some what selfish.  Someone needs to give that man a book about women these days so he can use it as a bible.  The introduction of  more were-animals and a very fanatical group of vamp haters moves the story along, only thing is that it seems to paint a bad picture of church but I guess they are extremests still little weird.  I very much enjoyed the book I look forward to the upcoming shennanigans of the next 9 books and the final one on May 7th so sad. 



Good for sourthen girls


Rating~~ 1
                                   
Nearly Killed      Nearly Killed        Nearly Killed        Brain Nearly Fried by
 by Maenad      By Long Shadow   in the Fellowship       Maenad

               



Dead until Dark

Dead until Dark Plot Summary 

Happy New Year all!! This marks the year that the Sookie Stackhouse series comes to an end via author Charlaine Harris.  So I figured I'd start at the beginning so that I can appreciate the series in proper sequence finally, the author swears Sookie will never become a vampire lets see if she sticks to her word.
 I love this book series, which means, I have been disappointed in the True Blood series (only in relation to the book I like the show).  Anyway not the point, this is book one in the Sookie Stackhouse tales; this was my second time reading the book and I can still say that I really liked it.  Down side: I don't remember Sookie being so damsel in distress in the early books; i guess she took time to become more badass.  You have to be open minded because sometimes the story borders on a little cheezy with vampires "coming out," telepathy, and Bubba but I think that was what made me wanna keep reading.  I will say Bubba is one of my favorite characters in this series, but this may just be my natural bias because of my mid-south heritage, unfortunately he got off to a bad start in this book.  Vampire Bill is so old world and traditional with his idea of courting and taking care of your girl; its sweet in a stetford kind of way.  Up side: there is no lack of sex or violence in this book so if you are looking for fight scenes and murder sprinkled with a little kinky sex than look no further.  Its sign of a good story when you are quickly invested in the future of the characters by page 100 and are bummed when something happens.  Good writing overall I look forward to continuing the series and see how deep Sookie sinks.

Note: I have not read the most recent Sookie book so I am not sure how it is ending.  Also because Sookie ends up in the hospital, mortally wounded, or bruised and beaten more than her share I have decied to be tacky and add a Sookie Stackhous ass Kicking Talley for each book lets see if she really does get more bad ass.

Good for the adult vampire experience

Rating~~ 1

   Butt Kicked by                   Butt Kicked by                 Butt Kicked by
      Rattrays                               Killer                              Long Shadow