The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-28-13

Sunday Post

First, a slightly geeky public services announcement. For anyone who has either an attending or supporting member in LoneStarCon 3, which is this year’s World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), the last day to vote on the Hugo Awards is July 31. Thank goodness you can vote online, but the deadline still got away from me.

LoneStarCon 3 LogoIf you read science fiction and fantasy, even if you don’t think you will ever attend WorldCon, a supporting membership, purchased early, is an amazingly good deal. Here’s why: supporting members receive ebooks of ALL the Hugo nominated works; novels, novellas, short stories, pretty much everything, for the low, low price of a $60 membership. (It’s less if you get in earlier) If this is stuff you would read anyway, it’s cheap at twice the price. And you get to vote on which ones win the awards!

Speaking of which…

Winner Announcements:

Stephanie F. won the $10 Amazon Gift Card from the Hot Summer Romance Blog Hop.

The Story Guy by Mary Ann RiversBlog Recap:

Brazen Bash
A- Review: The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers
Guest Post from Author Mary Ann Rivers on Why I Love Libraries and Librarians + Giveaway
B Review: Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty
B Review: Immortally Embraced by Angie Fox
B+ Review: Redemption by Susannah Sandlin
Guest Post by author Susannah Sandlin on the Unsung Heroes of Paranormal Romance
B Review: A Lesson in Chemistry with Inspector Bruce by Jillian Stone
Stacking the Shelves (52)

Absolution by Susannah SandlinComing Next Week:

The Darwin Elevator by Jason M. Hough (blog tour review)
Silent Warrior by Lindsey Piper (review)
Caged Warrior by Lindsey Piper (review)
Troll-y Yours by Sheri Fredricks (review)
Absolution by Susannah Sandlin (review)
A Private Duel with Agent Gunn by Jillian Stone (review)

Have you ever noticed that good series books are like potato chips, you can’t read just one?

 

Guest Post by author Susannah Sandlin on the Unsung Heroes of Paranormal Romance

Today I’d like to welcome Susannah Sandlin, who is on tour with her Penton Legacy series. Perhaps I should say welcome back? Susannah’s alter ego, Suzanne Johnson, visited me on April 25 to talk about her other fabulous series, The Sentinels of New Orleans (Royal Street, River Road, and the forthcoming Elysian Fields). The Penton Legacy is more paranormal but equally fantastic. I poured through the whole series like an addict, so I hope more are coming!

Take it away Susannah…

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The Unsung Heroines of Paranormal Romance by Susannah Sandlin

We might as well admit it. We read paranormal romance because of the hot guys, right? Sure, there are worlds to save and dragons to slay (well, unless the hot hero IS a dragon, of course). Sure, there are heroines. But it’s the guys we love.

Only, wait a minute. Don’t we need heroines to make heroes out of these guys who (we might as well admit this too) are often on the bullying, mulish side when we first meet them? I think as readers we focus on the heroes, but authors need strong heroines to hold their own with these bad boys and help them find the potential hero lurking inside. I mean, everyone loves Zsadist, right? But without Bella, would he have turned into hero material or continued to self-destruct?

But we also want our heroines to grow and change as well—to have the hero complete something inside them. It shouldn’t be all one-sided, right?

At least those were my thoughts as I went about looking for heroines to help my Penton vampires become heroes.

Redemption by Susannah SandlinAidan Murphy, the hero of Redemption (reviewed here), is a 400ish-year-old Irishman who in his human life was a simple farmer. He had a wife and a young son he loved dearly, but their family story ended tragically and he blames himself. He needs, as the title suggests, redemption. So Aidan needed a level-headed woman who had been through her own blame game but figured out how to survive it, and who could look at him and see the natural leader and compassionate person beneath the vampire. He finds that in a human doctor, Krystal Harris. Krys has been through an abusive past but fought her way out of it. She’s tough and doesn’t want to be managed, so she has trouble trusting anyone enough to relinquish control—or at least share it. Together, Aidan and Krys make a healthy relationship out of a rocky, unhealthy beginning.

Absolution by Susannah SandlinMirren Kincaid, aka The Slayer, is the bad boy of Absolution. Before being turned vampire, Mirren—of Norse/Scottish descent—was a Scottish gallowglass warrior. A killer for hire. After being turned, he became the executioner for the vampire tribunal. He’s dealt a lot of death and torture in his four centuries of living, and he is very good at it. Until he was asked to do something that made him realize he’d become a monster for people who were worse than the ones he was being sent to kill. So he’s filled with self-loathing and badly in need of absolution. It comes in the unlikely guise of a tough motor-mouth named Gloriana Cummings. Glory has her own issues, because she’s never been accepted. She isn’t well-educated. But she’s resilient and smart, realistic and brutally honest. She doesn’t give a crap about Mirren’s past, because she sees who he is now. Together, Mirren and Glory make an odd, but healthy, twosome.

Omega by Susannah SandlinWill Ludlam, the hero of Omega, is known around the community of Penton as the playboy of the vampire world. He uses his devastatingly good looks and quick charm to keep a wall around himself a mile wide. Because Will has the biggest, most horrible secrets of all of them, and he has no intention of letting anyone in. Especially his annoying partner doing security patrols around Penton, who hates men—especially him. Randa Thomas has only been turned vampire five years, while she was on active duty in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Growing up in a military family surrounded by alpha males, she’s had to be tougher, smarter and better than her brothers and father to prove herself. Now she’s a newbie vampire and having to prove herself all over again. Will’s just the kind of guy she hates—rich, smooth-talking, and has had everything handed to him. So you just KNOW these two are going to make an interesting couple.

Next up, in a few months, we will find out what makes our psychiatrist-turned-vampire Cage Reynolds tick. And who will be the one to save him…if he can be saved.

p.s. everyone, Absolution  (the 2012 Holt Medallion winner and Prism Award finalist) is $2.99 for Kindle for a limited time.

Susannah SandlinAbout Susannah SandlinSusannah Sandlin is the author of paranormal romance set in the Deep South, where there are always things that go bump in the night. A journalist by day, Susannah grew up in Alabama reading the gothic novels of Susan Howatch and the horror fantasy of Stephen King. (Um…it is fantasy, right?) The combination of Howatch and King probably explains a lot. Currently a resident of Auburn, Alabama, Susannah has also lived in Illinois, Texas, California, and Louisiana.To learn more about Susannah, visit her website or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads

Review: Redemption by Susannah Sandlin

Redemption by Susannah SandlinFormat read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: The Penton Legacy, #1
Length: 371 pages
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Date Released: June 12, 2012
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository

The world’s vampire population is on the brink of starvation since the vaccine to treat a global pandemic rendered human blood deadly to them. Their only hope for survival is a handful of rural areas that the vaccine never breached. The tiny town of Penton, Alabama, is one such enclave, where the immortal Aidan Murphy has established a community of vampires and their willingly bonded humans. Together, they live in peace—until Aidan’s estranged brother descends upon the town and begins attacking its humans. Whether the rampage is a result of his centuries-old feud with Aidan or the civil war threatening to erupt in the vampire world matters not. All that matters is the blood. Desperate to save his adopted family, Aidan breaks one of his cardinal rules, kidnapping an unvaccinated human doctor—and unexpectedly falling in love for the first time in nearly four hundred years.

My Review:

The major drawback with eternal life seems to be eternal politics…at least if you’re a vampire. Live and let live does not seem to be part of the personality that survives the change, or at least part of the personality of those that survive changing.

Nor, it seems, do the bonds of family or brotherly love. At least not the family you’re born to. The family you make seems to be something else altogether. Susannah Sandlin’s Penton Legacy series is very much about the bonds a person (or vampire) takes by choice being much stronger than the bonds of blood.

Ahem.

Aiden Murphy is the vampire mayor of Penton, Alabama. Now there’s a strange concept. He’s also a 400-year-old Irish farmer. Of course he’s a vampire. Which doesn’t negate either of the other two things. Aiden has turned away from just a hunter and a killer. Penton really is a town, in every sense of the word. His vampires cooperate with the humans among them. He could enthrall and enslave them, but Aiden believes it’s better to work together, and so does every vampire in his scathe. All 50 of them. And their entire human community are volunteers.

Having a scathe of 50 warriors may make Aiden the most powerful master vampire in North America. His community is a threat to the Vampire Tribunal, or it may be a way for all of them to survive, if they can get their heads out of their aristocratic asses and see the humans as partners instead of prey.

All some of them see is a rare feast after a vampire pandemic. Humans suffered a worldwide epidemic, which they cured with a vaccine. Humans aren’t aware that the vaccine rendered human blood poison to vamps. Very few humans are not vaccinated–think polio. Vampires are starving worldwide.

Except in Penton. All of the human members of Aiden’s little paradise are vaccine-free. They’re protected.

Until the Tribunal sends Aiden’s long-lost (and well-lost) brother Owen to destroy the community and kill Aiden. Killing Aiden will release his protection and provide a fresh banquet for all those starving vamps.

The first casualty of this war between brothers is the town doctor. His replacement: a woman who holds the key to Aiden’s locked-up heart, but only if he breaks all the rules he has come to live by.

And only if she dies first.

Absolution by Susannah SandlinEscape Rating B+: First of all, this book was just plain fun. I not only read it straight through, but immediately started the second book in the series, Absolution, the instant I finished it. So far, the series is absolutely terrific vampire toffee. I’ve bitten into it and I can’t unstick myself.

Dr. Krystal Harris is the kidnapped doctor heroine. The romance between Krys and Aiden contains more than a touch of Stockholm Syndrome! She’s kidnapped and falls in love with her kidnapper. Just because it gets “lampshaded” doesn’t make it not be there. And Krys was abused by her father, which was the explanation for why she had no confidence in herself and no friends. It felt like just one tick too much tragedy in her background. YMMV. And she and Aiden seemed to be set up for the “fated mate” trope into the bargain.

But I enjoyed their story so much that I completely overlooked all of it and went along for the ride. Aiden and Krys are two very wounded people who actually do belong together. They both resisted falling for each other in ways that were hot to watch/read.

And the set up of the community of Penton along with the worldbuilding as a whole were terrific. The idea that if there were vampires, they wouldn’t want us to know (of course) and they would or would not adjust to changes in the world. Aiden’s cooperative model vs. the Tribunal’s coercive operation. I could see why the people who chose to live in Penton would make those choices.

Also, the characters of the rest of Aiden’s scathe were worth reading about, and not just the vamps who are the heroes of the next books in the series. 400 years plus gives a person a lot of time to develop some serious quirks.

Susannah Sandlin is the alter-ego of Suzanne Johnson, the author of Royal Street and River Road (reviewed here and here) She’s definitely worth reading whether she’s writing about vampires in Alabama or ghosts and witches in New Orleans!

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty

Stoker's Manuscript by Royce ProutyFormat read: print book borrowed from the Library
Formats available: ebook, hardcover, paperback, audiobook
Genre: Horror
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Putnam Adult
Date Released: June 13, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

When rare-manuscript expert Joseph Barkeley is hired to authenticate and purchase the original draft and notes for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, little does he know that the reclusive buyer is a member of the oldest family in Transylvania.

After delivering the manuscript to the legendary Bran Castle in Romania, Barkeley—a Romanian orphan himself—realizes to his horror that he’s become a prisoner to the son of Vlad Dracul. To earn his freedom, Barkeley must decipher cryptic messages hidden in the text of the original Dracula that reveal the burial sites of certain Dracul family members. Barkeley’s only hope is to ensure that he does not exhaust his usefulness to his captor until he’s able to escape. Soon he discovers secrets about his own lineage that suggest his selection for the task was more than coincidence. In this knowledge may lie Barkeley’s salvation—or his doom. For now he must choose between a coward’s flight and a mortal conflict against an ancient foe.

Building on actual international events surrounding the publication of Bram Stoker’s original novel, Royce Prouty has written a spellbinding debut novel that ranges from 1890s Chicago, London, and Transylvania to the perilous present.

My Review:

This is eerie. It has that tingle of chill up your spine subtle horror, combined with a search for identity and a bit of a scavenger hunt. Very cryptic and cool.

Then there’s the mix of contemporary horror thrown in; 21st century Romania still bears very real scars from the regime of the tyrant Nicolae Ceauşescu.

The story of Stoker’s Manuscript borrows its fascination from our endless enthrallment to Bram Stoker’s original story; but the question raised by this novel is whether that story was Stoker’s original story? What if, instead of merely borrowing from obscure folk legends, Stoker actually had a source with first-hand knowledge of real vampires?

Which begs the question that has led to so much horror and paranormal fiction, what if there really are vampires?

Joseph Barkeley is hired not just to authenticate Stoker’s original manuscript and notes from the Rosenbach Museum, but to also purchase them (if authentic) for a mysterious (and, of course wealthy) personage in Romania.

Joseph finds the commission too good to refuse, although he knows that he should. It will require him to return to Romania, the country of his birth. The country where his father murdered his mother and committed suicide. There is a mystery in their deaths, and in the equally mysterious rescue of himself and his brother from an orphanage.

He hopes for answers to his questions.

Instead, he finds an even greater mystery. His friends and his brother warn him away, saying that the truth is too dangerous to be revealed.

Dracula by Bram StokerWe know, of course we do. Stoker’s manuscript for Dracula uncovers a secret. There really are vampires. The questions that Joseph needs to ask are about the history of that manuscript. Why do the vampires want it now? What secret does it hold?

Can Joseph save anything from this debacle? Can he unravel the puzzle before it is too late?

Escape Rating B: There are puzzles within puzzles within puzzles. At the very beginning of the story, Joseph lives such an isolated life that it took me a few pages to realize that the start of the story was contemporary. The writing has a historical feel to it, a bit as if one is reading the original story.

Because of Joseph’s initial isolation, he’s a difficult person to get to know; he doesn’t even let himself inside his own head. He is dispassionate, but fascinated with solving problems. Over the course of the story, he lets more people get closer to him, but this is not a relationship story. It’s a scavenger hunt.

The analogy works on multiple levels, as the vampires are scavengers of another kind. They are not romanticized in any way. They are amoral bloodsucking villains with no redeeming characteristics, and neither were they in Stoker’s original tale.

One of the ways this story draws the reader in is that it is built on the historic possibilities. Stoker’s actual manuscript is in the Rosenbach Museum. It was lost and discovered recently. Fabricating a horror novel around the creation of a horror novel this way is particularly chilling.

The Historian by Elizabeth KostovaThe way this story takes the original Dracula book, mixes in Romanian history and creates a new horror legend made me think of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian. Similar elements going in different chilling directions, that suck you right in…to the story.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 7-21-13

Sunday Post

If it’s meltingly hot where you are, you still have a few hours to enter the Hot Summer Romance Hop. You still have a few hours even if it’s not meltingly hot where you are.

It’s sunny and in the low 70s in Seattle. Even the feline overlords are happy.

Speaking of current giveaways…

Hot Summer Romance Blog HopCurrent Giveaways:

Hot Summer Romance Blog Hop (ends tonight)
The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter by Jillian Stone tourwide giveaway

Winner Announcements:

BlogTour-Bella-Andre-2Bella Andre Giveaway: Jo C. and Natasha D. are the winners of the two prizes. The first place winner gets her choice of the Bella Andre beach bag which a whole bunch of fascinating stuff, including a copy of the first book in the Sullivans series, The Look of Love or just a copy of the second Sullivans book, From This Moment On. Jo is still deciding, so Natasha will get the other prize.
The Newcomer by Robyn Carr: the paperback copy goes to Erin F.
The Apocalypse Blog Hop winner of the $10 Amazon Gift Card is Janhvi.

The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter by Jillian StoneBlog Recap:

B Review: From This Moment On by Bella Andre + Giveaway
B Review: Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich
C+ Review: Taking Shots by Toni Aleo
Hot Summer Romance Blog Hop
B+ Review: The Miss Education of Dr. Exeter by Jillian Stone + Giveaway
Stacking the Shelves (51)

The Story Guy by Mary Ann RiversComing Next Week:

Brazen Bash
The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers (blog tour review)
Guest post by Mary Ann Rivers (blog tour + giveaway)
Stoker’s Manuscript by Royce Prouty (review)
Immortally Embraced by Angie Fox (review)
Redemption by Susannah Sandlin (blog tour review + guest post)
A Lesson in Chemistry with Inspector Bruce by Jillian Stone (review)

 

If the dog days of summer have come to wherever you are, keep cool and read!

Stacking the Shelves (47)

Stacking the Shelves

abibliophobia from SBTBI didn’t know there was a name for my condition. I’ve always thought it was just me, but according to Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and confirmed by Wiktionary, I have a lifelong case of abibliophobia. You probably do too.

It’s the fear of running out of things to read. (Sarah’s illustration from twitter fits me perfectly, except she didn’t include enough cats!)

That explains everything…

Stacking the Shelves Reading Reality June 8 2013

For Review:
Absolution (Penton Legacy #2) by Susannah Sandlin
Along Came a Spider (Transplanted Tales #3) by kate Serine
Along the Watchtower by David Litwack
The Armies of Heaven (House of Arkhangel’sk #3) by Jane Kindred
Elysian Fields (Sentinels of New Orleans #3) by Suzanne Johnson
Empty Net (Assassins #3) by Tony Aleo
Falling for the Backup (Assassins #3.5) by Tony Aleo
Her Ladyship’s Curse (Disenchanted & Co. #1) by Lynn Viehl
iD (Machine Dynasty #2) by Madeline Ashby
Immortally Ever After (Monster M*A*S*H #3) by Angie Fox
The Last Kiss Goodbye (Dr. Charlotte Stone #2) by Karen Robards
Loyalty by Ingrid Thoft
Omega (Penton Legacy #3) by Susannah Sandlin
Redemption (Penton Legacy #1) by Susannah Sandlin
Shadows of the New Sun edited by Bill Fawcett and J.E. Mooney
The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers
Taking Shots (Assassins #1) by Toni Aleo
True Spies (Lord and Lady Spy #2) by Shana Galen
Twenty First Century Science Fiction edited by David G. Hartwell and Patrick Neilsen Hayden

Purchased:
Heart of Obsidian (Psy-Changeling #12) by Nalini Singh

Borrowed from the Library:
Bronze Gods (Apparatus Infernum #1) by A.A. Aguirre
How to Tame Your Duke by Juliana Gray
The Blooding of Jack Absolute (Jack Absolute #2) by C.C. Humphreys
The Tower (Guardians of Destiny #1) by Jean Johnson

Review: Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany Allee

Don't Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany AlleeFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Sons of Kane #1
Length: 209 pages
Publisher: Entangled: Covet
Date Released: May 27, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Alice Shepard needs one thing: a date for her sister’s wedding. And not just any date. A hunk who will make her fiancé rue the day he left her for her best friend. Her drop-dead gorgeous neighbor fits the bill—even if he is a bit quirky and never comes out during the day—and Alice has downed just enough appletinis to ask him. But she makes it quite clear that there will be no funny business.

Spending a week on a cruise ship full of humans while sleeping close to his sexy next-door neighbor sounds like a helluva bad idea to vampire Noah Thorpe. But his friends need time to get him out of a shotgun wedding—a vampire bonding that will tie his fate to a female vampire he’s never met. And Alice’s offer comes at just the right time.

What could possibly go wrong?

My Review:

Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid was a lot of fun to read, and it also had a couple of surprisingly deep points along with the cute love story (and I’m not just talking about the hero’s fangs, either!)

Of course Alice wants a date to her sister’s wedding. And not just because she doesn’t want to spend a week on a wedding cruise as a pitiful single (yuck!). The groom’s brother is her lying, cheating, scum-sucking ex-fiancé. Pride requires that she rub his face in how much better off she is without him.

Especially since they broke up because she caught him with his pants down, screwing her ex-best friend.

Now that their relationship is dead and gone, Alice is certain she’s better off without him (he had other bad habits) but that doesn’t mean she wants to be alone on that wedding cruise. Six appletinis later, she’s next door asking her hunky neighbor to be her “plus one” for a week on a boat.

Lucky for her Noah Thorpe needs an excuse to get out of town and out of touch. The Vampire Council (yes, you read that right) wants him to bond with some newly fledged vampire to keep whoever-she-is grounded until she learns control and supposedly to keep him from dying of ennui.

But Noah’s nowhere near that jaded yet, unlike his brother Alex, and he needs to disappear for a week so that his other brother Charles can lobby the Council, or their father Kane.

Besides, he likes Alice. Or rather, when she comes back the next morning, chastened and sober, to present her proposition a second time, Charles thinks its a great idea and Noah gets a visit from the green-eyed monster.

Noah thinks it will be easy to hide from the Council, and hide his secret vampiric identity, on a cruise ship with the most tempting woman he’s met in centuries.

He has absolutely no idea what he’s let himself in for. Or that it might be the best worst idea he’s ever had.

Escape Rating B: Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid was so much fun because it takes a bite out of so many tried-and-true romantic themes. Alice doesn’t want to go alone on that cruise, but she absolutely does not want her ex back, and with excellent reasons.

There are always convoluted vampire politics. I swear. That never changes. But the whole vampire bonding to keep both parties out of different kinds of trouble was a new twist. (We never do find out who the would-be bonded mate is. Her identity doesn’t seem to be important for the plot. Or this plot. After meeting Kane, I smell red herring)

Unlike the usual variations on this theme, Alice and some of her family already know about vampires. Her brother almost married one, but his vampire ex-fiancé left him at the altar. (I wish we had that story.)

I like Alice; she’s someone I’d want to meet. Based on Noah’s description of her neighborhood activism, she’s definitely someone I’d like to have in my town! Her family, especially her mom, are lots of fun.

Based on the ending I have hopes that there will be stories about Noah’s two brothers, Alex and Charles. Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid was such a delightful little treat, I’d be happy to read more about the Sons of Kane. I wouldn’t mind reading Kane’s story, either. His Mr. Mysterious thing at Cindy’s wedding was awesome.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 5-26-13

Sunday Post

I’m going to make this a short and sweet Sunday Post. It’s a three day weekend here in the U.S. and I hope that you’re having a terrific time if that applies to you! (It’s a typical cloudy weekend in Seattle, but any three-day weekend is a great weekend)

Current Giveaway:

Lightning Rider by Jen GreysonLightning Rider by Jen Greyson (ebook)

Blog Recap:

B+ Review: The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro
C Review: Chasing Mrs. Right by Katee Robert
B+ Review: Lightning Rider by Jen Greyson
Guest Post on the Importance of Mentors by Author Jen Greyson + Giveaway
B Review: Doctor Who: Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris
B+ Review: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
Stacking the Shelves (46)

Antiagon Fire by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.Coming up this week:

Review: Antiagon Fire by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Review: Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid by Tiffany Allee
Review: The Shirt on His Back by Barbara Hambly
Review: Big Sky River by Linda Lael Miller

What are you reading this week?

Stacking the Shelves (46)

Stacking the Shelves

For those of you in the U.S., I hope you’re having a marvelous three-day weekend!

This week’s stack was originally relatively small, and then I opened my Hugo voting packet. The list below is far (very far) from everything in the packet, it’s just my first pass at the books I know I want to read. The full packet is ginormous.

Reading Reality Stacking the Shelves May 25 2013

For Review:
The Accidental Demon Slayer (Biker Witches #1) by Angie Fox
The Angel Stone (Fairwick Chronicles #3) by Juliet Dark
A Beautiful Heist (Agency of Burglary & Theft #1) by Kim Foster
The Black Country (Murder Squad #2) by Alex Grecian
Chasing the Shadows (Nikki and Michael #3) by Keri Arthur
Don’t Bite the Bridesmaid (Sons of Kane #1) by Tiffany Allee
The Garden of Stones (Echoes of Empire #1) by Mark T. Barnes
The Plague Forge (Dire Earth #3) by Jason M. Hough
A Study in Silks (Baskerville Affair #1) by Emma Jane Holloway
With This Kiss: The Complete Collection by Eloisa James

Purchased:
Sweet Starfire (Lost Colony #1) by Jayne Ann Krentz

Hugo Voting Packet:
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga #15) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Chicks Dig Comics: A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis
Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who edited by Deborah Stanish and L.M. Myles
Throne of the Crescent Moon (Crescent Moon Kingdoms #1) by Saladin Ahmed

Review: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

Dead Ever After by Charlaine HarrisFormat read: ebook purchased from Amazon
Series: Sookie Stackhouse, #13
Genre: Urban fantasy
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Number of pages: 352 pages
Publisher: Penguin Publishing
Formats available: ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website | Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)

There are secrets in the town of Bon Temps, ones that threaten those closest to Sookie—and could destroy her heart….

Sookie Stackhouse finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte’s. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clearcut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance…and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.

Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime.

But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she’ll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough…

My Thoughts:

“I’m Sookie Stackhouse. I belong here.” THE END.

Except for the capitalized end, Sookie pretty much declaring that there’s no place like home really is the last line of Dead Ever After. We just had to read through 13 books to get there.

dead until dark by Charlaine harrisWhat’s hard to believe is that in the Sookieverse, it’s only 2 years of her life, because it’s taken 12 years out of the rest of us. Dead Until Dark was unleashed on the world in 2001. Practically a whole lifetime ago.

Sookie’s lifetime, anyway. (If you’re searching for perspective, Harry Potter had found the Goblet of Fire, but had not yet joined the Order of the Phoenix. No Horcruxes were even on the bloody horizon in 2001. Dumbledore was still alive!)

Back to Sookie. In Dead Ever After, all of the chickens from all of Sookie’s previous outings come home to roost. Pretty much everyone she has ever met gets at least a mention.

Nearly all her old friends who are alive pay her a visit. Most of them come to support her in her hour of need. And does she ever have a need!

Because all her old enemies return to do her one final bad turn. Some of them want her very, very dead. And some of them want to hurt her so bad, she’ll just wish she was dead.

Every loose end that might possibly be left in Sookie’s story gets tied up tight, nearly in the shape of a handman’s noose around her neck.

And while Sookie investigates, not necessarily successfully, to figure out who her enemies are, she also figures out who her friends are. She has a lot more friends than she believed. Sookie has always sold herself short, never thinking that she had made as many friends as she has.

Most important of all, she finally grows a pair and protects her heart, instead of continuing to be Eric’s doormat. Eric has always put himself first, and it’s high time that Sookie did the same.

Verdict: The first books in the Sookie Stackhouse series were magical, because Sookie was on an incredible voyage of discovery. The last few have been kind of a chore, because Sookie let herself become dependent on Eric. She got weak and whiny and bitchy.

dead to the world by charlaine harrisThe only time I thought Eric really loved Sookie was when he had amnesia (Dead to the World) and forgot to be the manipulative bastard he really is. Otherwise, Eric puts Eric first. He always has and he always does. It’s a survival instinct that has kept him alive for more than a thousand years.

Here’s a question about vampire romances in general: what does someone who is over a thousand years old have in common with a 20-year-old? This isn’t about looks or possibly even brains, but what do they talk about? What are their shared experiences? Why would this relationship possibly work?

How could Sookie ever be anything except a subordinate (and I don’t mean this in a sexual context necessarily)? Even if Eric turned her, which she expressly did not want, it would be centuries before she acquired enough experience to approach a level of equality. And, as was shown in Club Dead, the vampire who sires another vampire has control over that vampire for the rest of their unnatural lives. If Eric had turned Sookie, he would always be in control of her and their relationship.

Sookie started the books as an independent person. The one being in her life for whom she continually made excuses and ceded that independence was Eric. I wish she’d kicked him to the curb sooner.

The double-mystery that sets this story in motion is a little weak. It mostly provided an excuse to “get the band back together” and have everyone that Sookie has ever met parade through her life one last time. I’m almost certain that every living or unliving soul that Sookie has crossed paths with got a mention except Bubba.

But the point was to make sure that Sookie took stock and resolved all her issues with the supe community, and she does that. The mystery is just an excuse to put her in jeopardy, so the troops rally round.

Sookie also had the opportunity to choose between Eric, Bill and Sam. While admittedly she could have chosen to be happily single, that wasn’t likely to be a resolution for the story and it wouldn’t have tied up the romantic loose ends.

Eric wanted her to be his “piece on the side” while he married someone else. Bill wanted her to forgive him for deceiving her, for betraying her, and, let’s not forget, for raping her.

And Sam, a while back he made her half owner of his bar, because she’s been so supportive of him. She didn’t need to put in any money. Sam counted her sweat-equity and her support more than enough of a contribution.

I know who I’d pick. And I know who I wouldn’t choose if he were the last man or vampire on Earth.

3-one-half-stars

I give  Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris 3 and 1/2 furry stars!

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