Monday, August 15, 2011

REVIEW: All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 7) by Charlaine Harris

My Rating: 10 out of 10 stars

Sookie has agreed to accompany Vampire Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq to the Vampire Summit in Rhodes. Also in tow are several of the other Louisiana vampires including Bill, Eric, Pam, and a few of the other area sheriffs. During the summit, the Queen is set to stand trial for the charges of killing her short-time husband, Peter Threadgill, King of Arkansas, and Sookie is prepared to serve as witness in the case. Unfortunately, due to the disastrous events of Katrina, the Queen's kingdom is in a much weakened state and so of course, many of the other vampires present are attempting to take advantage, and Sookie's telepath duties prove quite useful to the queen during all the wheeling and dealing and power struggles going on.

While in Rhodes (this is near Chicago, not the island in Greece), Sookie also meets up with the only other telepath she's ever met, Barry the Bellyboy, who now works for the Vampire King of Texas. Together, Sookie and Barry manage to uncover a deadly plot perpetrated by a group of haters wanting to take down a large number of vampires at the hotel where the summit is being held.

In addition to the summit events, there are several other sub-plots going on. Sookie's relationship with Quinn starts to get a bit complicated as he realizes how deeply she's tied to the vampires. In particular, her ties to Eric have grown stronger with the forced taking of more of his blood. (Yay!) One can only hope that Sookie and Eric wind up together from here on out, but of course Sookie will keep trying to deny their bond, even though it's apparent that Eric really cares deeply for her.

In the end, all is well, and Sookie saves the day, although several vampires (and humans) are indeed lost in another terrible tragedy. Though the main plot is wrapped up nicely, it's the underlying sub-plots which have you drooling for the next installment. I can't wait to see what happens next!!

Overall, this has got to be one of my favorite Sookie books in a long time! The action was non-stop and the underlying chemistry between Eric and Sookie is once again beginning to heat up. Woohoo!! Bring it on!! :)

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

REVIEW: Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 6) by Charlaine Harris

My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Sookie is headed to the Big Easy in this 6th book of the Sookie Stackhouse series. Summoned by the Vampire Queen and her lawyer, Sookie is charged with finalizing the settlement of her cousin Hadley's estate down in New Orleans. Hadley, once a favorite consort of the Queen, was murdered at the hands of another jealous vampire on her staff.

Unfortunately, the trouble starts for Sookie before she even leaves Bon Temps, with an attack by a couple of bitten weres as she's leaving the theater with new beau Quinn the weretiger, and then later when the sliced-up body of the half-demon messenger who was sent with Sookie's summons is found in her backyard. And then things only get worse after arriving in New Orleans where Sookie is no longer the only target. But who could possibly be after the Queen too? And are all these attacks even related?

In this book, we're also let in on Bill's grand revelation regarding his placement in Bon Temps by the Queen, a fact which has already been revealed in the True Blood television series. And it's from this point on that Sookie's feelings for Bill really take a nosedive. While the TV series and the books follow each other closely enough, there are certain characters that are either more prominent (Tara, Lafayette) or non-existent (Jessica, Bubba) in one place or another, and events don't always follow along on the same timeline. Plus there's always that little bit of manipulation that takes place for TV, to keep the action flowing quickly. I'm particularly happy they kept Lafayette around (he was killed off at the end of book 1) as he's definitely one of my favorite characters next to Eric. :)

And this is why after 4 years away from this series—while I caught up on several other books including Ms. Harris other series—I realized I best get caught up on these before True Blood overtakes where I am in the books! LOL While I found the previous book, Dead as a Doornail a little less memorable than the first 4 books for some reason, Definitely Dead picked right back up full steam and left me craving more. If you're a fan of the series, you've probably already read this one and so I don't have to tell you how it left me craving more. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. If however, you haven't yet read this series, then what are you waiting for?! I've already started the next one!! Yummy!!! :)

BookCrossing journal page for this book