Dead Until Dark

Sookie is a small town, southern, cocktail waitress.  She proclaims she is afflicted by a 'disability'...mind reading.  Sookie has been waiting for something to perk up her dull life.  That's when Bill the vampire shows up and Sookie's life goes from dead to deadly.

I adore Bill the vampire. I can get into the mystery. I am not yet totally offended by the graphic nature. The sex was a little explicit. I am totally down with Sookie's 'disability'. But Heaven help her personality. What the heck does Bill want with her? It's okay that she is a little 'old fashion', naive, and unsophisticated....maybe it's the way she speaks. Something about her rubs me the wrong way. I guess I will have to learn to live with it because I plan on continuing the series, at least to the next book.

Rating 3.5 Obviously Sookie drives me to drinking but I did like the rest of the book.
Rating R Graphic violence, graphic sex, murder.

Magic Study

Yelena has moved South, left her job as food taster, and her love, Valek.  She meets her familly and learns about her magical abilities. 

A definite drop in score for Magic Study. Even though I took issue with Poison Study for its simplistic writing style I still had a pretty serious book crush on it. I was leery of book #2 as I usually am.....and I was right.


I personally don't take change easily in my own life or when I come to know a character in a book. I was not excited that Yelena had to leave behind Ixia and travel South. The story ended up not being half bad. I just had to get used to it. But I did miss Valek with a heated passion.

Later things began getting sketchy. I appreciated that even though there was a rape in Poison, it was written with some dignity. But please......Snyder, don't make this a running theme. I don't want to hear about anymore brutality. STOP with the raping. Yelena went from a sharp awesome character to a nut job that forged ahead without thought. When Valek finally shows up later in the book.....after the magic and the characters have taken a nose dive...he is unrecognizeable. I don't know who he is any more. I am glad he loves Yelena...but he is a simpering sissy that says 'my love' all of the time. Once made my heart beat rather quickly....the successive times made vomit come up in my mouth a little bit.

I still think the writing style is very simple...like grade 5. Then Snyder throws in some sex and rape. Choose an audience!

After all of the complaints, I still liked the book and will continue the series to see if Valek ever mans up or Yelena gets control of her teen rebellion.
 
Rating 3 Not enough manly Valek and I don't like that Yelena doesn't think before acting.  The friendships are endearing, including the horse.
Rating PG 13 More rape and brutality, sex.

Rumors A Luxe Novel

Is it wrong to swoon over a cover of a book so much that you don't care what takes place inside?  I would love to put on this blood red frosting and walk right into New York elite society 1899.

Spoilers if you haven't read The Luxe.

Elizabeth has gone to meet Will in a very underdescribed manner....out West.  Diana is hot for Henry.  Henry is hot for Di.  The fact that Henry was engaged to Diana's dead sister is keeping them apart.  Penelope is a hot mess as far as I am concerned.  Her kitty claws are out and ready to capture Henry.  Lina, the personal maid that Elizabeth fired is on the loose and vying for a place in a society she has envied her whole life.

I was completely caught up in The Luxe.  This book was a severe disappointment.  I quickly tire of the intrigue, gossip, backstabbing and jealousy.  I just want the people in love to get together.  The surprise ending was a nightmare.........a serious, serious nightmare which I don't understand.  And it will lead me to pick up the next book as soon as I can.

Rating  3  I HATED the end of this book.  It magnified how in need the rest of the book was. 
Rating PG mature themes but not entirely dirty

The Graveyard Book

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Macabre......ugh, I love that word.  It says so many things.  It smells sweet like dead leaves.  To say I was stoked to read this book.....so beautiful with a headstone on the cover, is an understatement.  Sadly, so sadly I ended up reading it in snippets.  That is a horrible, horrible way to read anything except a text book.  I like to devour my books.  I digress.......I read it in snippets while I struggled everyday not to hate the school system and the State social workers while I sat behind my desk furtively feeding a child that came to school hungry.  Sorry, I am flashing back and possibly sideways.  I did not saturate myself in the book in a way that the book was due.  So my take on it may not be very honest.

It turned out to be exceedingly witty and crafty.  Bod's (short for Nobody) family was murdered when he was yet an infant.  He was lucky enough to toddle from the house and into the nearest graveyard.  This is where the little tyke ended up living out his childhood, protected and raised by ghosts.  Could there be a better story?  There were times I felt the chill of the graveyard.  I was comforted by the ghostly relationships.  There were thought provoking moments.  I could clap!

Yet, I am not going to give this book a 5.  If I per chance had read this in a better state of mind....or in one sitting, I may have felt more immersed and connected.  This is possibly not Gaiman's fault....but this is the place where my opinion counts....so....

Rating 4
Rating PG  I didn't find it terrifying.  There was murder.  I don't recall any sexual aspects (it has been at least a month since I read this book) and there were some scary-ish happenings since it was about ghosts and partially living beings.

Unhallowed Ground

Unhallowed Ground by Heather Graham

Sarah has recently returned to her home town and purchased the home she has coveted since her youth.  The historic home is in one of the oldest cities in Florida, and is ripe with ghost lore and history.  Sarah finds herself in the middle of a ghost story and possibly the target of a serial killer.  The walls of her beloved home are filled with dead bodies from ages past. Her nights are haunted by a historical ghost that just happens to look like the handsome detective Caleb Anderson (yum). Her days are filled helping Caleb search historical records that some how seem connected to the disappearance of young women in present time.

I had a fun time with this book.  It was a quick and easy read.  The setting was fantastic and made me want to head down to Florida (which I have never wanted to do before).  The historical aspect along with the thrill of the grisly and ghostly findings was the perfect mix.  Not to mention the heated romance between Sarah and Caleb.  Total sucker for a little cop love.

Rating 4  Certainly not top notch lit, but fun.
Rating R Things eventually heat up between Sarah and Caleb.  Definitely R rated love.  Danger, murder, ghosts, descriptions of dead bodies.

Under The Banner Of Heaven

Under The Banner Of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I found this little prize stuck in the back corner of my library.  I picked it up under a misguided assumption that it was about polygamy.  Honestly I was in it for the dirty details.  Polygamy is something I can't wrap my brain around and I was interested in what this book might entail.

The book happens to center around the murder of a young woman and her baby.  Her husband's brothers and himself begin straying from the path of mainstream religion and become beyond fundamentalist.  When one of them receives a revelation that she and a group of others must be exterminated because they are in the way of the work, the young woman and baby end up with their heads nearly severed in small town America.

Krakauer, in order to illustrate his point about the violent faith of fundamentalist, deems it necessary to pull forth the ugly past of the current LDS church.  His writing style is gripping.  He is a truly skilled writer and his historical and nonfiction accounts are made palatable by his gift of writing.  On the other hand, from the blurb on the front cover until the last page, you are inundated with ugly and terrifying facts (?) that make a mainstream religion seem like its VERY ugly stepsister, the fundamentalists.  Although some say that the distinction is clear between the LDS church and the other fundamentalist groups, including various polygamous sects, it really wasn't.  Krakauer delves back to the roots of the LDS church.  It is understandable why he does this. But his back and forth style, from past to present and right to left, leaves the lines blurred, and a harmless, God loving community pegged as the murderers and rapists next door.

I did enjoy Krakauer's skilled writing ability.  I wasn't scared off by what I read.  I am however saddened that a service and faith oriented religion is even spoken of in the same breath with the other crack job, spin offs.  And I am sure as I say that, that those people probably shouldn't be pigeon holed either. Also the LDS religion's faith in God was basically ignored and replaced with the worship of Joseph Smith.  Not at all factual in that instance.

Rating 4 for skill 2 for sticking to what should have been the main idea.  It would be like me wanting to bring to light what I consider to be misdeeds of Catholics and going so far back in history that I drag in the Jews and turn on the spotlight.
Rating R Murder, rape, incest, drug abuse, language.

The Pact (a love story)

The Pact (a love story) by Jodi Picoult

This is my second time through this book but I really love Jodi Picoult's way of taking twists and turns and tackling timely and touchy issues.

Chris and Em grew up in each other's pockets. Both families always expected them to eventually fall in love and get married. Their last year of high school begins and their futures seem right on track. They have been in a relationship since their early teens. They each have a bright future with their individual talents. To all eyes looking in, they seem like the perfect couple with more maturity than everyone else their age.

Then in the middle of the night their parents are awakened with a phone call sending them screaming to the local hospital. Chris is injured and Em has been killed by gun shot. What seems to be a random act of violence or an accident becomes what one family believes to be a murder and the other a suicide pact gone awry. The families of Chris and Em have been like family to each other. Now with one child dead and the other alive the neighbor's relationships are ripped to shreds.

We learn about Emily through those left behind......everyone of them telling the story of the person they thought they knew. All leading up to the terrible truth about how and why Em died.

Picoult again makes me ache for her characters. Even though this story is tragic I still feel like it was a love story. I feel for the parents and most certainly for Chris. How will they ever move beyond this pivotal moment that spun their lives in a direction they never saw coming?

Rating 4.5 A shocking emotional roller coaster. Loved it, but didn't feel as much for the parents as I did for Chris. I know I shouldn't be judging them because who knows what I will really know about my kids when they get older? But at some points in the book I really disliked the mothers, especially Em's.

Rating R Teen sex, sex, sexual abuse (which leaves me shuddering and forcing my kids to avoid public restrooms to this day), and suicide/gun violence.

Kissed by an Angel

Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler

This book is actually a trilogy..Kissed by an Angel, The Power of Love and Soulmates. I would really classify this as a three part story, not really three separate books.

Ivy and Tristan are teen sweethearts. After a short but intense romance Tristan and Ivy are in a fatal car wreck. Tristan dies and becomes an angel. Ivy lives on but suffers the loss of Tristan. Before Tristan's death Ivy had a strong belief in angels.....Tristan did not. Now Ivy no longer believes. If angels exist they would have saved Tristan. Tristan now must fight against Ivy's disbelief in order to make contact with her and assure her of his undying love.
As Tristan tries to work through those around Ivy to make her aware that he still exists, he finds that his death was not an accident. Ivy was the original target and now her life is in danger.
Tristan gets help from a sassy angel named Lacey. Together they finally break through Ivy's disbelief and help her to see the peril all around her.

The opening scenes of the book did not inspire me. I quickly concluded that the characters were shallow and unlikeable horny teens.......completely without depth. I pressed on. I wish the author had begun somewhere else and skipped the whole first chapter. Eventually I came empathize with the characters.......I even shed more than one tear. I ended up really liking the book but the flaws seemed to intensify because of the opening scene. At times I felt like the editor may have been smashed. Places and conversations seemed choppy. Ivy's 8-9 year old brother seemed more like he was 5. All of the parents were disgusting idiots. And I am not sure that the whole 'mystery' held much water once it was resolved.

However.......you know my penchant for soulmate love. I had to push on. Once the characters began to develop I really liked what I was reading. They were definitely 'characters' but I guess they have to be in order to keep you entertained for nearly 700 pages. Gregory ......rich and insane step-brother. Ivy.... sweet, intelligent victim of circumstance. Eric....high as a kite. Beth....semi psychic, bleeding heart wanna be authoress. Suzanne......shallow stunning beauty with an ugly name. Will.......mysterious and underplayed boy next door. Tristan......the perfect boyfriend, full of undying love. Lacey.....spunky, flaky actress turned angel looking for a mission. At one point I felt like it was being narrated by the narrator of Arrested Development....why I don't know but it pushed me over the edge and then I really liked it! Put it all together and it wraps up in a fairly nice bow.

Rating 4 Once the characters develop there is enough investment in them to get you through to the end. Plus you know.....you can't go wrong with a soulmate.
Rating PG Even though the opening scene (which was a mistake) seemed to be the end of a dirty teen scene.....it never became explicit. And the stepbrother thing was weird but not graphic.