REVIEW: A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris

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My Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

All Sookie Stackhouse short stories in a single volume. If you want to read all the short stories the author has written about Sookie, but don't want to hunt down all the various anthologies they're found in, then this book is for you. Nearly every Sookie short story is contained in this single volume. (The only short stories not here are the ones that involve secondary characters who don't really play a major role part in Sookie's world.)

I did read most of these myself several years ago as part of other anthologies, but since I collect this series, I had to have this book for my Personal Collection for it to be complete. :) Some of these stories are better than others, and though not required reading for the series, they give you just a little bit extra of Sookie, or Eric, and expand on an event that took place between the books, usually insignificant or otherwise alluded to in the series but without much detail.

Below is the list of stories and what other places you can find them (plus my notes on when I read them). You can also find a more complete list which includes the secondary characters I mentioned above in this Wikipedia article.

• "Fairy Dust" between books 4 and 5, Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail.
read 11/30/05 as part of Powers of Detection anthology. Reread 10/4/12.

• "Dracula Night" between books 4 and 5, Dead to the World and Dead as a Doornail.
read Sep 2011 from Many Bloody Returns anthology. Reread 10/4/12.

• "One Word Answer" between books 5 and 6, Dead as a Doornail and Definitely Dead.
read 5/16/05 as part of Bite anthology. Reread 10/4/12.

• "Lucky" between books 7 and 8, All Together Dead and From Dead to Worse.
read 10/30/11 as part of Unusual Suspects anthology.

• "Gift Wrap" between books 8 and 9, From Dead to Worse and Dead and Gone.
read 10/3/12 (also part of of Unusual Suspects anthology).

REVIEW: Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 9) by Charlaine Harris

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My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

This is truly one of my favorite series and Charlaine Harris is a fantastic writer. I've read almost everything she's written including her much older Aurora Teagarden and Lily Bard cozy mystery series, and the first couple from the Harper Connelly series (kinda put Harper aside so I could concentrate on catching up on this and several other series from other authors).

But what can I say other than I LOVE Sookie! (and Eric and Pam). Yet I cannot read this series during the summer when True Blood is on HBO because the TV series has deviated from the books in so many ways, that it can get confusing reading the books during True Blood season.

In this installment, the Weres and Shifters have finally decided to come out. And why not? The Vampires have been pretty successful with their own Great Reveal, so they feel it's high time the human population know the truth: that there's even more supernaturals living among them. Unfortunately, things don't go as smoothly as planned and several Weres close to Sookie lose their lives in a battle that's bigger than all of them.

REVIEW: Stephanie Plum books 4 thru 8 and Visions of Sugar Plums by Janet Evanovich

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My Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Just whipped through books 4 through 8 of the Stephanie Plum series, along with the Between-the-Numbers Holiday short story Visions of Sugar Plums. These are such fun, quick, reads that it's hard to sit down and write a review after each one without wanting to just jump right into the next instead. :)

Even though it's been 6 years since I've last hung with her, Stephanie is still such a wonderfully fun and refreshing person to hang with! And if you haven't yet read this series, let me tell you that Evanovich definitely throws you right into the story with her writing, making you feel like you're right there next to Stephanie and Lula kicking bad guy butt (or more like the other way around usually). LOL Or even Ranger or Joe... yummmm ;)

In any case, it took me a little over three weeks to read to read all 6 books--really 5 1/4 since Visions of Sugar Plums is only 152 pages--and right after that, Mike and I watched the One for the Money movie which we'd rented from Netflix. It was hilarious and I was happy to see that the screenwriters held true to pretty much everything in the book. I don't know if that movie did well enough at the box office to justify the sequel but I'd really love it if they made one. Stephanie and the gang are definitely worthy of the big screen. :)

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REVIEW: Fifty Shades Freed by E L James

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My Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

This final book in the trilogy had a little more going for it and in my opinion, was a bit more interesting than the others as it actually had a little more to the plot than just sex and more kinky sex. There was actually a little bit of intrigue and danger going on in this one as someone is after Christian and Ana. Though if you've been paying attention, it's really a little too easy to figure out who that someone is. But at least the why remains a mystery till the end.

And then they've got relationship issues they're struggling through: Ana is determined to maintain her own identity, integrity, and independence despite all the smothering and control that her life with Christian now affords, while Christian must learn to overcome his compulsion to control everything and come to grips with the horrors of his past. Together, they're determined to face all their challenges so that they can have their happily ever after. And yes, as trite as it may seem, this book definitely has a fairy tale ending. :)

REVIEW: Fifty Shades Darker by E L James

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My Rating: 3 out of 10 stars

Repetitive and predictable: the two words that immediately come to mind when reflecting back on this book. I had liked the first book enough to want to read the next, especially when it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger in Ana and Christian's relationship. I though this second one book would be different, perhaps a different focus, maybe a little bit of suspense, but unfortunately it was just more of the same, and even the small slice of danger from two separate events was over in a couple of pages! :(

With all the overused phrases, the overused sex, and basically the same interaction between characters over and over again, I felt like I was in a time loop, or the movie Groundhog Day.

Because of this, I had almost decided against reading the final book in the series. But as she did with the first book, the author left a little dangly bit at the end meant to pique the reader's interest: the promise of danger ahead for Christian and Ana. Hmmm so maybe book three will be more than just Ana and Christian doing it every which way to Sunday for a change. I hope so, because at this point, even the sex is getting boring! :/

REVIEW: Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

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My Rating: 5 out of 10 stars

If you're reading this review, I'm sure you've already heard of Fifty Shades of Grey or the Fifty Shades trilogy. Though I'm not much of a romance reader, I was anxious to find out what all the hype was about; why so many people were raving about this book, while other BookCrossers and BookObsessors had plenty of criticism for it. What is it that gave the Fifty Shades trilogy the push to cross over from the erotica genre into mainstream? And is all the high praise that's been poured upon it truly justified? ETA - I since feel that this book was never really erotica to begin with. More details on that below.

For point of reference, I have a wide range of experience to draw from, both real life and fiction, and there is so much about the BDSM lifestyle portrayed in this book that just doesn't ring true. But knowing that the author was drawing from research as opposed to first hand experience, I was able to overlook that to a point. This is a fiction title after all.

Moving along to the writing style, I found it a bit amateurish at times; I mean, just how many times can Anastasia and Christian murmur to each other? When they're not arguing, they seem only to talk to one another in murmurs, mutters, whispers, and sighs. And the author often got pretty repetitive in her descriptions. I swear if I had to hear about Christian's tousled hair one more time, I was going to go shave a hairy mole just for the satisfaction of pretending it was Christian Grey's sexy tousled locks! ;)

So why did I keep reading? Well, it was like a beautiful train wreck! It just sort of snuck up on me and sucked me in. And the fact that it even ended on a bit of a cliffhanger left me anxious to find out what happens next. Though I knocked this book in several places on the writing and even the believability of the story itself, I actually liked Ana's character somewhat; she's the kind of girl I'd like to be friends with despite all her flaws and shortcomings (or perhaps because of them). Just like a real friend, I found myself exasperated with her over how clueless she could be, or for keeping certain things from Christian that she really should've fessed up to earlier on. While at other times, I applauded the way she stood up to him. Yet it was that same odd combination of both vulnerability and strength that I admired about her, so much so that I even cried along with her at the end!

So what do I think made this story so "great" that it crossed the erotica genre into mainstream and made the bestseller lists? Well for starters, I'd call it more of an erotic romance than full erotica, more comparable to the soft porn one might find on late night Showtime for example. Really nothing to get too hot and bothered over, and the sex scenes didn't really work me up at all the way full erotica books do. I think that fact made it a bit more digestible to the masses. ;) Though one might think the BDSM aspect of the story would place it into the full erotica or hard porn category, all that is really just an aspect of Christian's personality and the BDSM does not really dominate. It's definitely more the relationship itself, and the feelings Ana is experiencing along with it, including her conflicting feelings about being submissive, which pull together the pieces of the story.

The story started off as online fan fiction of the Twilight series, so it had already gotten a wide audience through that channel. And finally, I think timing played a key role. At a time when our economy is just pulling out of a serious depression, a bit of control and dominance might be appealing to a lot people, that and the focus on the "darker side". ;-)

REVIEW: Santa Steps Out by Robert Devereux

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My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

What do you get when you take the myths of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny, turn them on their heads, and add in a little bit of naughtiness and perversity? If you said Santa Steps Out: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups then you would be correct.

This story is both shocking and titillating, yet funny and reflective. I can't say I found it to be a super read. Perhaps it's because I've read too many great books lately (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Hunger Games trilogy) to feel this was in the same league as those. And though I kept losing interest in the beginning and had trouble getting beyond the first few chapters, I read on nonetheless and found it more interesting as the story progressed, with a bit more of an underlying story going on beyond just Santa doing the Tooth Fairy every which way to Sunday.

I didn't always care for the way the author portrayed some of these characters. It's not because he turned them into highly sexual beings, for I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but some of their actions seemed a bit forced or cliche to me, almost as if you could tell they were written by a guy, with a guy's fantasies.

I'd definitely say this book belongs in the Erotica genre as opposed to the Dark Fantasy/Horror genre where it currently resides. Though the antics of the Tooth Fairy could well fit into horror at times, the actions throughout the rest of the book. and the language it uses, would definitely categorize it as erotica. And it is that part which kept me reading, and the fact that I found some of the sex scenes kind of hot. ;-)

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REVIEW: ShapeShifter: The Demo Tapes, Year 1 by Susan Helene Gottfried

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My Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

This collection of short stories introduces the reader to the world of Trevor Wolff and Mitchell Voss, and their rock band ShapeShifter. They were originally published at the online blog of author Susan Helen Gottfried, The Meet & Greet at West of Mars, so many of the visitors to that site—fondly referred to as groupies—might already be familiar with them. Since I never really liked reading online, I wasn't much of a groupie myself, so I was happy to see this collection come out so I could find out what all the fuss was about. ;)

Trevor's the kind of character you love to hate... he's rude and obnoxious, but underneath it all, has a heart of gold. There's not a whole lot of substance to most of these stories, they're just sort of the day-to-day of these characters, an introduction in preparation for the book she later published, Trevor's Song. That's not to say that Trevor, Mitchell, and the gang don't have fun, or manage to get themselves into some funny or sticky situations. For that they certainly do, but it's hard to critique this book like a book when there wasn't really a plot or anything. So just take it for what it is... and if you like the characters enough to want to follow along and see what happens from here, pick up the next 2 years of Demo Tapes, along with Trevor's Song. Actually they're all being offered FREE (in digital or ebook format) at Smashwords until the end of July. Refer to each individual book page for the code to add to your cart. I grabbed them myself and since this was a fairly quick read, plan to catch up more on Trevor and the gang over the course of the next year. :)

PS - Up until I read this book, I was convinced Trevor was a werewolf. I mean, who wouldn't with the surname of Wolff and band name of ShapeShifter, right? But this book set me straight and I was a wee bit disappointed to discover the characters were just regular joes like you and me.

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