Book Review: Hell's Revenge by Eve Langlais

Review: Hell’s Revenge
Series: Princess of Hell – Book 3
Author: Eve Langlais
No of Pages: 80
Release Date: 3 October 2011

I am literally going to kill my mother.

To say I have mommy issues is putting it mildly. The woman who abandoned me has a lot of nerve to just saunter back into my life without warning and drop a bombshell of atomic proportions. I tried to kill her as way of resolving my inner Freudian issues, but my damned boyfriends stopped me. Spoilsports.

As if wanting to strangle my birth mother isn’t enough, once again, someone is messing with my life and a new player steps in to save me. Did I mention my dark knight is tall, gorgeous and fanged? Just don’t tell my lovers because apparently they’re not willing to share me with the undead.

The final showdown with the mysterious figure—also known as the major pain in my ass—fast approaches. I don’t care how powerful they are. They screwed up big time when they took something precious of mine. It’s never a good idea to piss off this Princess of Hell because revenge is my middle name.

My Thoughts:

Hell’s Revenge was a compelling finale to this fantastic trilogy.

Muriel is pregnant, and the child has two fathers…literally. But when her mum shows up to try and claim the child for herself, Muriel, who has never thought about ever having children up until now, refuses to relinquish her baby. Then the being who has been messing with Muriel for the last two books shows up to also stake a claim on the child, because if given the right upbringing it will have the power to destroy the world.

Muriel was once again an amazing character, she is strong but also has a way of seeming completely vulnerable about certain issues, and her character doesn’t ever mould to fit the scenario which is what I love about Langlais’ writing. Muriel is confronted with her mother, someone who she hasn’t known since she was five years old, and whom she has no memory of. Simultaneously she hates her mother for abandoning her and wants her love without ever showing it.

Langlais’ writing was masterful yet again. Her way of weaving the story, the relationship dynamic of a threesome and later foursome plus all of the comedy brought in by the hellish characters had me finishing this story way too quickly, her comedy writing rivals her smut with its laugh out loud quality. People like Muriel’s sister, Bambii, had only the single purpose of comic relief but it didn’t take away from their character at all, although Bambii only appeared for about a page, her story still has a way of sticking with you and making you want to read more into her life. For such a short appearance she had a very well-rounded character.

I will say once again as I have said before, that the whole idea of a permanent threesome relationship doesn’t really work for me, as addressed in the story numerous times Muriel’s soul mate is Auric, which leaves me feeling a little bad for the other two. That imbalance grates on me a little and I’m not completely sold on the concept, but the sex that Langlais wrote including the other two men was completely hot. If it was just that and no relationship part I’d love it.

For a novella I felt that this story had all the elements balanced perfectly, we weren’t bombarded with smut yet the story maintained a quick and action packed pace without missing out on any key fights or information.

Hell’s Revenge was an amazing read and a beautiful end to this whirlwind of a trilogy. Langlais has earned a spot on my watch list and I am making an effort to read everything she comes out with now because of this series.

Also in this Series:
Lucifer's Daughter
Snowballs in Hell

Book Review: Hunter Green by Brianna Stoddard

Review: Hunter Green
Author: Brianna Stoddard
No of Pages: 161
Release Date: 4 November 2010

HUNTER GREEN will blow you away! It is an amazing story that will show you the world in a whole new light! It is focused on an incredible teenage girl, named Emily, who sadly loses her mother from a menacing, evil werewolf. Emily vows revenge and begins hunting the creatures down. She gets help from Isabella, a kind Psychic Gypsy that knows how to help her become the ultimate hunter. Emily realizes her destiny and becomes a killing machine. She starts her journey across the world and leaves no werewolf's blood un-spilled in this wonderfully dark and bloody story.

Warning: This review will contain spoilers because the absurdity of it cannot be fully appreciated without them.

My Thoughts:

This has to be the most self-serving, poorly researched story I have ever read.

Emily has lost both of her parents, her father left when she was young and her mother was murdered by a werewolf.

Emily is probably the most annoying, yet voiceless character I have ever read. The writing was so poor that Emily doesn’t even register to me as the voice of this novel, we attempt to view the story through her eyes, through her selfish, childish ways but she’s nothing but a fluff character.

What I hated most about this book, and it was definitely hate not just extreme dislike, was the complete lack of research and the obvious laziness when it came to actually writing the story. It reads like it was written by a twelve year old and I actually did check that out half way through to make sure that it was actually written by an adult.

First off we have the completely believable scenario of Emily, a fifteen year old girl who has just lost the last of her family to a werewolf swearing vengeance on all who turn furry at the full moon. Okay.

So off she goes into the wild, with nothing in her pockets but her mother’s credit cards, a little bit of cash and her supplies. May I just add in here that she decided to wear high heeled boots for this journey – yep, that’s practical. Oh and it seems that credit card security no longer matters, because that wouldn’t suit the authors purposes, so Emily was able to use all of her mother’s credit cards, and draw down on the cash without having to show ID.

Isabella the gypsy-psychic - witch (because all gypsies are witches, didn’t you know?) takes her in because she has foreseen Emily saving the world. Not so unbelievable. But then we get to the part that really cheeses me off.

Isabella the gypsy-psychic-witch decides to do a tarot card reading – I am a card reader and like everything else, I don’t mind people using it, I don’t mind people making fun of it, but if you are going to reference it, research it first. The “spread” she did raised my eyebrows as it was, but then, apparently there is now a card called “the baby cradle”, are you kidding me? Do you think we are that stupid? Not to mention Isabella’s “spells” which were conveniently named to suit Emily’s purposes such as “To gain the speed of a cheetah” and “To become immortal”, very creative.

Then there was the solid silver and gold sword, yep, I like science too, so I will also point out that that is impossible, as the sword would be too soft, not to mention because of Emily’s wonderful awesomeness she only had to practice for a few weeks (instead of the decades it takes normal people) to master that and all of her other weapons. And these were only a few of the problems in the first thirty five pages.

Then we (finally) move on to some killing and hunting. There are hundreds of thousands of werewolves all over the world, they keep breeding and biting people to make new ones but of course Emily’s an ambitious girl, and vows to kill them all, she is so wonderfully fantastic that she never gets a scratch on her, or hurt in any way, she manages to kill dozens of werewolves at a time. And even manages to kill eight werewolves in five minutes. This is where the details could have been really juicy - as the synopsis promises - but we didn’t get anything, the writing literally went “After the next full moon I had finished searching the whole country and had killed a total of three hundred werewolves”. That is how the story continued from then on unless, of course, we had to hear in explicit detail exactly what she was wearing that day or how many outfits she bought in various colours during her travels.

I only finished this book out of obligation because it was a review book, and for the small hope that maybe, just maybe Emily died, or turned into a werewolf. But no this book was full of hate for weres who encompassed everything evil. There were no exceptions, it was quite racist actually, female weres were evil, males weres were evil, baby weres were evil, didn’t matter the age, the story, the circumstances, they were all evil.

But of course Emily managed to kill them all, within two years and with only two trips around the world, she becomes a hero because naturally everyone wanted to kill a species that they knew nothing about, everyone loved Emily. She even managed to get a bloke, and it only took a single meeting a poorly written clichéd paragraph at the end of the novel. “We had loved each other from the very first sight of each other. We were destined to be together.”

Not to mention all the other discrepancies, scattered throughout the novel. But honestly if I keep going, this review will be longer than the novel was itself. It was poorly written, poorly executed and based upon a very poor idea. There is a saying in the writing world, if you can pitch a book well, it is usually horrible, this book is pitched nicely enough, I was excited to read it, and then I turned the first page.

Hunter Green was a horrible waste of time. I feel sorry for my eyes, sorry for my PDF reader and sorry for anyone else who has the displeasure of reading it. One is the lowest rating I give, but it doesn't even deserve that.

Book Review: Succubus on Top by Richelle Mead

Review: Succubus on Top
Series: Georgina Kincaid – Book 2
Author: Richelle Mead
No of Pages: 314
Release Date: 1 January 2008

Georgina Kincaid’s job sucks. Literally.

Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses Seth Mortensen, the shy, sexy, incredibly gifted Seattle writer she’s been dating, she’ll drain his life force. Georgina is a succubus – a demon who draws her power from other men’s pleasure. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks are terrific, and yes, Georgina did choose to join the ranks of hell centuries ago. But it seems completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can’t get hot and heavy with the one mortal who knows and accepts her for who she is…

It’s not just her personal life that’s in chaos. Doug, Georgina’s co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behaviour, and Georgina suspects that something far more demonic than double espressos is at work. She could use help finding out, but Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, is preoccupied with corrupting an ultra-conservative talk radio star – and giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one – and fast because soon, Doug’s life won’t be the only one on the line…

My Thoughts:

Although I am not quite sold on the romantic storyline yet, the mystery, comedy and friendship dynamic in this story are amazing.

Georgina Kincaid is Seattle’s top succubus. In keeping with her promise to her demon boss she has been corrupting good souls left right and centre, so much so that she has even earned an award. Although the succubus part of her life is going well, the rest is a bit more complicated. She can’t touch her boyfriend for fear of sucking out his life force, her work colleague and close friend Doug is acting strangely, not to mention work in general has been all consuming of late. So when her old friend Bastien the incubus arrives in town Georgina rejoices at the prospect of some old time fun, until she finds out he wants her help too, in seducing a religious zealot.

Georgina provides one comical situation after another in this book. She once again infatuated me with her quirky way of thinking, her sense of loyalty – especially when she gets riled up over the thought of someone messing with one of her humans – and her occasional social awkwardness even though she is supposed to be a master in the art of seduction.

What kind of got me with Succubus on Top was the Seth/Georgina relationship. I don’t understand the point. Sure they’re doing it for love and this may just be my cynicism kicking in, but why voluntarily go through the kind of torture they’re putting themselves through? Sitting in a room playing scrabble when all they really want to do is jump one another’s bones. Seth seems to rein himself in quite a bit better than Georgina does, but then it’s Georgina’s head we’re in so we get her personal torture all laid out for us.

I am a firm believer of sex not equalling love, but taking it out of the equation entirely, when both parties want to do it, why do that to yourselves? Georgina spent most of the book wondering if she really loved Seth, and if she could even feel love anymore. If you’re not that far in yet and there is already a problem that you are having huge difficulty living with, on top of that there is no foreseeable cure. GET OUT NOW.

Why stay and put yourself through that? For love? There will be another and another and most likely being immortal, another one after that.

Perhaps this is why I am continuing this series, I want to see what Georgina does to fix this mess, or if she gives up. Perhaps she thinks loving Seth is a good enough reason not to give up, perhaps I am just too jaded to see the point. The relationship doesn’t work for me though; friends would be fine take the sexual component away completely. But I don’t see the point in self-inflicted torture, considering the fact that she has to sleep with other men constantly to get a power fix.

On to other topics brushed in this book, the addition of Bastien however brief was absolutely marvellous. A succubus and an incubus together, two beings who completely understand each other’s nature makes for a great pairing, especially when they have to go to work together. Bastien was like the egotistical male version of Georgina and together on the page they had me in stitches.

Unfortunately many of the other characters kept to the background in this book, but it was Carter’s – the angel that hangs around with a bunch of demons – presence once again that had me sighing every time he appeared, if however briefly. His contrast to the cast of demons is so touching that it makes his angelic goodness seem all the more amplified, yet he is still so cool which can sometimes be lost in stories like these where demons reign supreme.

Mead swept me up in yet another fantastic book; Succubus on Top has left me wanting more. Although I am conflicted on where I stand with Georgina’s relationship, her world has me entranced and I must read Succubus Dreams as soon as possible.

Also in this series:
Succubus Blues
Succubus Dreams
Succubus Heat
Succubus Shadows
Succubus Revealed

Book Review: Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

Review: Eye of the Tempest
Series: Jane True – Book 4
Author: Nicole Peeler
No of Pages: 319
Release Date: 26 July 2011

Nothing says “home” like being attached by humans with very large guns, as Jane and Anyan discover when they arrive in Rockabill. Seeing Anyan fall awakens a terrible power within Jane, and she nearly destroys herself taking out their attackers.

Jane wakes, weeks later, to discover that she’s not the only thing that’s been stirring. Something underneath Rockabill is coming to life: something ancient, something powerful, and something that might destroy the world.

Jane and her friends must act, striking out on a quest that only Jane can finish. For whatever lurks beneath the Old Sow must be stopped…and Jane’s just the Halfling for the job.

My Thoughts:
Eye of the Tempest was another fast paced instalment in this fantastic series.

Jane accidentally short circuits herself when she pulls the water from several human beings to protect Anyan during an attack. It kills the men, and it nearly kills her as well. When she wakes up, a month has passed and strange occurrences are becoming more frequent in Rockabill.

Jane once again had me in fits of laughter; her trademark libido vs. virtue monologue is absolutely hilarious. Jane is growing as a character; those changes are quite obvious but also well earned. Her training is increasing and because of it she is becoming more powerful learning new tricks to impress us with in each new adventure.

Anyan was a little bit of a disappointment for me this time; I feel his real character is starting to show through. He has gone from this adorable, burly man who any woman would count their lucky stars to be with to more distant and a bit of a jerk. Anyan always seems to be around when Jane is naked or he even turns up to get her naked, but he doesn’t seem to treat her properly. When Ryu and Jane were sleeping together it was obvious that Ryu was using her for blood, but with Anyan it’s a little more subtle. The connection between them doesn’t seem to be there. As Jane pointed out herself Anyan always seemed to cop a feel, but they had never even kissed properly.

For me, this was a little bit of a letdown with Anyan, it might just be my natural distrusting ways, but if I were Jane I’d put my foot down and not give over anything until I knew where I stood.

The actual story was once again very well written. It didn’t have the adventure in that Jane actually stayed in Rockabill for nearly the entire novel, but it did have a deeper story. One in which Jane got to meet a being that was literally millions of years old. Jane also had to man up because Nell and Anyan, her two most powerful allies, were rendered completely helpless and it was up to Jane and Blondie, who Jane didn’t trust, to help them.

Peeler’s writing was once again superb; I do feel though that she is playing up a little too much on her Jane monologues. After such high praises of the ingeniousness of it in previous books, Libido and Virtue were appearing what felt like all the time. Every new situation Jane was put into it felt like those two felt the need to be heard, it was actually kind of annoying after a while because it was obvious what was happening, just because a device has worked in the past doesn’t mean you have to become a one trick pony.

Eye of the Tempest was once again a fabulous read, it kept me engrossed from start to finish and I once again cannot wait for the next instalment.

Others in this series:
Tempest's Rising
Tracking the Tempest
Tempest's Legacy
Tempest's Fury

Book Review: Warrior by Marie Brennan

Review: Warrior
Series: Doppelganger – Book 1
Author: Marie Brennan
No of Pages: 395
Release Date: 1 August 2008

When a witch is born, a doppelganger is created. For the witch to master her powers, the twin must be killed. But what happens when the doppelganger survives?

Mirage, a bounty hunter, lives by her wits and lethal fighting skills. She always gets her mark. But her new mission will take her into the shadowy worl of witches, where her strength may be no match against magic.

Miryo is a witch who has just failed her initiation test. She now knows that there is someone in the world who looks like her, who is her: Mirage. To control her powers, Miryo has only one choice: to hunt the hunter and destroy her.

My Thoughts:

Warrior was absolutely amazing.

Miryo is in an unusual predicament, as a witch, to gain control of her powers, she must kill someone who looks just like her, who is her. Someone who should have died when she was very young. Miryo has to kill her doppelganger, the other part of herself.

Mirage is on a mission to find out who killed a powerful witch, being wary of witches for most of her life she was uncomfortable with the contact she needs to have with them, but being the best at what she does, she is perfect for the job.

Mirage was by far my favourite of the two girls; she was the typical kick ass fantasy chick. She was a knife wielding, combat expert who people either feared or respected greatly. She worked hard to get where she was and had to fight for it every step of the way because she was different, much as she hated them, she looked exactly like a witch because of her flaming red hair.

Miryo on the other hand was a bit scared, highly intelligent but sheltered and sent off on a mission that she really shouldn’t have been sent off to.

Warrior was a predictable book, but the way it was told, the world it was told in made it something completely new to experience. Brennan’s writing was seamless in her execution of the two characters, each was completely individual, had their own voice.

Brennan crafted a wonderful world incorporating not only magic but assassins which has to be two of my favourite fantasy subjects ever; it was indeed a match made in heaven. Brennan’s writing was impeccable, her fight scenes were some of the best I’ve read in quite a long time, no skimming over details or coping out using phrases such as “I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden he was under me and I knocked him unconscious”, Mirage and even Miryo had to work during their fights, Mirage especially, her fight scenes were so detailed my leg started moving without me realising it as I read about her kicking her assailants in the head.

Warrior was also very realistic – well, as much as a fantasy novel can be realistic – things weren’t handed to the characters, there were no short cuts, nearly everything was hard. Mirage and Miryo may have been the best at what they did, but nothing came easy.

Warrior, in it’s mythology, was a little hard to understand at first, what with all the different hands and heads and hearts and elements. I found myself getting quite baffled when reading in Miryo’s point of view for a large portion of the front of the book, but once I understood it, which didn’t happen until about halfway through I found it to be some of the most unique mythology I have read in a long time. Two created from one, all the magic and singing spells kind of got lost in the rest of the story, which I am glad of because I wasn’t a huge fan of the idea, but the baser Witch mythology was very intriguing.

Warrior was a fantastic start to this duology, it left me thinking about it for days afterwards and I am eager to get into the next instalment, Witch.

Also in this series:
Witch

Book Review: Revving Her Wild Engines by Cassandre Dayne

Review: Revving Her Wild Engines
Author: Cassandre Dayne
No of Pages: 66
Release Date: 20 February 2011

Stephanie Simon was more than ready to have her most secret and sinful fantasies fulfilled. And the thought of having a torrid affair with David Tyler took her breath away. Unfortunately however, Stephanie and David have never met. Introduced by a friend, they've only conversed via the Internet, where they tell each other their every hidden fantasy. Stephanie's is a wicked tryst on the back of David's motorcycle and a ménage. And as luck would have it, David has the perfect third in mind.

Fuelled by Stephanie's hunger to explore, David sweeps Stephanie off her feet with a wild ride across a pool table in front of his friends and a ménage that leaves her engine revved for more. But both David and Stephanie hold a terrible secret. As they learn about their tragic pasts, neither knows if they can cling to the other for support and find the love and forgiveness they need.

My Thoughts:

There’s good erotic fiction, and then there’s not. Unfortunately Revving Her Wild Engines fell into the pretty horrible section.

Stephanie is traumatised, after battling something terrible that happened in her past for years now, she has decided to take that final step in letting go, no longer being held back by her fears she meets up with a man she has been chatting to for months on the internet. When her and David meet though it is more than just a weekend of wild passion, they connect with each other. The connection running deeper than anything Stephanie has ever felt.

Revving Her Wild Engines sounded like a nice quick, hot read. Something good for curling up with late one night to pass the time before bed. Unfortunately what I got was basically, really horrible book porn. The plot was terrible, the emotion was overly dramatized and the wording was flowery.

Erotic couplings such as this should result in some hot sex and maybe a call back, what I got was declarations of love within the first two days of them meeting. Their first hug was a “tender, loving embrace”. I’m sorry; I don’t care how good the sex was, but no.

The main thing that kept throwing me out of the mood that Dayne was struggling to create was the wording, “moistened her scarlet panties and she resisted the urge to wipe at herself.” I’m sorry, but yuck, she wanted to wipe at herself?! When I think “wipe” I think toilet paper.

Then there were the ridiculous situations they were put in, like oh I don’t know, giving head jobs on a balcony while people were watching. Or giving head jobs in the middle of a pub rec room in front of your four closest friends who have just met this woman.

His friends didn’t believe David when he told them he had a woman, if I saw that I’d think he’d hired a prostitute for the weekend. That isn’t hot, it’s dirty. Dayne could have made it hotter, with a different setting or better dialogue, but it read like a really bad porn movie.

The dialogue matched the rest of this train wreck as well. “Mm baby, are you hot for me?” “Oh yes, honey, I am so hot for you, I have been hot for you all day.” Really?

That was as good as it got. Well of course, apart from the over emotional speeches about how Stephanie couldn’t really be loved by David because she was so ugly, and such bad person.

This entire novella read like a bad soapie mixed with even worse porn. Overemotional, bad dialogue, horrible writing and stupid settings. Culminating in an ending that was not only clichéd and boring, but completely far-fetched.

If Dayne had left the emotional crap out of this story and used her material for a hot, wild coupling of two strangers, it might have worked, what we’re given though isn’t worth reading.

Book Review: The Mark of the Vampire Queen by Joey W. Hill

Review: The Mark of the Vampire Queen
Series: Vampire Queen – Book 2
Author: Joey W. Hill
No of Pages: 370
Release Date: 5 February 2008

Full Servant. With his new title, Jacob must now attend to Lady Lyssa’s every need, venturing into a world of passion darker than he’s ever known. His time as a vampire hunter certainly hadn’t prepared him to embrace a world where humans are sexual commodities, but he adapted. Now he finds the integrity of his soul challenges as he serves his Mistress’s needs as fully as he services her desires.

As much as Jacob loves her, other servants wan against giving her his soul. Everyone knows that vampires have no regard for humans, so why would a vampiress bother treating a mere sex toy with respect? But Jacob knows a human servant is far more than that. His Mistress needs a warrior, a friend and a lover – a man who will serve her in all ways, even if he has to betray the priceless treasure of her love…

My Thoughts:
The Mark of the Vampire Queen was a very hard one for me to finish, purely because it bored me.

Jacob is now a full servant of the vampire queen Lyssa. With this title comes the knowledge that Lyssa is very sick and dying, and now, because of his new stature, so will he die along with her.

This pains the pair of them as in their own way, they love each other, being soul mates throughout Lyssa’s incomparably long life and Jacob through his various incarnations, to have found each other in this capacity Jacob wants to hold on to as her for as long as he can.

I will be quite frank and say that this book bored me literally to sleep. There was far too much detail wrapped up in politics and medieval fairs that I had to force myself to finish just to have the pleasure of writing this review. The politics interest me, but the way they were written in reminding me of watching Parliament Time on the ABC, a lot of people talking quietly for two hours and once every three months having a raving blue with each other that can be quite entertaining.

I originally picked up this series because I read an excerpt of book five, Vampire Mistress, and thought it intriguing. It might still be, it’s just a shame that I will not get to it because of the quality of the first two books.

In hindsight I remember the first book being relatively slow, to the point of having to force myself through it as well. There just isn’t enough driving this story for me to enjoy it. Sure you have a problem in the form of Lyssa’s impending doom and the effect it will have on Jacob, you also have the likes of Carnal trying to upset the order Lyssa has been trying to build between vampires and humans for the last thousand years.

Yet when it’s put on paper in the way that Hill writes it, it just drags on and on. In the end I was marking chapter ends so I felt a small victory each time I reached one.

The sex was hot in this series overall, I will admit that, some of the scenes Hill came up with were especially well written, but there just wasn’t enough built around those scenes for me to remotely enjoy this story at all.

Others in this series:
The Vampire Queen's Servant
A Vampire's Claim
Beloved Vampire
Vampire Mistress
Vampire Trinity
Vampire's Keeper

Book Review: One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost

Review: One Grave at a Time
Series: Night Huntress – Book 6
Author: Jeaniene Frost
No of Pages: 358
Release Date: 30 August 2011

HOW DO YOU SEND A KILLER TO THE GRAVE WHEN HE’S ALREADY DEAD?

Having narrowly averted an (under) World War, Cat Crawfield wants nothing more than a little downtime with her vampire husband, Bones. Unfortunately, her gift from New Orleans’s voodoo queen just keeps on giving – leading to a personal favour that sends them into battle once again, this time against a villainous spirit.

Centuries ago, Heinrich Kramer was a witch hunter. Now, ever All Hallows Eve, he takes physical form to torture innocent women before burning them alive. This year, however, a determined Cat and Bones must risk all to send him back to the other side of eternity – forever. But one wrong step and they’ll be digging their own graves.

My Thoughts:

There is just something about this series that makes it so fantastic.

After Cat’s uncles passing Cat has had to grieve and then deal with an upheaval in the team that he used to head. Her friend Tate has been demoted from the top job and replaced by someone who obviously has a problem with the all vampire team. Cat now has to deal with the new guy poking into her business while having to go up against a psychopathic homicidal ghost running rampant on Halloween.

Cat is still amazing, but she isn’t quite as brilliant as what she was in the first four books. She is still smart talking, still completely ass kicking fantastic. But now she is just Cat. We’ve seen all of her tricks, but what now?

I will be honest that I am getting scared for the rest of this series. The first five books were absolutely tongue tying-ly brilliant. But this one? It was a little on the stale side. There was even a scene with awkward dialogue in it.

Then there was also the sex scene. We’ve gone from the infamous Chapter 32 which was absolutely amazing, to some half-assed sex in the sky. It could have been as fantastic as the Eternal Kiss of Darkness ceiling scene, but it had a bit of a bore factor to it.

I am even having some trouble remembering the great scenes from this book, it’s just not as hard hitting, and I worry if this is a preview into how the rest of the series is going to go, we still have three books left and I want them to be as awesome as the first half of the series was.

One Grave at a Time was missing the X factor that the other books Frost has written have. It was just going through the motions. Bones was there, ghosts were there, friends were there, Cat was there. Stuff happened but meh.

I want to love this series, I want to love this book as much as I loved the others but I just couldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, this book is still absolutely brilliant. But it’s not on par with the rest of the series, it’s great, but it’s not excellent, it’s not of the same calibre. Frost set the bar very high, and I hope she can reach it with the next book.

Other books in this series:
Halfway to the Grave
One Foot in the Grave
At Grave's End
Destined for an Early Grave
This Side of the Grave

Book Review: Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: Bloody Bones
Series: Anita Blake – Book 5
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 370

Here’s a job to strain even Anita Blake’s capabilities: raising an entire graveyard of two-hundred-year-old corpses.

My Thoughts:


Bloody Bones was yet another whirlwind instalment in this series.

When people start showing up cut in half and missing bits of their bodies Anita gets called in in the place of the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team who are already dealing with their own vampire issues.

This case however is going to be a tricky one, not only does Anita need to figure out what it is that is killing the local population because vampires don’t use swords, but she also needs to content with the local sheriff who is a secretive career climber convinced that Anita will steal all of her glory so she isn’t sharing all of the details.

The one thing that I am loving about Anita so far is that she doesn’t lose her uniqueness, she is such a strong character and yet she still has that vulnerability. Her stomach still turns when she sees a mutilated body, she doesn’t just waltz through and get to it, she still sometimes needs to compose herself.

The love triangle is starting to grind on my nerves a little though. Anita reckons she can’t stand Jean-Claude so why doesn’t she just end it with him, she keeps hiding behind the excuse that he would hurt Richard but not only can Richard take care of himself, Anita could take care of him as well.

I did enjoy the dive into the mysteries surrounding the fae. It’s one of the things I love about this series, we aren’t just focusing on vampires and werewolves, we get all manner of supernatural creatures coming out of the woods.

The fight scenes were as always masterfully written although I would have enjoyed more of a fight from Raw Head and Bloody Bones when he came onto the scene, it feels like he was only there for a few pages and then he was gone and yet the entire plot revolved around how dangerous he was.

As always though I enjoyed Anita’s attitude and the extremely graphic horror that Hamilton so expertly writes, I can’t wait to get into the next instalment The Killing Dance.

Also in this series:

Guilty Pleasures

The Laughing Corpse

Circus of the Damned

The Lunatic Cafe

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

Hit List

Book Review: Enchanted Inc. by Shanna Swendson

Review: Enchanted Inc.
Series: Enchanted Inc. – Book 1
Author: Shanna Swendson
No of Pages: 308
Release Date: 31 May 2005

DON’T MESS WITH THE HEXES

Katie Chandler had always heard that New York is a weird and wonderful place, but this small-town Texas gal had no idea how weird until she moved there. Everywhere she goes, she sees something worth gawking at, and Katie is afraid she’s a little too normal to make a splash in the big city. Working for an ogre of a boss doesn’t help either.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, Katie gets a job offer form Magic, Spells and Illusions, Inc., a company that sells tricks of the trade to the magic community. For MSI, Katie’s ordinariness is an asset. Lacking any bit of magic, she can easily spot a fake spell, catch hidden clauses in competitor’s contracts, and detect magically disguised intruders. Suddenly, average Katie is very special indeed.

She quickly learns that office politics are even more complicated when your new boss is a real ogre, and you have a crush on the sexy, shy, ultra powerful head of the R&D department, who is so busy fighting an evil competitor threatening to sell black magic on the street that he seems barely to notice Katie. Now it’s up to Katie to pull off the impossible: save the world and – hopefully – live happily ever after.

My Thoughts:

Enchanted Inc. was a bit of a bore for me.

Katie has spent most of her working life at her parents feed shop. She did everything for the business there from the general running to the bookwork. Problem is, her parents shop is in a tiny Texas town, so when working in New York all of Katie’s hard work means close to squat.

After struggling for a year Katie gets discovered by a company that no one has ever heard of but is apparently leading in its field. What is that field? No one seems to know that either. Only when Katie starts work there does she discover that they manufacture spells – no, not trick ones, real ones – and are currently struggling to compete against one of their ex-employees evil ventures against them.

Katie for me was a boring character. She moaned groaned and whined throughout and still managed to be miss perfect. Everything just came easy to her, she was working there two days before being promoted to the CEO’s assistant, did that for two days before becoming the new head of the new marketing department that was created just for her.

I was almost glad that Owen the brilliant magician didn’t go for her because then I probably would have thrown the book across the room and moved on.

Then there was the premise of the whole story, it sounded like a slightly older version of Harry Potter, let’s take you into a secret world that no one knows about, where you are so special that everyone wants to meet you. Let’s play with some spells and enchantments and then you can save the day against the bad guy.

The difference? I loved Harry Potter. Enchanted Inc. put me to sleep.

Then there were the spells themselves. People buy spells that are basically little tiny books that contain what you need in them but you can only use them once and not maliciously. Huh? Talk about take the fun out of everything. Yet even though the entire book was about the spell manufacturing industry, we get to see one – that’s right just one – spell in action, and it backfired.

Enchanted Inc. sounded really fun when I first picked it up, but it was a complete disappointment. Merely the fantasy life of an overlooked office worker who wants to be special for being boringly normal.

Others in this series:
Once Upon Stilletos
Damsel Under Stress
Don't Hex with Texas

Book Review: Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris

Review: Dead and Gone
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 9
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 312
Release Date: 5 May 2009

Sookie Stackhouse enjoys her job as a cocktail waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, even though she sometimes gets tired of the constant chatter – and not just the gossip; Sookie can read minds. It’s taken time, but she’s finally found cute, dateable guys whose minds she can’t read. And okay, so most of them happen to be vampires, but no man is perfect, right?

All of the humans in Bon Temps have had dealings with the vamps – mysterious, seductive creatures who ‘came out’ a few years back. Now the weres and shifters have decided to follow the lead of the undead and reveal their existence to the ordinary world.

Sookie already knows about them, of course – her brother turns into a panther at the full moon, she’s friend to the local Were pack, and Sam, her boss at Merlotte’s bar, is a shifter.

The great Were revelation goes pretty well at first – then the horribly mutilated body of a were-panther is found in the parking lot of Merlotte’s. Though Sookie never cared much for the victim, no one deserves such a horrible death, and she agrees to use her telepathic talent to track down the murderer.

What Sookie doesn’t realise is that there is a far greater danger that this killer threatening Bon Temps: a race of unhuman beings, older, more powerful and far more secretive than the vampires or the werewolves is preparing for war. And Sookie is an all-too human pawn in their ages-old battle…

My Thoughts:

I have always been fond of this series because of its light hearted content, but this book broke that chain.

Wars are brewing left right and centre in Sookie's world. Vampires are taking over other vampires land and werewolves are at each other’s throats as well. Add into the mix Sookie’s fairy heritage and the war that they are waging, and you have the perfect brew for a really depressing novel.

Dead and Gone left me feeling really bad, Harris might not be killing off central characters, but she definitely killed off a few loved ones in this book, and I really don’t think it was necessary. The fairy war came to a head at the end of this book and it took a few characters with it that left me feeling pretty depressed after it.

Sookie was also left scarred after her ordeal with the fairies but she should recover, hopefully.

At the end of this book, I felt depressed, not just a little sad but down in the dumps for a couple of days. There was so much loss, so much death, and for what? A part fairy that screws vampires and attracts trouble.

I still flew through this book, and I still loved it, but I was left with the thought of, where does it end? What makes Sookie so special that all these people are willing to die for her? Vampires regenerate but even so, they can still die and frequently do where Sookie is concerned. Fairies are a dying race and how many were taken out purely because some big wig wanted to finish off Sookie because she was a half breed.

I still love Sookie and I love that she is growing stronger and wiser with every novel, but surely no one could expect such loyalty.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: The Lunatic Café
Series: Anita Blake – Book 4
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 369
Release Date: 1 March 2005

Anita has fallen for the leader of a local pack of werewolves. She’s survived a lot, but this love thing may kill her yet…

My Thoughts:

Everyone seems to believe that this book signifies the end of horror in this series, but I can safely say that this book was still pretty horrific.

People from the local were community have started to go missing, and when one of the missing people’s husbands come to her place of work for help, Anita seems to get dragged in from there. It’s not until a man who has literally been skinned alive shows up that Anita can seem to piece what’s going on together.

Anita is still tough as nails and I loved this book in the series. She opened up to Richard her new beau about some of her troubles and we continued to get a deeper look into who she is and why she stands for what she does romantically.

The addition of Richard as a love interest kept this series alive for me; it added another dimension to an already fantastic book. Whilst we still get the mind-boggling crimes that could only be found in Anita’s world, her relationship with Richard and the fear and uncertainty that entails was thrown into the mix.

I felt a little sorry for Richard, because it is clear that Anita has a bit of a problem with him being a werewolf. Although Richard is a perfect man in his human form, the fact that he turns furry once a month is seemingly not good enough for Anita. I want this relationship to work so badly because even though they are so different, they balance each other and that is what I reckon Anita needs.

Anita sleeps with a gun, Richard has most likely never even held one. Anita distrusts people until they give a reason to trust them and even then it’s tentative whereas Richard lets people in. Richard loves unconditionally, Anita doesn’t. Richard tries to defuse situations before they get out of hand but Anita is almost always raring for a fight.

That balance could do so much for Anita, but she is just too hard-headed to see that. Richard could also take a lesson in Anita not needed to be protected, but hey, it’s better than him throwing her to the wolves so to speak.

This series is still amazing me with every book and I am now avidly reading and cheering on Team Richard.

Also in this series:

Guilty Pleasures

The Laughing Corpse

Circus of the Damned

Bloody Bones

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

Hit List

Book Review: From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

Review: From Dead to Worse
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 8
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 359
Release Date: 6 May 2008

The supernatural community in Bon Temps, Louisiana is reeling from two hard blows: the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina, and the manmade horror of the explosion at the vampire summit in the up-north city of Rhodes. Sookie Stackhouse is safe but dazed, but too many vampires – some friends, some not – were killed or injured, and her were-tiger boyfriend Quinn is among the missing.

It’s clear that things are changing, whether the weres and vamps like it or not. And Sookie, Friend to the Pack and blood-bonded to the leader of the local vampire community, is caught up in those changes. She’s about to find herself facing danger and death and, not for the first time, betrayal by someone she loves. And when the fur has finished flying and the cold blood has stopped flowing, Sookie’s world will be forever altered…

My Thoughts: 

Although I loved Sookie and I loved Quinn…they never really had a chance.

Sookie is back home and trying to comprehend all the events that have taken place since the vampire summit including the devastation of hurricane Katrina.

I loved the addition of Amelia living in Sookie’s house in From Dead to Worse. She brought to the table someone who is ditzy, intelligent and really likeable. Amelia also lightened the mood in Sookie’s household, which I feel would have been a lot worse with Quinn’s absence and the aftermath of the summit to content with. It was very clever on Harris part to introduce Amelia in the way that she did.

At this point in the story I’m wondering if we’re not seeing a little biasness from team dead in general on Harris’ part. The vampires can get away with doing absolutely everything to Sookie, from lying to cheating to nearly killing her. And yet they’re still at the top of her to do list. The were’s barely have to cough too loudly and they’re out her door with no explanation.

Let’s look at this pattern over the course of the series:

Sam never got a look in because he was Sookie’s boss and then he moved too quickly for her when he kissed her. (Dead Until Dark)

Alcide was perfection in a male and yet Sookie never wanted him, even though she did because she was too wrapped up in Bill who had disappeared on her and cheated on her. Then after Sookie shot his ex in the head she decided that it was too awkward to be around him anymore even though she still uses him when she needs to and runs to his beck and call, every time. Yep, that level of ambiguity is extremely healthy.

Quinn’s only mistake? Loving his mother and being captured by a pack of nasty vampires who held him hostage. Hmmm, when Bill was held hostage and didn’t contact Sookie what did Sookie do? She went looking for him of course, but as soon as a were does it he’s out the door with nary a bat of the eyelid.

Now Sookie and Quinn’s relationship may have been a little awkward in the beginning and he was a little annoying with his “babe” and baldness – I’m sorry but I like my men with hair – but in All Together Dead their relationship was starting to blossom really beautifully and it was looking like it could work even though Quinn was really busy with his business.

I love Sookie, and I love how strong she has become and how confident she has become over the course of this series, but I really wish everyone got a fair go with her because she could have possibly had some happiness by now instead of so much sadness.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
All Together Dead
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin

Review: Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Series: Jaz Parks – Book 1
Author: Jennifer Rardin
No of Pages: 335
Release Date: 8 October 2007

I’M JAZ PARKS. MY BOSS IS VAYL,

Born in Romania in 1744. Died there too, at the hand of his vampire wife, Liliana. But that’s ancient history. For the moment Vayl works for the CIA doing what he does best – assassination. And I help. You could say I’m an assistant assassin. But then I’d have to kick your ass.

Vayl and I have to take out a Miami plastic surgeon with ties to terrorism. But the assignment gets complicated when it turns out he’s in cahoots with a supernatural nasty powerful enough to bring America to its knees.

My Thoughts:

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was a great start to what is shaping up to be a promising series.

Jaz is a CIA assassin who has recently been partnered with Vayl a vampire assassin who is the best the CIA has got. Jaz and Vayl are sent on mission, a mission to derail a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has been very naughty, funnelling money in a terrorist bank account.

Jaz is definitely my kind of girl; she is witty, intelligent and surprisingly down-to-earth for being a high profile assassin. Jaz has a traumatic past, being part of an assassination group that hunted vampires and losing her entire team in one night has scarred her deeply, and is the reason why she is a kick-ass hunter now and why she works alone. When given the opportunity to work with the best of course Jaz wouldn’t turn it down, but she also has to content with blackout periods and memory loss. After losing her fiancé, who was part of the team that was murdered that night, Jaz feels increasingly guilty as she falls for Vayl.

Vayl is everything a vampire should be and more, not only is he refined and extremely intelligent, but after 300 years of watching people, he is very good at reading the meaning in peoples actions. He seems to really get Jaz even though Jaz doesn’t want to be understood.

Vayl and Jaz’s working relationship is a strong one, and although there is a lot of pent up sexual tension, I’m glad they haven’t pursed a romantic relationship as yet. We really got to see more of Jaz’s past and the mission at hand rather than focusing on nookie.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was beautifully written and drew me in instantly. Once I started I just couldn’t stop no matter how much I should have. I finished it quickly but the story was one that stayed with me for a while after purely because the characters are so deep and I couldn’t get Jaz out of my head, her trauma and her strength.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy was a superb start to a series I want to dive back into as soon as possible.

Others in this series:
Another One Bites the Dust
Biting the Bullet
Bitten to Death
One More Bite
Bite Marks
Bitten in Two
The Deadliest Bite

Book Review: All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

Review: All Together Dead
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 7
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 323
Release Date: 1 May 2007

Sookie Stackhouse would really like time to get over being betrayed by Bill, her long-time vampire lover, and get used to her new relationship with sexy shapeshifter Quinn – but instead, she finds herself attending a vampire summit, the destination of choice for every undead power player around. She’s being used as a sort-of human Geiger counter for Sophie-Anne Leclerq, vampire queen of Louisiana.

But Sophie-Anne’s power base has been severely weakened by Hurricane Katrina, and she’s to be put on trial for murdering her king. Sookie knows the queen is innocent, but others have their doubts. And there are some vamps who would like to finish what nature started. With secret alliances and backroom deals the order of the day – and night – Sookie must decide which side she’ll stand with, and quickly, for her choice may mean the difference between survival and all-out catastrophe…

My Thoughts:

This series continues to get more and more engrossing.

Sookie is attending the vampire summit after being employed by the queen to accompany her as her portable lie detector. Sookie discovers a plot to start a war between the vampires and the Fellowship of the Sun.

Sookie is still Sookie and she is completely loveable, yet in this book I started to really see her growth since the first in the series. One can really see how far Sookie has come since her bartending vampire free days of the first novel and yet it’s still the same Sookie. She hasn’t become obnoxious or arrogant because according to the vampires she is special, she is still Sookie, but with nicer clothes and a nicer house as the old one gradually gets destroyed by fire and Amelia.

I think what I am loving most about this series at the moment is that Sookie is the heroine, but she doesn't act like one. She just gets on with it and performs feats that are human, like going to an archery range to try and suss out whether or not someone else had been there previously. There are no amazing feats of power or intellect, she is just normal and it makes me relate so much more to her than I do to other heroines who are magical and ninja like and completely kick-ass.

Sookie isn’t a wimp, but she isn’t a hero either and that is what makes me love her.

All Together Dead took a deeper look into vampire politics and workings and it was really interesting. I was a little disappointed that Eric wasn’t in this book as much as I was used to him being there, but it really didn’t detract from the story because there wasn’t really a need for him, bar his priestly duties.

Despite the fact that Sookie was attending a vampire summit surrounded by werewolves, aliens and of course, vampires, who were all staying in a pyramid whilst the proceeding took, place I still found the entire story very this world. Some novels carry you off into for example a New York that has something extra, but these novels are all out in the open, and I think it’s because the vampires are out in the open that keeps this series grounded rather than fantastical.

I love this series so much, and I am starting From Dead to Worse as soon as possible.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
Definitely Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning

Book Review: Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

Review: Kiss of Midnight
Series: Midnight Breeds – Book 1
Author: Lara Adrian
No of Pages: 402
Release Date: 1 May 2007

INSATIABLE DESIRE. ENDLESS SEDUCTION. ONE TOUCH IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

He watches her from across the crowded dance club, a sensual black-haired stranger who stirs Gabrielle Maxwell’s deepest fantasies. But nothing about this night – or this man – is what it seems. For when Gabrielle witnesses a murder outside the club, reality shifts into something dark deadly. In that shattering instant she is thrust into a realm she never knew existed – a realm where vampires stalk the shadows and a blood war is set to ignite.

Lucan Throne despises the violence carried out by his lawless brethren. A vampire himself, Lucan is a Breed warrior, sworn to protect his kind – and the unwitting humans existing alongside them – from the mounting threat of the Rogues. Lucan cannot risk binding himself to a mortal woma, but when Gabrielle is targeted by his enemies, he has no choice but to bring her into the dark underworld he commands.

Here, in the arms of the Breed’s formidable leader, Gabrielle will confront an extraordinary destiny of danger, seduction, and the darkest pleasures of all.

My Thoughts:

Kiss of Midnight was an interesting story, but it was far too similar to the Black Dagger Brotherhood series for me to get the full enjoyment of it.

After witnessing a scuffle outside a nightclub Gabrielle who has the common sense to take a photo of the attacker as he descends on his victim, this would have been fine if anyone could tell what the picture was. Dismissed as being a little unhinged by the police, Gabrielle doesn’t realise that being a witness to what she saw has put her in a lot more danger than what she ever realised.

Gabrielle was a flaky character; she had absolutely no resistance to Lucan even when he was pushing himself inside her house uninvited on many occasions. She also wasn’t very intelligent, there is a rule, don’t walk in dark secluded places at night, and don’t open your door to strangers when you know evil people are after you.

Kiss of Midnight was well written, the characters had ok chemistry and the writing flowed nicely. The major problem with this book though is that is far too much like the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

Vampires who are protecting their race from evil baddies under the reign of a traitor, trying to simultaneously protect human and vampire kind. Each book centres around one warrior who goes through the motions of finding his true mate or Breed mate as these women are called. The only difference in the Midnight Breeds series is that there are no female vampires and the Breed mates are born with a special mark usually behind the ear that signifies them.

I also felt that at the end Kiss of Midnight became far too long-winded. The ending started to be really drawn out, and could have been wound up at least 50 pages earlier omitting a few pages of denial and empty threats.

I am interested in this series purely because it is a safe read, you know it will be hot, you know it will have a happy ending and it is written well but it is not a series I will be going anywhere near until I have long since finished the Black Dagger Brotherhood books.

Others in this series:
Kiss of Crimson
Midnight Awakening
Midnight Rising
Veil of Midnight
Ashes of Midnight
Shades of Midnight
Taken by Midnight
Deeper than Midnight
Darker after Midnight

Book Review: Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Review: Definitely Dead
Series: Sookie Stackhouse – Book 6
Author: Charlaine Harris
No of Pages: 324
Release Date: 28 April 2006

Sookie Stackhouse doesn’t have that many relations, so she really hated to lose one – but of all people to go, she didn’t expect it to be her cousin Hadley, a consort of New Orleans’ vampire queen – after all, Hadley was technically already dead.

But Hadley is gone, beyond recall, and she’s left Sookie an inheritance, one that comes with a bit of a risk – not least because someone doesn’t want Sookie digging too deep into Hadley’s possessions…or her past. Sookie’s life is once again on the line, and this time the suspects range from rogue weres to her first love, the vampire Bill. Sookie’s got a lot to do if she’s going to keep herself alive…

My Thoughts:

Definitely Dead probably had the worst start of this series so far, but it turned out okay in the end.

Sookie has been called to New Orleans to clean out her dead cousin Hadley’s apartment. After arriving there, meeting a witch who is a bit of a ditz and finding a werewolf/vampire obomination in Hadley’s old apartment, she finds out the real reason the queen is so interested in some of Hadley’s possessions.

Sookie is a consistent character, which is why I like her. She hasn’t turned into some superwoman, she is still a barmaid who can read minds and knows her place when it comes to the paranormal. I do feel though that she is starting to judge others a little harshly, considering she lives in the proverbial glass house.

I felt that her treatment of Quinn, especially after he had saved her life – twice in one day – after he couldn’t shift fully back and was left with his tiger tail was a bit mean. If I had someone as sexy, powerful, warm, and gentlemanly as Quinn, I wouldn’t discriminate because of a measly tail, Sookie can’t really talk with her weirdness. I would probably prefer Quinn to just sleep as a tiger myself – but that might be because I am a tiger person.

Quinn for all his attributes – I mainly like him because he is a tiger – doesn’t really seem to fit in with Sookie’s life, and I can’t yet decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing. As much as I would want to be with Quinn – tiger thing – I couldn’t feel much chemistry between him and Sookie during the course of this book. The physical was there definitely, but take for example Eric in his amnesia days, there was so much more gentleness and love. With Quinn its more like a possession, Sookie is his woman and probably the excessive use of the word “babe” just grated on my nerves when it came to him.

The start of Definitely Dead was absolutely horrible. I don’t read .5’s in any of my series, not even Cat and Bones of whom I am in love. So when a significant event like Hadley’s cousin dying, Sookie meeting a whole bunch of new characters and Bill somehow being involved in that process happening in a novella and including significant details pertaining to the premise of the story I was extremely confused for the first couple of chapters.

One thing I am starting to find with this series though, is that the stories are starting to run together which is ok from a reading perspective, but horrible from a reviewing perspective. About two days after putting this book down, I could remember what happened, I could remember key elements and funny parts, but then they started to get confused with things that had happened in previous books. The events run chronologically for the most part, but its hard to pick out certain occurances and pinpoint exactly when they happened in the story.

Others in this series:
Dead Until Dark
Living Dead in Dallas
Club Dead
Dead to the World
Dead as a Doornail
All Together Dead
From Dead to Worse
Dead and GoneDead in the Family
Dead Reckoning