Chomping at the Bit: 2011 style

Here are just a handful of upcoming releases for the new year!  I can't wait to get my eyes into these!

Flip This Zombie, the second part of Jesse Petersen's Living with the Dead Series is set to release on January 3rd.  Better get those slaying shoes on!








Larissa Ione is coming out with the first installment in her Lords of Deliverance series: Eternal Rider on March 29th.  I adore her Demonica series so I have high hopes for her future novels!

 
Charlaine Harris is at it again!  Her eleventh book of the Southern Vampire Series, Dead Reckoning, is slated to hit shelves on May 3rd.  I am excited to see what mayhem Sookie will be stuck in next.









Karen Marie Moning will be wrapping up her five part Fever Series on January 18th with Shadowfever.  I am currently reading the fourth novel, Dreamfever.  Spectacular is what immediately comes to mind!










And of course, JR Ward is coming out with another Black Dagger Brotherhood novel: Payne's story, Lover Unleashed, on March 29th.






What novels are you aching to sink your teeth into?

~Helena

This is getting sad

So first, Amazon suggested JR Ward, because apparently I buy so much of her work, even a flawed computer algorithm can anticipate my next purchase. What appeared in my inbox today? This:


That's right. I'm now so completely predictable, I can simply wait for Amazon to tell me, in convenient email form, what I should read next.

~Lily

Recommendsday Review - Dead in the Family

Today's recommendsday review is a bit different than the other reviews we've done here at Vamps R Us. Instead of Helena or I taking the lead to review a book one of us has read, we're both going to talk about Charlaine Harris's latest, Dead in the Family. And the format of this review is different, it's a conversation Helena and I had via text message that pretty much summarized our opinions, so we decided to post it here. Because of the candid nature of that convo, there's one other major change in this review:

***SPOILER ALERTS***

If you don't want to know what happens in Dead in the Family, do not read any further. You have been warned.

Synopsis:

Sookie Stackhouse has finally settled into a relationship with the Viking vampire Eric, and her errant brother Jason seems to have his life in order, too. But all the other people in Sookie’s life – Eric himself, her former lover Bill, her friend and boss Sam – are having family problems.

Eric’s maker shows up with Eric’s ‘brother’ in tow, the ailing Bill can only be healed by a blood sibling, and Sam’s brother’s marriage is about to take place . . . or will it? The furor raised by the coming out of the two-natured has yet to settle; some people are just not ready to sit down to dinner with a man who turns into a dog. And Sookie herself is still recovering from her last ordeal. She’s definitely improving, physically and mentally, but she’s always going to have some dark moments now. The werewolves tell her that there have been strange and ominous passers-by in the Stackhouse woods; now Sookie is about to come face-to-face with one of her more distant relatives...

Prelude to convo - I finished Dead in the Family before Helena (thanks to my not having vet school finals), and expressed to her my overall disappointment with the novel. This is where the conversation picks up:

Helena Sparrow: (May 18 – 10:10am) I didn’t think Sookie was horrible. I don’t like how bitter and dark she is tho, like u said. And though there was action and the typical dead bodies to ID kind of thing, I felt like there was no real point to the bigger picture for all of it. I miss light bubbly Sookie.

HS: (10:11) Definitely was not Harris’ quality work I loved.

HS: (10:12) Oh well. I guess all good things must end. Hope JR Ward doesn’t downspiral too, that would really suck.

Lily Ghates: (10:26) I’m hoping Harris can bring it back around. Time will tell.

HS: (10:28) Yeah the series def can’t be ended on that book. Too many open unanswered things. The ease of lifting the spell at the end was utter BS tho.

HS: (10:29) I mean seriously

LG: (10:29) Oh, I know. And nothing resolved with Victor! I truly thought this book was pointless. You want to review it for the blog?

HS: (10:32) Sure. I can write up some stuff tonight and add to the cover reviews. I think with Harris we pretty much have the same opinion lol. Waited a year for nothing really sadly. At least we have True Blood.

LG: (10:34) Yeah, my opinion is the same as yours. I don’t mind spending the time on this one if it's leading to something spectacular, but otherwise it wasn’t worth the effort.

HS: (10:35) True. Hope that something comes out soon lol. Before I forget who Dermot is again.

LG: (10:36) Lol, my first thought was “who?”, but I remember now

HS: (10:40) They all kiss and then go to bed together. It's weird. And I'm glad Pam isn’t dead dead. I was worried for a bit

LG: (10:41) I know! That would have killed it for me, really. She’s the comic relief. And now that Eric has become a pussy, she’s the last real-but-likeable vampire.

HS: (10:46) Seriously, but he should be less pansy now that his maker is gone. Maybe he can have a rebirthing so to speak lol

LG: (10:50) I hope so, cause that was getting irritating. As was the Romanov kid. And where the hell did Claudine’s baby daddy come from? Not enough build up, too little resolution.

HS: (10:52) I know. I was hoping the fairy was some crazy relation to Jason or Dermot with the way that Russian kid was so drawn to Jason. But whatever. Pointless.

HS: (10:53) I don’t think we even met that crazy guy before. And putting Sookie in a human jail is a weird form of revenge for killing family. I mean, I would have just shanked a bitch myself.

LG: (10:54) Any of the other fairies would have too. Out of character & bad. Unimpressed.

HS: (10:58) Or why didn’t he kill Hunter when he saw Hunter at the park. Honestly that would have been most appropriate. Guess Harris got sick of killing kids.

LG: (11:02) I know. Fae aren’t paternal, he could have killed Sookie & Hunter for being half bloods. Ridiculous. An excuse to have Sookie play with Hunter.

HS: (11:04) Harris isn’t playing by her own rules, that’s what really has me upset. Like, stupid Weres didn’t even get mad enough for my liking

LG: (11:05) I feel you. And them trusting Sookie, a onesy, with a sacred pack duty? Not going to happen. She would have been in far more danger than she was

LG: (11:06) lol, maybe we can just make our text convo the review :-p

And so we did, because hey, we'd already vented our frustration about wasting time with a book we both felt went nowhere, so why throw more time after it for a review. I love Harris, I think she's remarkably talented, and I adore the first 6 books in the Sookie series. The last few Sookie books, however, have been disappointing. I'm still hoping Harris can bring it back around. Time will tell.

Rating: 3/5

Book By Its Cover - Dead in the Family

We're trying something new here at Vamps R Us, a weekly feature we're calling "Book By Its Cover Tuesdays", where we'll discuss a new paranormal release based solely on it's cover and what, if anything, we know about the series or author. We're interested in your opinion as well, so feel free to chime in.

The first book we'll be judging by its cover is new release Dead in the Family, the 10th installment of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampires series by Charlaine Harris.

Synopsis:

After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she's angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he's under scrutiny by the new Vampire King because of their relationship. And as the political implications of the Shifters coming out are beginning to be felt, Sookie's connection to the Shreveport pack draws her into the debate. Worst of all, though the door to Faery has been closed, there are still some Fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry...

Lily's Thoughts:

I've read the other books in the Sookie Stackhouse series, so I really have to work to distance myself from what I know of the series to judge fully on the cover alone. I like the series and I'm excited for this latest installment. That said, I love this cover. Since True Blood hit the airwaves, many of the original Sookie covers have been changed to tie the books in more closely with the show. While I'm a big fan of the show, I prefer the original book covers (featured to the right) over the True Blood promo tie-ins and the covers that bare stylized versions of Anna Paquin's face.

I like the cartoon quality of the covers, the depiction of Sookie in all her blond, innocent beauty, and the pale exteriors of the vampires. By using cartoon drawings, I think the original covers emphasize a specific piece of the story, a scene of importance, rather than simply conjuring an image of the actors playing the roles in the series. In so doing, I think these original covers are more likely to stroke the imagination and tempt readers into visualizing the scenes for themselves, rather than just forcing subconscious images of the True Blood cast through the hoops created by the narrative.

As for the Dead in the Family cover, I like the bold use of colors, the blues, greens and reds. I also like the symbolism of the rose, complete with thorns, and how it's separating Sookie and Eric even as they reach for each other. These two are going to have issues in the upcoming book, and this cover depicts that well. Overall, I give the cover a 5 out of 5. Excellent cover for what I'm hoping is an excellent book.

Helena's Thoughts:

Wow, pretty is my first thought lol. As I have already posted earlier, I am way excited for this release and I am along with Lily no stranger to this series by any means. I did realize earlier today that they are all running together though. Not in a bad way, I just can no longer separate individual novels out of the bigger picture anymore. At least Harris does a great job keeping the story flowing haha.

Team Eric is wonderfully represented on the cover. I agree with Lily, I do adore the cartoon covers. I think it lends a level of playfulness and lightheartedness to the content contained within. The rose looks like it will be sparkly! Hopefully the only part of the cover that will be, I prefer my blood suckers non glitterized. I find it interesting that two stems intertwine and culminate in the rose...maybe symbolic of the joining of two characters despite the "fang-ups" so to speak in their individual histories. I do hope so!

Gorgeous, simple, symbolic, perfect representation of the series...the designer of the cover makes another homerun. Can't wait to brave the thorns and delve into this one. 5/5 rating!

Sookie is comin' round the mountain

Lily and I have been so caught up in BDB anticipation that other great releases have yet to get the proper attention they deserve.

PC Cast released another installment in her House of Night series: Burned on April 27th.  The last book was very disappointing to me but it ended with an amazing last 20ish pages that left me jonesin to see what happens next.





And Finally!!!!! The much awaited Sookie Stackhouse update from Charlaine Harris, Dead in the Family, will grace shelves on May 4th.  I really can't wait to see what develops further between Eric and Sookie.  Team Eric for the win!




In DVD land, season 2 of True Blood comes out May 25th...meaning season 3 will soon appear on a boob tube near you!  June 13th to be exact :)

On other news, I have finished Lover Mine and OMG it was amazing.  One of my favorites from the series for sure, I still can't bring myself to cheat on Rhage yet every novel she writes seems to get better and better.  Also thank you Ward for finally including more of Rhage in this book, he seemed to fade into the background for a while in previous novels.  I was hoping for more Godzilla action though :(  Anyways, in the next few days, Lily and I will be cooking up a kick butt review of Lover Mine...spoilers will abound, but there will be bolded "attention if you read this its not our fault if you haven't finished the novel yet".  I hate when a book is ruined for me, but thats why I have been diligently avoiding any mention of Ward for the past week.  My head is still spinning with realizations and questions.  Oh how I will cry when this series is finally put to bed.

~Helena

Great Starts to Great Books

Because I enjoy the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, I thought it may be worthwhile to give some of Harris' other books a try. Ms Harris does have another paranormal series out, The Harper Connelly Mysteries, but I didn't start with those. Actually, I started with Harris' very first published novel, Sweet and Deadly.

Why am I mentioning Sweet and Deadly, a non-paranormal novel that was published before I was even born (pub date, 1981) on a current paranormal blog?

Well, because Charlaine Harris is a gifted writer, and her stories are always interesting. Because she's made a huge impact in the realm of paranormal romance, via her Sookie Stackhouse series and the television show it inspired. And because Sweet and Deadly has one of the most interesting first lines I've ever read in a novel.

"She passed a dead dog on her way to the tenant shack."

It may not sound that interesting at first, but instead of taking the easy route of introducing the main character or offering a meaningless platitude, Harris starts this rather simple novel with a disturbing, seemingly meaningless image that, although not impacting the storyline directly, or even indirectly in any significant way, is telling of the story as a whole and the otherwise random events that can mean so much more. This dead dog, though unimportant to the protagonists, bookends the story completely. It orients the details of the story and the events of one woman's life within the larger plain of the human existence. The last line of the story is also dedicated to the dog, but again in a subtle way that marks the short passage of time in the novel, and orients the characters within the greater scheme of things:

"A few miles outside of Lowfield, up the higway that led to Memphis, a little boy cried over his supper because his dun-colored dog had been missing for four days."

If she could do this with her first novel, how many more tricks has Charlaine Harris placed up her sleeve in the last 28 years?

~Lily

Bubba is IN the Building

The creator of all those True Blood paper dolls, illustrator Andy Swist, has officially gain a few more points on the awesome scale. Andy, you see, decided to dress up as BUBBA for Halloween.

For fans of Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse book series (and I stress books, because Bubba is painfully absent from True Blood), this is truly awesome. Who doesn't love the undead, cat-eating, reincarnation of Elvis?

Check out the full post of Andy's Halloween Adventures at his blog, here.

(Cat is the best thing since fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Thank ya, thank ya very much.)

~Lily (totally in awe)

Charlaine Harris to appear in True Blood

Charlaine Harris has a cameo appearance in the season two finale of True Blood. Watch HBO on September 13th.

~Helena

Books soon to be in my grubby lil hands :)

Since we haven't posted in a while, (I started back to class and Lily started a new job) I figured I would do a light entry about my near-future soon-to-be purchases!


JR WARD - COVET
This novel is the first in a new series by JR Ward, our beloved author of the yummy Black Dagger Brotherhood. The story centers around a Harley-riding fallen angel, sounds like plenty of potential for me. Novel hits shelves on September 29th.



LYNSAY SANDS - RENEGADE HUNTER
This marks, number "I can't even count that high" on the Argeneau series meter. I know Lily and I have both stated our dismay at the progressive downfall of this series; however, I feel I need to read it for review purposes and maybe it will rock (opinion pending). Novel also hits stores September 29th.



CHARLAINE HARRIS - A TOUCH OF DEAD
Everyone has been excited for the latest Sookie installment. Sadly, we must wait a while in order for our wishes to be fulfilled. In the meantime, Harris created a collection of short stories involving our beloved Bon Temps characters. Of the list, this I am most excited for! Coming soon on October 6th.



PC CAST and KRISTIN CAST - TEMPTED
Mother-daughter duo has created another installment for their House of Night series. The vampire twist on a Harry Potter-esque storyline has me eagerly awaiting what happens next. This novel comes out October 27th.





Happy reading!!!!

~Helena

Men of Fangtasia

Sometimes, I confuse things. For example, if I'm reading a book series that has been turned into a movie or television series, I sometimes forget which plot elements are carried over, and which elements are specific to the story line as told in one medium or the other. I've read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books. I've also watched all available episodes of True Blood. Now, I know in the book series Eric and the other vamps of Fangtasia put out a vamp pin-up calendar. I don't remember if this particular event has been mentioned in the show (it really isn't that important), but whether or not it has, those wise, wise marketing execs at HBO apparently thought a vamp pin-up calendar was something the public needed.

Who am I to argue with genius?




Yes, I snagged this from Perez Hilton's site. I can only hope he stole it from HBO first and that this isn't just a photo manip meant to entice without purpose. I want a calendar!

~Lily

Valley of the Dolls

Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse books have spawned a television show, True Blood. True Blood has, it seems, spawned a line of paperdolls.

Oh yes, that is correct.

Andy Swist is an illustrator and graphic designer who has put his talent to use in the form of 4 paper dolls based on the True Blood series. To check out the dolls, (Bill, Sookie, Pam, and Lafayette), please click here.

(Am I the only one who thinks this looks nothing like Sookie? No offense to the artist intended. Bill is pretty spot on. Lafayette is close. I just don't see the resemblance in the women.)

~Lily

Charlaine Harris Equals Win

This is awesome. Congrats to Charlaine Harris for accomplishing the impossible. Harris has an unprecedented 9 titles on the NY Times Bestseller list, simultaneously.

Just amazing.

~Lily

Bandwagon, This Way. All Aboard!

Earlier this month, the New York Times featured an article titled A Trend with Teeth (see this previous blog entry). It looks like the Times isn't the only publication to jump of the "let's document the vamp-craze" bandwagon. On July 16, Newsweek featured a vamp themed article titled, cutely enough, Bite Me! Why We Love Vampires.


This is a fascinating article. It covers some of the vampire trends in pop culture, the history of the mythos, the more popular (and reoccurring) fantasies, and even the psychology behind the intense sexuality that so many seem to associate with vampires.

For a slideshow of some well known and well loved vamps, courtesy of Newsweek, please click here.


~Lily

"It's not you...ok, it totally is"

A month or so ago, there was an entry at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books about Breaking Up With A Series. This struck me as interesting because I've recently been thinking about a once-loved series that I just don't care enough to read anymore. Now, I fully admit that I'm a series addict. If a character and world truly grabs my attention, I want continuing stories of the characters and their lives. I will hold on to a series when even the rats are jumping ship. But sometimes a series just...fizzles, so badly that you have to let it go before it takes you down with it. And with the fizzle comes a certain amount of disappointment, like a trusted friend letting you down.

That said, I was very surprised by some of the series and authors discussed on the SBTB blog. The most notable authors/series named were JR Ward and the Brotherhood Series, Sherrilyn Kenyon and the Dark-Hunter Series, Laurell K. Hamilton and the Anita Blake Series, Christine Feehan's Carpathian Series, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse Series, and Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum Series. (Damn, that's a lot of links).

Some of these shocked me. Tired of JR Ward? Perish the thought. The woman could sneeze on paper, have it published, and I'd probably spend hours trying to decipher the meaning of the water marks on the page. Likewise, I'm still deeply in love with Harris's Sookie series, and not just because of True Blood. I feel like the world Harris has built is just really starting to be explained. While I don't like the increasingly darkening mood the series has taken, I still consider it a must read.

I've never read any of the Anita Blake books. Same goes for the Carpathian novels and, from what I hear from Helena (and I trust her implicitly...where books are concerned), I'm not in a great hurry to break the binding of a Feehan novel anytime soon. I haven't read enough of Kenyon's Dark-Hunter series to pass fair judgment. As for Evanovich's Stephenie Plum series, I'm praying I stay interested. I only picked up this series (now 15 deep) about a week ago. I've finished the first two and I'm infatuated. It's quirky, it's smart, it's sassy, and it's completely relatable on a very basic woman-cursed-by-Murphey's-law type way.

Now, there are series that I'm ready to have "the talk" with. You know the talk, the one that begins with "It's not you, it's me..." and ends with me eating a pint of extra creamy mint chocolate chip ice cream and wishing I'd started the convo weeks (months, years) earlier.

Men and books. Both can lead you to mainline Häagen-Dazs.

Yes, that totally deserved its own link.

The first series on my list, and it pains me to say this, is Lynsay Sands' Argeneau Series. Looking back, we've had a rockier relationship than I'd like to admit, the Argeneau's and I. The first two books hooked me, they really did. The next few seemed a bit long, but only because the out of order sequencing and release of the titles lead to a great deal of repetition. At least that's what I told myself.

But things did get better for a while. The novels eventually straightened themselves out and the story lines started getting stronger. I had such high hopes. Then the nagging feeling that I'd read this all before started to settle in. The world is fascinating, like no other vampire world I've read before, but the main characters are all so similar. Still, the situations and world building of the series kept me interested...all the way to the ninth (and in my opinion strongest) book.

Vampire, Interrupted really is a worthwhile read. Unfortunately it is also the last worthwhile read in a series that has passed its prime. The last two installments, so forgettable I can't remember their titles and don't care enough to look them up, were a collection of recycled characters and themes so bland that I jumped ahead pages at a time just to make the reading go faster. Then, when I finally got to the end of the last, I realized I simply didn't care. I didn't like the main characters, I didn't feel any chemistry between them, and even though the story ended on a cliffhanger, I have no real interest in seeing the matter resolved. I've reached the end of the Argeneau series, whether the series continues or not.

You just aren't meeting my needs, Argeneaus. I'm sorry. I'll always look back on the good times.



So, what series do you think have passed their prime?

~Lily

A Cohesive Overview of the Season

I've been all about the True Blood info lately, huh? Well, I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon, because the more I see about the upcoming second season, the better and more enticing it looks.

HBO has been making promos left and right, the majority of which can be viewed in earlier entries of this blog. This video, however, is the first I've seen that really gives a tight, cohesive overview of the primary plotlines and characters that will be featured in the second season. This season, which is based off of Charlaine Harris's second Sookie Stackhouse novel, Living Dead in Dallas, seems to take as many liberties with the subject material as the first season did with Dead Until Dark. I only hope that all changes made will create better drama and heighten, rather than detract from, the appeal of Sookie Stakehouse and Bon Temps, Louisiana.




~Lily

Thoughts on True Blood

I've had a varied relationship with the HBO series True Blood. Since the premature cancellation of CBS's Moonlight, I've needed something vampire related gracing my television with at least semi-frequency. Enter True Blood, based off Charlaine Harris's delightful southern vampire series, also known as the Sookie Stackhouse series. Now, despite being a rural vampire tale told entirely in first person (a POV that generally turns me off within the first page), I love this series. I really do. I had just finished the first book in the series (Dead Until Dark) when the first season of True Blood premiered. If you are unfamiliar with the series, the first book supplies the plot for the first season - at least loosely.

As television series and movies are want to do, many liberties were taken with the original subject matter. The TV series was made darker and sexier, with far more subplots than the actual book accounts for. That makes sense. The book series is told all in first person. If Sookie doesn't know something the audience doesn't know it either. That's one of the limitations of first person; the reader sees the world through a single character's perception. The TV series has more flexibility. Actions can take place around Sookie without her knowledge, the audience privy to information Sookie lacks.

Despite this, certain aspects of the TV series bother me. Some changes are made seemingly without cause. Actions are changed. Character's are made weaker or more ignorant than they are meant to be. Characters are left out (HELLO, Bubba anyone?). Sookie just seems more needy and less independent. Like I said, parts of the series bother me Even so, I'm excited for season 2 because I'm hoping that as the series grows in popularity, it will be able to draw more information from the books that provide the original source material. Only time will tell.

The first season of True Blood goes on sale tomorrow. Incidently, its release date coincides with Helena Sparrow's birthday. Happy birthday, Helena :)



~ Lily

HBO's True Blood, Season 2

HBO has just released the trailer for the upcoming second season of hit series True Blood, based off the Southern Vampire Series (also known as the Sookie Stackhouse series) by Charlaine Harris.

The accompanying song is Bob Dylan's "Beyond Here Lies Nothing," and sets the mood perfectly for the trailer. Check it out.




~ Lily

Link to Dead and Gone Review

Looking for a great review of Charlaine Harris's newest book in the Southern Vampire (aka Sookie Stackhouse) series, Dead and Gone? Click here.

~ Lily