Catching up with series books, part two...

All Together Dead is the seventh book in Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series, featuring telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse. I enjoy this series quite a bit. I like the tone and the main character,so different than the sometimes manufactured "edgy" "urban" "attitude" (blah, blah, blah) of so many other vampire series. In the further adventures of Sookie and friends, we have now finally reached the vampire summit hinted at in the last two books. Sookie is being paid to be there by the Vampire Queen of Louisiana to act as a sort of human lie-detector. Eric Northmann, the vampire sheriff who shares a complex relationship with Sookie (Eric+Sookie 4eva!) will be there, as will asshole vampire ex Bill, and current beau, the weretiger Quinn (Billy Zane, get outta my head!). Most of Sookie's friends and family are very unhappy with her increasing involvement in the Vampire world. But she's getting paid quite a bit of money, and the girl needs it. Yet again, Sookie is going to find herself up to her armpits in dead bodies, deceit, plotting, general vampire weirdness, and males of various species trying to get with her.


I enjoyed this one more than the previous couple of books, I think because it was more focused on the vampires (Surprise, Surprise!) I just like her vampires, some of whom are big, muscular and gorgeous, and others who are short and dorky, or have names like Cindy Lou or Jodi or Fred. They're pretty dangerous and not very pleasant, for the most part, with values and social mores quite different from humans. In the previous book, Harris thinned the herd of Sookie's suitors somewhat. I appreciated the increased focus on Sookie's involvement with the vampire world, rather than on Sookie's love life. It's pretty much down to Quinn and Eric. I'm stumping for Eric, and there were some interesting developments in their relationship. This one was full of plot and world building, and the insight into the strained relationship between the vamps and humans was interesting. I felt that the villains and some of the events were highly foreshadowed, which made the characters seem a little slow. But the story kept my interest very well. I'm not as invested in this series as I am in others, which is good, because one can only be psycho about so many fictional characters. So I'm willing to see where Harris takes Sookie without sweating it all that much either way. Her journey has been a fun one so far. A B for this one.

Right now I'm reading No Rest for the Wicked by Kresley Cole. So far, so good. After that, I'm gonna hit Dark Need by Lynn Viehl, another Darkyn book. The latter has one of my least favorite paranormal romance premises: the new love as a reincarnation of a long lost love, so I'm a bit apprehensive.