strange and random happenstance

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

By saving Sam, Sookie has forced Eric's hand. He will go with the Queen of Oklahoma. Sookie didn't realize that this is what would happen. She just knew that seeing Sam dead she had to save him. This is Sam! Now Eric is all off being his aloof self and all Sookie wants is to talk everything through with him to see where they stand. It doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. So Sookie goes back to her life. She works at Merlotte's, though Sam is being very odd since he "came back." Then one day the last person in the world she would have expected walks through the door. Arlene shows up. Arlene who has been in prison awaiting trial because of the whole trying to kill Sookie with the aim of crucifying her on a nice big wooden cross to make a point about what happens to those who sleep with vampires. Well, Arlene wants her job back, or at least she has been told to ask for her job back very publicly. Sookie flat out refuses her and then Arlene shows up dead. Sookie soon is the prime suspect, not because of any real evidence, but because someone wants her to suffer. All Sookie's friends and family gather round to help her clear her name. All Sookie wants is freedom and a simple life. Enough is enough.

We have come to the end of the Southern Vampires books, and some of you, myself included will be saying about time. Yet there's something poetic about ending a supernatural series on the thirteenth book, sadly a lot of the overly long series have overshot this by quite a ways. While the series has definitely had it's ups and downs, I have to say I enjoyed the ride and now I really don't know what book will fill that end of semester/start of summer gap at the beginning of May. That is why I picked up Dead Until Dark ten years ago. It was 2003 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer had ended and I had no supernatural outlet. The third book in the series, Club Dead had come out, and this was still when they were released in paperback, so Charlaine wasn't a household name. To try to drum up readers Charlaine's publishers put an ad in the Buffy magazine, and, well, I was an easy sell.

I remember being on a road trip to Pennsylvania, ironically for a Buffy convention, and I actually longed for each night when I could crawl into bed to pick up my book. I would read it any chance I got, even curled up on my friend's floor on my uncomfortable air mattress. I didn't want the book to end, but when it did and as I was home again I went straight out to Barnes and Noble and bought the next two in the series. Since then, every year, round about May I've gotten to hang out with Sookie, and she has become a bit of a friend... one who I believe deserved her happily ever after.

A few weeks before Dead Ever After came out the ending was apparently leaked by some fan in Germany. Much like the Doctor Who leak of more recent history, this caused a furor online. The reason, because the Eric fanbase didn't like that Sookie ended up with Sam. You know what I have to say to that? Suck it haters, I loved the ending. I have been rooting for Sookie and Sam since DAY ONE! Bill was always blah, Eric, well, he's too much the sexy undead vampire viking, and while yes, very sexy, especially as played by Alexander Skarsgård on True Blood (his apparently leaving the show is hurting Eric fans as well right now), well, you don't get a nice happily ever after with an vampire do you? Yes, I'm looking at you Twilight! That's not how things work, even in a made up land with fairies. Sookie got what she deserved and needed. She lived a sheltered half-life before the supes, the supes made her come out of her shell and become herself. The scene in the courthouse shows how far she's come. Real people love her and support her. Sookie is no longer a freak of nature, but just one of the many supernatural and magical things that exist in the ever expanding world Charlaine has built. Her time with the supes has taught her to control her "gift" and given her love and happiness... sure death and destruction too... but Eric's final gift of protection means that she now has a valid chance at her happy ending.

And you know what? Sookie just hanging around her house, doing laundry and cooking... well, there's something a little magical in that to me. I know I might sound a little crazy... but I admire the simple life that Sookie has tried to hang onto despite all that has happened. I'm glad she gets this life, I'd kind of like that life, supes aside. Because, let's face it, the vampire politics can get a little overwhelming. Thankfully, Dead Ever After was almost bereft of vampire politics, with Eric and his new Queen's machinations going on behind the scenes. Instead we get human threats. Though the glimpse of "the" Devil and his creating soullessness was really intriguing to me, I was happy that we stuck to the more human threat. Also by seeing some of the action through the eyes of these evil men, well... it gave a greater sense of peril then some of the other books. Sure, there was more then just humans behind it in the end... but it showed that we don't need something supernatural to show the evilness of man. That actually goes back to the first book. The Big Bad was human. So I guess we've come full circle. Sookie may have changed, but she has changed for the better. Though I can't wait to read the little "what happened next" book that is slated for this fall. Sure it might be more like the Sookie Companion... but I still need to know!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charlaine Harris, Club Dead, Dead Ever After, Dead Until Dark, Doctor Who, Sam Merlotte, Sookie Stackhouse, Southern Vampire Series, True Blood, Twilight, Vampires

Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"THE FINAL SOOKIE STACKHOUSE NOVEL

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…"

Oh, I have been waiting so long for the end of this series! Not that I haven't enjoyed the ride, but I think it's time for Sookie to get her happily ever after (one hopes... and one hopes with Sam!)

Alpha and Omega Cry Wolf: Volume Two by Patricia Briggs
Published by: InkLit
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 120 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A world of shapeshifting wolves comes vividly to life in this collection of four comics based on Cry Wolf, the first book in Patricia Briggs’s #1 New York Times bestselling Alpha and Omega series.

Charles and Anna are on the hunt for a rogue werewolf in the Montana mountains. The creature has morphed into something so dark that it kills everything in its path: deer, elk, grizzlies…humans.

But the wolf is the creature of something far more powerful. One of Charles and Anna’s own pack harbors a centuries-old secret that has come back to haunt him—and wreak vengeance on those around him.

Charles and Anna—unaware of the truth—are two innocents who stand in the way. But even as members of their pack rally around them, Anna’s rare power comes into its own—and is unleashed…"

While Cry Wolf might be one of my favorite of Patricia Briggs's books, I have to say, I was really unimpressed with the first volume... so, not sure if this will redeem it.

Murder is a Fine Art by David Morrell
Published by: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"GASLIT LONDON IS BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES IN DAVID MORRELL'S BRILLIANT HISTORICAL THRILLER.

Thomas De Quincey, infamous for his memoir Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, is the major suspect in a series of ferocious mass murders identical to ones that terrorized London forty-three years earlier.

The blueprint for the killings seems to be De Quincey's essay "On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts." Desperate to clear his name but crippled by opium addiction, De Quincey is aided by his devoted daughter Emily and a pair of determined Scotland Yard detectives.

In Murder as a Fine Art, David Morrell plucks De Quincey, Victorian London, and the Ratcliffe Highway murders from history. Fogbound streets become a battleground between a literary star and a brilliant murderer, whose lives are linked by secrets long buried but never forgotten."

Oh, this just sounds too too fun, can't wait! And, ok, I admit, my idea of fun might be a little weird to some...

Silent Voices by Ann Cleaves
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Ann Cleeves has thrilled readers everywhere with her critically acclaimed mystery series set in the Shetland Islands, which began with the award-winning Raven Black. Now, Cleeves is back with another compelling mystery series (set in Northumberland, England). This one features detective Vera Stanhope, the lead character played by Brenda Blethyn on the hit television series “Vera.” Destined for the same kind of fame achieved by Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse, the show is a favorite of millions of viewers in the U.K. and is available here on Netflix, PBS, and Amazon.

When Vera finds the body of a woman in the sauna of her local gym, she wonders briefly if, for once in her life, she’s uncovered a simple death of natural causes. But when a closer inspection reveals bruises around the victim’s throat, Vera’s team start their investigation. Vera and her colleagues soon uncover details in the victim’s past that may explain her untimely death. But Vera knows from experience that there’s no such thing as a simple case, and this one gets more baffling by the minute.

With pitch-perfect writing, a finely tuned mystery, and a protagonist with a complex past of her own, Silent Voices is a stand out penned by one of Britain’s most successful mystery writers."

Are you as addicted to Vera as me? If so, you'll be really excited for this new book!

The Barbed Crown: An Ethan Gage Adventures by William Dietrich
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: May 7th, 2013
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In The Barbed Crown, the sixth tale of rogue and adventurer Ethan Gage by William Dietrich, our hero returns to Paris and London. Against a background of imperial pomp and the gathering clouds of war, Gage plots revenge on Napoleon Bonaparte for the kidnap of his son.

Paris, the “City of Lights,” shines – but alongside its splendor is great squalor. Heroic patriotism rubs against mean ambition, while grand strategy and back-alley conspiracy are never far apart.

While Ethan spies on the French court, his wife, Astiza, works to sabotage Napoleon’s coronation using the Crown of Thorns, a legendary relic said to have come from the Crucifixion itself. But when Napoleon is crowned nonetheless, they flee to England.

At Walmer Castle on the English coast, Gage joins a daring campaign by Smith, Fulton, rocket inventor William Congreve and smuggler Tom Johnstone to halt Napoleon’s intended invasion of England – a campaign which leads Ethan to take a role in the Battle of Trafalgar itself…"

I  just recently heard about this series thanks to my Bas Bleu catalog, can't wait to see what they're like, they should fascinating.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alpha and Omega, Ann Cleaves, Charlaine Harris, Cry Wolf, David Morrell, Dead Ever After, Ethan Gage, Murder is a Fine Art, Patricia Briggs, Sookie Stackhouse, Vera, William Dietrich