Club Dead by Charlaine Harris

Product Details
Pub. Date: April 2003
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 272pp
Series: Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Series, #3
ISBN-13: 9780441010516
ISBN: 0441010512

Synopsis
There's only one vampire that cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse is involved with (at least voluntarily) and it's Bill Compton. But when she catches him in a serious act of betrayal, she's not sure whether to save him-or sharpen some stakes.

My thoughts

I know the third season of the TrueBlood season started a bit ago but since I most likely won't see it until it comes out on DVD I was trying to hold off on reading the third book, but then I changed my mind. I was so ready for a read like this. I read it in two day, staying up a bit too late last night because I didn't want to put it down. I love when a book pulls you and and reads nice and easy so it seems like no time is passing!

From the first book I was never a total fan of Bill's so this was an interesting story for me, seeing how she reacts to the real possibility that he has betrayed her with another woman. It will be interesting to see what the next book brings in terms of their relationship and her life in general. She meets a Were that I thought showed so real possibility for being at least a good friend if not more in her life. I wonder how many supernatural species will be introduced over the course of the series. Since I have watched the first two seasons of the HBO series I have a hard time seeing the characters in any way other than how the actors portray them, so it was nice to meet some new characters that I don't know the actors for because then they were able to appear as I pictured them based on the description in the book. I always miss that a bit when books become movies or TV series.

I have some catch up to do on my current reading but I am going to be looking for book four at the library pretty soon. Now that I am getting some reading done it is starting to feel like summer, finally. My big memories of summer from childhood involve lots of swimming, sun and reading!

Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

Product Details
Pub. Date: February 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Hardcover, 487pp
Series: Rachel Morgan Series, #8
ISBN-13: 9780061138034
ISBN: 0061138037

Synopsis

In New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison's most complex and nuanced adventure yet, bounty hunter and witch Rachel Morgan fights a deadly battle—mind, body, and soul

Black Magic Sanction


Rachel Morgan has fought and hunted vampires, werewolves, banshees, demons, and other supernatural dangers as both witch and bounty hunter—and lived to tell the tale. But she's never faced off against her own kind . . . until now. Denounced and shunned for dealing with demons and black magic, her best hope is life imprisonment—at worst, a forced lobotomy and genetic slavery. Only her enemies are strong enough to help her win her freedom, but trust comes hard when it hinges on the unscrupulous tycoon Trent Kalamack, the demon Algaliarept, and an ex-boyfriend turned thief.

It takes a witch to catch a witch, but survival bears a heavy price.

My thoughts:

Each time I read one of the Rachel Morgan books I feel like I have forgotten so much of the past story. I know I have read them all but I just can't remember all of what has happened. While any crucial elements are repeated I hate feeling like I am missing parts that might be more meaningful if I had the whole story to work with, if that makes sense.

Overall the story was good and I enjoyed reading it. Things have been so busy lately that I haven't read anywhere near as much as I usually do for quite some time now. It was neat reading this one as the last book was one of the ones I reviewed when I first started my blog almost a year ago, maybe it is a year, I can't recall if I started in August or September.

I like Rachel but I almost stopped reading the series when Kisten was killed off in one of the other books. At the time it felt like someone I knew had been killed, I think I must have read the books all in a row and I really liked Kisten and the relationship he and Rachel had and I could see a future in it and then to have him be killed in what seemed like a senseless way rocked my trust in the author. (Which sounds silly since it is just a book, but I recall at the time feeling very strongly about it, I also think I may have been pregnant at the time so maybe some of those hormones were coming into play as well, who knows.) Even though that was how I felt at the time I have continued to read the books.

It will be interesting to see where Harrison goes with the changes in Rachel's blood and how the witch coven figures into future stories. For some reason this was a slower read for me than some books, I had it borrowed from the library for three weeks and didn't finish it until the night before it was due. I didn't start it right away but it took me longer than usual to finish, not sure if it was the length or just not having enough free time to read.

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

Product Details
Pub. Date: June 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover, 192pp
Age Range: Young Adult
Series: Twilight Saga Series
ISBN-13: 9780316125581
ISBN: 031612558X

Synopsis

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

My thoughts:

It had been awhile since I had read any of the Twilight books so it was neat to reenter that world for a little while. I read the book right before we went to see the Eclipse movie so I kept watching the newborn vampires to see if they were following the storyline that was in this book. I read it online, which I've only ever done once before. I had wanted to get this posted before the time to read it online for free expired but that didn't happen.

For summer I like books that are fast reads, winter tends to be the time I start longer, heavier books. I'm not sure why but that seems to be my reading style. This book fit the bill. I really found myself liking Bree and hoping that she would be successful as a vampire. My memory of Eclipse wasn't very fresh so I couldn't recall that well what was going to happen to her. I remembered that they had had a fight and I thought all the newborns were killed but I still kept hoping that maybe some of them got away, how would we know if all of them had made it to the fight? I think the timing of the release of this book really work for it as well since it came out at the same time as the most recent movie.

If you have read the other books this was a fun diversion. I was a bit thrown by the fact that there were no chapter breaks. I don't know if it needed one but I am used to there being breaks and those breaks are where I tend to stop reading. This one I read almost all the way through at once. Also I thought it was shorter and since I was reading it online I kept wondering how close to the end I was. One of my reading quirks is I tend to keep track of how much more of the story I have to go as I read along.

Undead and Unfinished by MaryJanice Davidson

Product DetailsPub. Date: July 2010
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Series: Betsy Taylor Series, #9
ISBN-13: 9780425234358
ISBN: 0425234355

SynopsisVampire Queen Betsy Taylor returns in the ninth novel in the New York Times bestselling series. Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is having a tough time getting through the Book of the Dead-until the Devil strikes a bargain. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the cursed (literally!) thing, and finally discover all its mysteries. There's just one catch... Betsy and her half-sister Laura have to go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage (after a rebellious youth of charity work) and finally make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. That means interacting with their family's past. In doing so, they're impacting the future in ways they never anticipated. Of course that's what Mother wanted all along. Damn her.

My thoughts:

This week I felt like I hit the library jackpot. When I walked by the new shelf there were two books that I had been wanting to read just sitting there waiting to be checked out with no need to request and wait. I decided to read this one first. As usual it was a quick, funny read. I realized as I started that I must have not read the eighth book in the series because the events that had happened prior to the start of this one weren't ones I knew about. I guess I'll have to look for that one soon.

Most of this book takes place between Laura and Betsey as they travel through time so that Laura can learn to use her powers to travel in all dimensions so she can eventually take over for her mother, the devil, during her anticipated retirement. Through their travel they realize that what they are doing is messing with their own time line but that they always were there so the time line has always been interfered with. Betsy is as usual, she is sarcastic and self involved but is starting to recognize more and more that she is this way. One of her visits takes her to see herself in the future which opens her eyes to ways she would like to change.

This is a good summer book. I just wish I had read the book that came before it first, but with a library book I didn't really have the luxury of waiting to read it. I wonder how much longer Davidson will continue the series. I enjoyed her series about Fred the Mermaid but I believe she has ended that one already. I'm just not sure how much is left for her to do at this point.

Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan

Product Details
Pub. Date: January 2010
Age Range: 9 to 12
Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series

Synopsis

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. No matter how hard he tries, he can't seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he’s not even sure he believes himself.

Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.

Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he’s coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century. And worse, he’s angered a few of them: Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy has just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring...

My thoughts:
This series appealed to me when the movie was in the theater but I was busy and never got to it. When I saw that it was soon being released on DVD I decided I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie. I belong to the school of though that most of the time, the book is better than the movie and this is another story that I believe that holds true for.

I shared this book with my children, we read almost the entire thing aloud and then borrowed the audio book to listen to in the car on a long trip. One thing I liked about listening was hearing someone else pronounce the names for the Greek gods, I just wasn't entirely sure of the pronunciation of some of them which is no big deal when you are reading silently to yourself but becomes a bigger problem when you are reading aloud!

Parts of this book reminded me of Harry Potter (another series I am working through with my children this summer) and somewhat of the Spiderwick Chronicles which we have already finished. I like that this opened their minds to the idea of Greek myths because I think we are going to moving into those in a few weeks. This book was engrossing enough for adults or children and I highly recommend it. When we went to the beach last week my children were throwing shells back in telling me that they were offering for Poseidon the sea god!









My thoughts;
I enjoyed the movie but saw a lot of changes from the book to the movie. I know based on time constraints they have to cut things out, but it seemed odd that they aged the characters from 12 to at least 16, Percy no longer goes to boarding school, some of the gods who had large rolls were cut out and even omitted and even the towns they visit on their cross country trek are changed. The basic story was still there and if looked at without the book it was pretty good but a little more obvious as to who is behind the theft. Whenever you narrow the field of suspects it makes it easier to find the right one. Still I would recommend the movie as well.