Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

Synopsis:

Since Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse has so few living relatives, she hates to lose one - even her cousin Hadley, undead consort of the vampire Queen of Louisiana. Hadley's left everything she has to Sookie, but claiming that inheritance has a high risk factor. Some people don't want her looking too deeply into Hadley's past, or Hadley's possessions. And they're prepared to do anything in their power to stop her. Whoever it is, they're definitely dangerous - and Sookie's life is definitely on the line...


Review:


Local Bon Temps barmaid and telepath Sookie Stackhouse is shocked when weretiger Quinn comes to see her in Bon Temps.the vampire queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, has requested Sookie’s services, the same services that Eric had requested before for a summit. It also happens that Quinn would like to start seeing Sookie romantically, and she agrees. She also needs to go to New Orleans to clear out her dead (vampire) cousin Hadley’s apartment, who was amongst the top on the Queens favouritesml.

The family of Debbie Pelt, the shifter that Sookie killed in self defence in the new year, is still looking for her, and are hooked on seeing Sookie to hear what she knows. Sookie however just wants to move on.

Sookie also has problems when she goes out with Quinn, leaving a furious Eric Northman behind. While on her date with Quinn, they are attacked by a pair of freshly bitten weres, both high on drugs. Neither has any idea why.

Leaving for New Orleans when the queen’s emissary, Mr Catialades, collects her, they learn that his niece Gladiola,a half demon, was killed to prevent her from delivering the message to Sookie about the queen sending to have her collected.

Bill accompanies Sookie and upon arriving in New Orleans Sookie finds that a talented young witch named Amelia Broadway has cast a stasis spell on the apartment to keep it from smelling bad. Things go terribly wrong when Sookie opens the apartment, considering the next night an unknown vampire rises, who was trapped by the spell, attacking both Amelia and Sookie.

Hadley had changed the man, who becomes known as a were named Jake Purifoy. Eric then visits Sookie in the hospital, and has an argument with Bill, who has also turned up. Eric then forces Bill to reveal his true agenda with Sookie which leaves her heartbroken.

After the narrow escape there, Sookie learns from Amelia that she can get some witches together to magically recreate the evening of Jake’s turning. Naturally, Sophie-Anne is interested, and attends the ritual.

Sophie-Anne also confides in Sookie that Hadley had stolen a bracelet from Sophie that was given to her by her new husband, the king of Arkansas, Peter Threadgill, and that she has to produce it on the wedding night, and that Sookie must help her find it.

Sookie obliges of course as it's in her nature to help,because there will be major issues if Sophie-Anne cannot show it. Quinn assists Sookie with the sorting and packing of the apartment, and there they are savagely attacked and kidnap them both.

The first thing i should say is that there is a short story called One Word Answer that can be read before this, apparently if you dont this book makes no sense but I didn't read it and I managed to understand every part of this book so reading One Word Answer is a choice not mandatory.

Although reading these books and reading a lot about Eric has been kind of amazing, to have him not so massively involved in this book was a kind of nice break? It gave room to learn more about Quinn who has my interest at every moment I see his name. He seems to be such a mystery, which makes me even more interested in his character.

I must say that these books are pretty addictive which you guys probably already guess from my reviews.

There was a lot of things that happened in the book and it was nice to have several things to concentrate on and remember. It was action packed and there was never a dull moment for me.

Overall the book gets a 5/5 and I bet that isn't too much of a shock to you. The series has gotten my attention and I hope someone out there is itching the read this series. Part of me didn't enjoy this book as much as I have the rest of the series but it seems that I still adored it that much I gave it a top rating.

Dead To The World - Charlaine Harris.

Dead To The World is book number 4 in the True Blood series  which is now a very well known TV series. In this book we see Bill and Sookie being civil with each other after all of the happenings of the last book which lead to their parting. Bill goes to Peru, letting Sookie know of this leaves her thinking about him every now and then.

But after a long New Years Eve party at Merlots, Sookie is driving home when she finds a half naked Eric Northman running down the road. It soon comes to her attention he has no memory and is in huge danger. Sookie being Sookie takes him home and cares for him, but a day later when Pam and Chow turn up Jason Stackhouse bargains for payment for his sisters service and within 24 hours goes missing. Sending Sookie into a panic over her missing brother, finds a distraction in the new Eric.

This is also a book where yet another kind is bought into the world of Sookie Stackhouse, Witches who happen to be Werewolves. Eric has been cursed by Hallow who wants him for her own and offers a reward for any tip leading to his capture by her. Whilst he sleeps she makes enquiries in Hotshot, where the girl Jason was seen celebrating new years with, proves fruitless, though she is courted by Calvin Norris, the leader in the area. Sookie then travels to Shreveport to meet with Alcide Herveaux, the Were who helped her when she was looking for Bill.

Without giving away too much of the plot, the book is action packed and very brilliant to read. I always see myself there, joining in with Sookie, minus the sexual moments but always with her through each lonely moment and action packed one. Seeing the venerable side of Eric added to the emotional feel of the book, it was great to see, to see him completely unprotected. He cared for Sookie no matter what.

I must admit that this book entertained me more than I was expecting. What will shock most people is that I liked not seeing a lot of Bill in this book, it kind of switched the focus a little bit and added some variation where he wasn't always there. The books speeds along very nicely and its easy to keep up with what is happing. It introduces us to new characters and experiences.

It is a great read, full of action and humour and very easy to get into, I give it 5/5 like its previous books and recommend it to all the same people. Even if the books don't seem to be your thing, maybe give the TV series a shot.

Dead As A Doorbell with be the next Charlaine Harris book I will review here on the blog.



Living Dead In Dallas - Charlaine Harris

In Living Dead In Dallas, we, through the eyes of Sookie, learn more about the vampire world. And thanks to her involvement with a vampire called Bill Compton, she gets pulled farther into the supernatural world. We alongside Sookie learned about the existence of vampires and shape-shifters, and werewolves in the first novel, and now in the second instalment of the Sookie Stackhouse Series Charlaine brings another mythical creature into the mix, a  Maenad.

I'm glad to see that Sookie does not just live with vampires, that her world contains even more than vampires and werewolves. The vast world Harris had created comes even more to life with the introduction of a Maenad. It truly shows how greatly Charlaine can pull all of these mythical aspects into a world of their own.

I've seen movies and even television shows that primarily focus on the mythical creatures we know as vampires or some that show the rivalry between vampires and werewolves but to see yet another mythical party added into this mix is refreshing to me.

Word of Sookies telepathy has spread to some of the Louisiana vampires (to whom she owes a favour after early happening in the book), Sookie with Bill as her body guard (at night of course), are being loaned out to the vampires in Dallas to read the minds of their humans to find a missing vampire who is a brother to the Louisiana's vampires.

As always it doesn't go so smoothly because lets face it, something always has to go wrong. Since the vampires revealed their existence, the years that followed not everything had gone smoothly and Sookie trips over a group in Dallas who have formed a backlash against the undead. We learn of a ancient vampire called Godric, who had a brief appearance but has a somewhat emotional impact on both Sookie and definitely me as a reader.

With Sookie having faith in others and her lack of experience, and her determination to do the right thing, are both loveable and frustrating to me. I have to admit when Sookie responds to the obvious manipulations of the vampires I find myself lousily face palming as I read. As a small town girl she has never looked for trouble, her reactions to me do make a lot of sense but that did frustrate me at times.

I am the type of mystery reader who tries to figure out who's done it, I can see plot holes and I can honestly say that everything here hangs together well, there is no plot hole that I could notice and when I got to the end of the book I could only sit there and mumble 'well I wasn't expecting that.' because there is no obvious signs of what's going to happen and that just added to the intensity of the atmosphere.

The story ends with Sookie happy with her choice of choosing Bill as her lover. His mind is closed to her and she finds him a extraordinary lover and despite all she has endured since being associated with the vampires she decides her life is good. It’s nicely wrapped up as far as the story goes and with a good amount of elements introduced here that lead me to the next book, keeping me interested I can say I'm thoroughly interested in what else is in store for Sookie.

Club Dead is the third instalment of the Sookie Stackhouse series and I cannot wait to finish it and review it for you guys. Living Dead In Dallas has earned its 5 out of 5 rating like the first instalment and I do recommend it to anyone who loves mysteries.

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris

Before Christmas my auntie bought over the 'True Blood' series books alongside all of our Christmas presents and I managed to get straight into it. I have 11 of the books in total but I will try to split up the series reviews as good as I can.

Dead Until dark is the first book in the series and as mentioned above, it is now an amazing (if I may say so myself) multi series TV show True Blood. I didn't however know there were books to the series until I finished watching all of the TV episodes. Thankfully the episodes are not perfect translations of the book. Although I have already experienced and am familiar to the Sookie Stackhouse life, I'm hooked on these books.

Although I'm a huge Young Adult, Coming Of Age book reader, I'm really in love and somehow feeling refreshed as I read this Paranormal/Mystery/Fantasy. it is a great break for me and well, a new experience.

I do love Sookie in this series, her voice in a sense. She's old enough to know who she is and to have a idea of what is right and wrong but not so old that she cant change the events that she finds herself in. Somehow I feel quite sad about how she considers her Telepathy as a disability, and how she is firm in her belief as it being a defect. Most of us hypothetically would love to have Telepathy as a part of us but as I read on I begin to see how Sookie doesn't want it as a part of her life, she doesn't want to have the power or skill to know everyone's secrets and possible power over them. To me this makes her appealing to me, I think ill always be a sucker for main characters who don't want the power they have because I'm not such of a sucker for power hungry ones.

Sookie has always got a first instinct to do the right thing, may it be helping out a friend or family or someone, a stranger in need of help. She does these things without wanting attention for it. She hates to complain and never whines, just moves forward,  it's just part of who she is and so it her no nonsense outlook.

As a whole Dead Until Dark is a great read. Having Sookie's point of view means we get just enough detail, but nothing that it too over the top. So when it came to violence or sexual encounters throughout the book, they were described but were not overly explicit like you would find it else where. Its a great balance to see especially when there is a TV adaptation of it all.

I really did enjoy this novel, that much so I immediately begun reading the second book, Living Dead In Dallas which I will review here in the near future. I give the book a rating of 5/5 and recommend it to anyone who's a fan of the show or just wants a new genre to sink their teeth into.