Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Series: The Southern Vampire Series (Sookie Stackhouse), Book 11

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Copyright: 2011

Pages: 325

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Review: 11 books on and i'm a bit confused as to where the Sookie Stackhouse Series is going. Since i won't be able to type without getting this out of the way, what is with authors and cliffhangers? With a good enough story, you don’t need to leave so many questions up in the air to get readers to pick up the next book..
Anyway, this book sees Sookie is a whole lotta new situations. She's with Eric, Sam is with a shifter from Alcide's pack and Sook has two houseguests living with her (this would be my attempt at spoiler free in case any of you haven't read the whole series in order). Anyway, Sandra Pelt is after her again, she gets dragged into Eric and Pam's latest problems and gets a bit more info on her fairy background. All of this, along with atleast a hundred other things going on with the story.

What i found annoying about this book is the unnecessary information about everything that happens to Sookie every minute of the day. It's not like being in Bella's head (and i'm truly sorry for even comparing, Ms Harris) but we really don't need to know what you had for breakfast, how hot that bathwater was and atleast a quarter of the book’s pages. The rambling never ends, makes reading the book a bit tedious and the morality discussions are getting a bit old now.

I feel like the books have lost of bit of their spark in this and the previous one. They seem to ramble from one catastrophe to the next, without letting the reader enjoy the thrill from these situations. I hope that changes soon. I like Sookie and this series, so I really hope the next book makes it worth the time I invest in it.

Read my review of the previous books here

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Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

Series: The Southern Vampire Series / Sookie Stackhouse, Book 10

Genre: Paranormal

Copyright: 2010

Pages: 311

Rating: 4 / 5

Synopsis: Sookie Stackhouse has finally settled into a relationship with the Viking vampire Eric, and her errant brother Jason seems to have his life in order, too. But all the other people in Sookie’s life – Eric himself, her former lover Bill, her friend and boss Sam – are having family problems. Eric’s maker shows up with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow, the ailing Bill can only be healed by a blood sibling, and Sam’s brother’s marriage is about to take place... or will it? The furor raised by the coming out of the two-natured has yet to settle; some people are just not ready to sit down to dinner with a man who turns into a dog. And Sookie herself is still recovering from her last ordeal. She’s definitely improving, physically and mentally, but she’s always going to have some dark moments now. The werewolves tell her that there have been strange and ominous passers-by in the Stackhouse woods; now Sookie is about to come face-to-face with one of her more distant relatives...

Review:

After 9 books of watching the goings on in Sookies' life like a nosy neighbour who cant stay away and lusting after Alexander Skarsgård, a really weird thing happened…book 10 released and I didn’t realise it until I saw it marked on Goodreads. That was easily remedied by shamelessly going out and getting a copy of the book to read till the wee hours of the next afternoon. What is not easily remedied is the wait for the next book, the 'huh, there's no more pages, this was the end?' and the 'give the Sook a break and a HEA' feeling going through my head.

Book 10 has all the usual characters - an abundance of supes and crazies, each with their own problems, each having Sookie involved in them till you wonder how she manages to keep track of everything without a blog, not enough of hot loving with Eric, dead bodies in her back yard, someone out to kill Sookie… you know the usual

Book 9 ended with the traumatic and almost near death torturous experience and rescue of Sookie. So it was only natural that Dead in the Family would have a subdued and shaky beginning. Sookie and Eric are together and now very much in love. It does seem like supe responsibilities and other people keep getting in their way, but they're making do. Harris has made them comfortable with each other, but how its ends with an immortal vampire and a very mortal telepath is still up in the air.

As the book name suggests, its all about family bonds in this book. We see a much matured Jason (finally) and a surprise visit by Eric's creator and new brother. While the gateway to fairy closed in the last book, Claude is still around, and in a completely unexpected move, he moves in with Sookie on the pretext of being close to someone of fairy blood. But is he really there for family bonds, or something else? Either way I hope to see more of him, I like this new and hopefully improving side of Claude. I was surprised at so little Bill time in this book, since he was the one who rescued Sook in book 9. I can bet however, that you'd never guess how things turn out for Bill.

In a way, this book was filled with quite a few surprises. I don't know if I was too excited to be actually reading this that I didn't get it or that it really was a surprise that I didn't know the who dunnits at all in this book. Harris seems to be going in a new direction with this book. 10 books on with the same main character and I will become hard to keep the excitement and momentum going. For now, I just felt Sookie has had it rough for too long. I do hope the next book is a bit happier.

Click here for reviews of books 1-9

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Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, #9) - Charlaine Harris

Pages: 336

Rating: 5/5

Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres.
Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it.
But there’s a far greater danger threatening Bon Temps. A race of unhuman beings—older, more powerful, and more secretive than vampires or werewolves—is preparing for war. And Sookie finds herself an all-too human pawn in their battle

Sookie Sookie Sookie . How long I’ve waited to read this. Where to begin?

Well, before i forget - Ms. Harris, I like how all the books have their own unique style of jacket covers and all, but really!!! Can you make them look a wee bit better maybe. You’re killing the hot image of Eric that I’ve created in my head with that cape clad buffoon on the cover. And Bill just looks like he’s completely doped out.
Thank heavens for Alexander Skarsgård in True Blood for keeping my hopes for Eric alive.

Now considering how long I’ve waited for this book, I absolutely loved it. Didn’t have much of a choice here. Harris has added quite a few sub plots here that you have to appreciate that finally here’s a book where thing tie up at the end (not all, but at least a little. Am I still making sense? I’m still on a giddy high after having read this at a stretch with only a break for some orange juice and lots of chocolate in between. I was thinking maybe I should write the review tomorrow when i'm back to my relatively more saner self. But its amazing how the ideas whoosh by and how fast you can type on a one-too-many-bars-of-chocolate high. Really)

No, no. That didn't make sense at all. I'll have another go at this:

A lot of things are happening in this book, every chapter has some incident nor another. The Weres make their big reveal. A lot of people end up dead by the time the book is done - some of them characters i really liked. Harris didn't really address the emotional fallout from these deaths. They just were. With everything else happening, Sookie doesn't get any time to process what these deaths mean. I do hope she gets to this in the next book.

A lot of stuff from the previous books get answered - Eric tells her about the curse and why he would up near Sookie's place in Dead to the World.
Arlene and the Fellowship Of The Sun try their tricks - and i liked that Sookie finally told Arlene off and gave up on her. Been pending for a long time i think.

Quinn is back, if only for a short encounter - which actually left me a bit spooked and also supporting Quinn in his statement that Sookie is harder on him that anyone else. Although i didn't buy his reasoning for it. Never thought I'd be siding with Quinn - something about him calling her Babe all the time that just ruins it. Like he can't be bothered to remember her name. My Boyfriend used to do that. Call everyone 'darling' regardless of gender or whether he met you 10 minutes ago, so he didn't have to remember names. He knows better now. But i digress.

The main event of the book is the Fairy war with Niall and the pro-human fairies on one side and his nephew Breandan and the 'no-contact-with-Humans' fairies on the other side. And obviously Sookie in the middle - with disastrous and torturous consequences for her and her friends. That part was really horrible. Harris really has a way with writing dark stuff. Her Lily Bard Series is a good example.

I found this book had a more mature and subdued Sookie (and Jason too, for that matter). One who faces a lot of revelations. You can see the effects of it in her interaction with those around her. Specially with Eric. She's confused about her feelings and the blood bond. Their relationship changes in that Sookie seems more detached when it comes to Eric now while Eric seems to want to get closer to her. Almost like her needs her.

Then there was also the conversation after Sookie is rescued and she asks Eric why he wasn't the one who came after her and she had hoped he would, and he says “You’re killing me” Plus at the end Pam makes some comment about how Eric will live on in Sookie. So many cryptic things in this book. VERY VERY FRUSTRATING.

And BILL IS BACK!!! Who would have thought that. I mean the man really managed to redeemed himself, almost dying for her and all. Whew!!

Can i now complain about the extremely abrupt ending. After page after page of a rollercoaster ride of events, it felt like Harris got tired of writing and just left it hanging. Like i mentioned before. Frustrating.

But all in all, i still loved it.

Is now a good time to bring up how this book was only 336 pages? Its like going to wait a long awaited movie only to be shown the trailer and then asked to leave at the end of it with no movie in sight.

Well, maybe not exactly like that. But still.

Aaah well. I always seem to complain about this series. Because i love it so much.

See.
Told you.
Chocolate rush = too much writing.

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Click here for reviews of books 1-8

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Sookie Stackhouse books 5 to 8 by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse 05 - Dead as Doornail
At first reading (and I've read it bout thrice now) this seems like a slow read. But its actually quite good on re-reading. It just didn't seem to have as much happening as the other books did.
So Jason is finally a were-panther. And a lot of the shifters and Weres are getting shot at with Jason as a suspect. In the end there are two culprits and the story plays out pretty well.
Sookie also has to tell Eric about what happened when he lost his memory, thanks to Tara. So Eric now knows the truth. Bill is dating someone else. Sam is still being Sam - trying while not really trying, hoping things will just happen. I dunno what Sookie sees in Alcide, or even why she still even knows him. He's just a self centered jackass.
So that takes care of all the men currently in Sookie's life - no sex in this story, and she didn't get beaten up either.I guess Quinn is going to feature in the next book a lot. And more Eric :o)


Sookie Stackhouse 06 - Definitely Dead
So we add Quinn to the list of Sookie's admirers in this book. Everytime she's with him they seem to get attacked.
The one is based mainly in New Orleans with Sookie going to close her cousin and now dead vampire Hadley's estate, meeting the queen and then coming to her rescue. The whole ectoplasm thing was pretty interesting. In between there's all the Pelt family saga that finally catches up with her and thus explains why her and Quinn keep getting attacked by all the Weres.
Also Bill admits to being a lying bastard, which i'm quite glad about. Bill is really boring, so hopefully there wont be much of him in the books to come (one can hope)
It was actually nice knowing the queen's story - this is the first one where we're told how one of the vampires were turned.

Sookie Stackhouse 07 - All Together Dead
This one is all about the Vampire summit in the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina
The Queen is charged with killing her husband; Sookie is the only witness. The Queens' opposition keeps disappearing and once she's finally cleared of those charges, the Fellowship has some fun with all the vamps.
Sookie gets involved and uncovers all this in typical Sookie fashion. Sookie also saves Eric. I mean the first person she thinks of saving before the shit hits the fan was Eric. Well, ok. after she told Quinn. But still. I think it was nice and wonder if she realises why she did it.
You know, this whole Sookie and Quinn thing isn't going to work. Also, she's contradicting herself with him. She tells him she has big lust and so doesn't wanna sleep with him right away and then does it anyway. So all the i-wanna-wait-and-see-if-you're-the-one was just talk, she slept with him anyway.
Sookie promises herself no more supernatural world for her from now on, but since the books have to continue, that just wont be true.


Sookie Stackhouse 08 - From Dead to Worse
This book initially seems like a breather after the last two action packed books. While there aren't any blasts or all out action like in Definitely Dead, this one does have quite a lot going on but on a seemingly slower pace. This one is among my favourites actually, it really is pleasant to read. There's a Were War, more of that jackass Alcide, new family members for Sookie, more Eric-Sookie, a new king for Louisiana. Tanya is back with some Pelt vengeance. Jason and Crystal are in self-destruct mode. Sookie seems more mature in this book. And she's evaluating her life in light of Quinn's disappearance and then re-appearance (Ha! told you it wouldn't last)

It wasn't surprising that Bill is trying to make things right with Sookie again. Considering Sookie doesn't seem to know what she wants with the men in her life, in this area atleast, she thankfully seems to have made up her mind. So Bill will only be a background figure from now on (Don't disappoint me, Ms Harris) He might actually die for her in one of the next books maybe (His words, not mine)
Eric finally remembers what happened when he was at Sookie's place so that means they will have their conversation sometimes soon (Please Ms. Harris) I also like the whole calming effect he has on her and i wonder what more the blood bond entails. I also wanna know why he's called Eric the Northman, so maybe in one of the next books Harris can maybe explain that. Maybe Sookie and him finally do hook up but I'm guessing eventually it either wont work out or Sookie will have to become a vampire.
All these things mean that there's a lot more to happen in the books ahead. Always a good thing. In the meanwhile., something needs to be done about the damn Word of the day calendar. It just gets annoying after a while.

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Sookie Stackhouse 04 - Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse is back! The mind-reading vampire-dating, small-town cocktail waitress from small-town Louisiana returns in her fourth Southern Vampire Mystery. Life is never simple for Sookie Stackhouse, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that she always tries to do the right thing. Maybe that's why, when she comes across a semi-naked vampire on the road home from work, she doesn't just drive on by, even though she knows it almost certainly means trouble. Turns out the vampire hasn't a clue as to who he is. But Sookie does. It's Eric, still as scary and sexy - and dead - as the day she first met him. But now that he has amnesia, Eric is sweet, vulnerable, and in need of Sookie's help - because whoever took his memory now wants his life. Sookie's investigation into why leads straight into a dangerous battle among witches, vampires and werewolves. But the greater danger could be to Sookie's heart - because the kinder, gentler Eric is very difficult to resist ..

I think i enjoyed this book the most - Mostly cause Bill isn't there much in it and Eric is there - a lot.

It couldn't have started out better - you know the book will be great when Bill has left in the beginning itself.

And then Eric - i love the dynamic between Eric and Sookie - and the descriptions are, ahem, hot as well. I did kinda shake my head in disappointment when she first decided that jumping Eric was good, but then well, i guess this was going to happen eventually. And the whole memory loss thing really helped, i guess.

Sookie didn't get beaten up much in this book - which is a good change from the previous 3.

There's a lot more supernatural characters in this book - which means the coming stories will be great.

The best thing about the book is that it had 2 stories - Jason's disappearance and Eric's memory loss, and both played out seamlessly even though they didn't have anything to do with each other. Plus, it left a lot of questions to be answered in the next books - Will Eric remember, and then what? Will Alice find out about Debbie - and then what? Will Jason turn every full moon. How will all of this change Sookie and her relationship with these men in her life.

I do hope there's more of Eric and Sookie tho - it makes much more interesting reading than Sookie and Bill ever did and they seem great together.

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Sookie Stackhouse 03 - Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

Hey know how to make a great cocktai in Club Dead - a twist of lemon, a dash of pepper and a shot of Blood Group O. There's only one vampire Sookie Stackhouse is involved with (at least voluntarily) and that's Bill. But recently he's been kind of distant - like in another state distant. Bill's sinister and sexy boss Eric has an idea where to find him, which is why Sookie ends up in Jackson, Mississippi, mingling with the under-underworld at Club Dead. It's a dangerous little haunt where the elitist vamps can go chill and chow on some prime flesh. But when Sookie finally finds Bill - caught in an act of serious betrayal - she's not sure whether to save him, or sharpen some stakes

These books are no literary masterpiece but i am hooked. For the simple reason that i have something to read at work - Thank you Charlaine Harris.

The characters seem to grow a lil in depth in each book and its not a simple one man-one woman story. Sookie does seem to have quite a fan following, if you can use that word for everyone who wants to sleep with her.

Sookie has grown in these three books. She's evaluating her life on normal terms. She wants someone she can wake up with and spend the day normally with. She's evaluating the men in her life by their ability to be good husbands - in bed and other ways. Its like she's kissing a lot of toads to see who the prince turns out to be, only the kissing isn't all that innocent:)

She does get beat up a lot in these books doesn't she. I mean really hammered. She's either kissing some supernatural thing or she's getting beaten up.

I love that Eric seems to be becoming a bigger character in the books. I really hope she does away with Bill for good, who i was very happy didn't feature a lot in the book. But that probably won't happen completely. And he still has to explain all the cheating, which should happen in the next book.

I'm also happy the whole "She is mine" thing figured only once in this book - it is really annoying.

Oh Hell, on to the next one.

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Sookie Stackhouse 02 - Living Dead In Dallas by Charlaine Harris

Waiting tables, sweeping floors, reading minds and solving mysteries for the undead. It's all in a day's work for Sookie...

Cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is on a streak of real bad luck. First, her co-worker gets murdered and no one seems to care. Then Sookie is attacked - and poisoned - late one night by some weird and apparently mythical beast. She only survives because the local vampires roll up and graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it). But in return the blood-suckers need a favour.

Which is why Sookie ends up in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire, on the condition that her undead friends don't do anything, well, vampiric while she's there. Easier said than done. All it takes is one delicious blond and one small mistake for things to turn deadly...

This one surely had lot of story for a one day read. First the maenad, then the Fellowship in Dallas and then orgies!!!

I completely love Eric - first he tricks her into having his blood and then kisses her and then the orgy!!! The Man (vampire) has character. A lot more than boooring Bill. i wonder if Harris has made him so boring on purpose. I mean, all the other Vamps seem to have something about them other than good ole Bill.

The whole Bellefleur and Bill thing was completely stupid..actually Bill was completely stupid. But i think i said that already.

Did i mention i loved Eric

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Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 1) by Charlaine Harris

Jacket cover:

Sookie Stackhouse is a cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana, but she keeps to herself and doesn't date much because of her "disability" to read minds. When she meets Bill, Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's the type of guy she's waited for all of her life, but he has a disability, too--he's a vampire with a bad reputation. When one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

This was a fun read.. but before i really get into this, some comments/questions/observations:

1 - Synthetic blood ?

2 - There is AIDS for the Vampires???!!
3 - I really like the way we accepted the poor grandmom's death and promptly proceeded to have sex

4 - there was something else but i just can't remember what

I guess the rest is ok, but, the grief sex ? i mean, she's never had sex before and suddenly she's having grief sex?

well, ok . i guess i was expecting a lot from this book if I'm questioning things like this. Maybe i was expecting a bit more of sanity in the book. But then again, her name is Sookie Stackhouse, and this is a book with Vampires, maybe sanity is not what i should be looking for.

Atleast there aren't any sparkling vampires (a.k.a. Twilight) and Glamor doesn't seem that bad a word :o)

Overall, this was a real good read. The Characters are interesting. The book was short enough to finish in a day (i wish it was longer actually) and the plot did make me abandon all my other work till i could reach the end.

I get that feeling that Charlaine Harris is going to be one of those authors i add to my completely mindless-but-still-addictive-enough-to-make-me-stay-up-all-night-to-finish list of reading material.

Can't wait to start the next one.

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