Inkeri's Books

Title: Dead Ever After

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-1-937-00788-1

Pages: 338

Date Started: February 3, 2015

Date Finished: February 9, 2015

Even though this book wasn't the best ever written (I didn't exactly expect it to be that either) it was a good ending to the whole Sookie Stackhouse story. I liked the ending and I wish all the best for Sookie and the guy she ended up with. I think they make a perfect couple.

Title: Deadlocked

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-575-09657-8

Pages: 327

Date Started: February 1, 2015

Date Finished: February 3, 2015

I'm sad to say it but I'm getting over my OTP of Sookie and Eric. I think Sookie could do so much better and I bet she has the same feeling. Eric is hiding too many things from Sookie and when a girl dies on Eric's front yard after giving Eric her blood, Sookie isn't sure if Eric is to blame or not.

In this book Sookie is in danger because everybody wants to steal this precious heirloom Sookies fairy grandfather gave her grandmother once. It's supposed to have great magic in it and everybody wants to have it because of it. Apparently this Cluvier Dor can even save lifes, but whose life would Sookie save?

Title: Dead Reckoning

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-02060-7

Pages: 325

Date Started: January 26, 2015

Date Finished: February 1, 2015

Sookie and Eric are still an item, but Eric is totally hiding things from Sookie who now lives with her two fairy cousins, Claude and Dermot. The cousins are up to no good and Sookie's life continues to be an adventure. 

Other than that this book wasn't much new. It made me feel a lot bored and it took me a while to get through with the book. Hopefully the next two won't disappoint me.

Title: Dead In The Family

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-575-08933-4

Pages: 311

Date Started: January 19, 2015

Date Finished: January 25, 2015

I thought Victor Madden would be the most annoying vampire around, but let me introduce you to Eric's maker, Appius Livius Ocella. Now, he's a real pain in the ass! Self-centered old brick who can't get around the fact that he has made a mistake in turning young Alexei into a vampire. 

I was pretty much annoyed throughout the whole book. I get more and more annoyed as I'm writing this review so I'm just gonna stop here.

Title: Dead And Gone

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-575-08551-0

Pages: 312

Date Started: January 18, 2015

Date Finished: January 19, 2015

As if Sookie didn't have enough enemies as it is she finds out that there are a bunch of faeries out to get her.

Eric tricks Sookie to marry himself in the vampire way and Sookie gets real pissed. I would get real pissed as well. As much as I like Eric and Sookie together I wish Eric would leave all the trickery aside and just confide in Sookie. That's all Sookie wants and needs too.

Title: From Dead To Worse

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01701-0

Pages: 303

Date Started: January 14, 2015

Date Finished: January 18, 2015

Everything seems to be falling apart for Sookie. Her boyfriend is missing and the last time she saw him, he was badly wounded. Her ex-lover finally remembers everything they did during the time of his memory-loss. Now he wants to discuss about it all with her, but she can't handle all that right now when all she wants is to hear from her boyfriend she can't find. To stir up the heat even more, there's the blood-bond they now share with the ex-lover and it doesn't make things easier for Sookie. To top even that Louisiana is being taken over by a new king-vampire and Sookie isn't sure if she has anything of value to the new regime.

Speaking of the new regime, the second in command is a pain in the butt and everyone wants him dead. I think even the king himself wants him dead. The guy is so annoying that it makes all of the book to be pretty annoying.

However, the most annoying thing in the whole book in my book is the way Quinn is acting towards Sookie. So what if Eric tricked Sookie to drink his blood at the summit in the previous book which resulted them to have the blood-bond? He was the lesser of two evils and Quinn, being supernatural and everything, should have understand that. I just think it's the most stupidest reason for Quinn to dump Sookie even though I definitely think them breaking up is the right thing to do, (because I want Sookie and Eric together). I just wish Harris would have been more creative with it.

Let's move on to the next one... 

Title: All Together Dead

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01581-8

Pages: 323

Date Started: January 11, 2015

Date Finished: January 13, 2015

I like it when all the vampires gather around in big numbers. Like, in this book they have this huge summit and all the vampires get together and have fun. It's almost like when humans have class reunions or any sort of convention.

There's always drama of course. Especially for Sookie. There are many of her boyfriends around: an ex-boyfriend, current boyfriend and one who wants to be the boyfriend. There's other telepaths, explosions and betrayal happening as well. Everything is very exciting!

Another good book in the series. Let's hope the next one is a good one as well!

Title: Definitely Dead

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01491-0

Pages: 324

Date Started: January 10, 2015

Date Finished: January 11, 2015

If you've never read the short story by Charlaine Harris featured in the book Bite, you might be as confused as everyone else seems to be, and that includes me. The short story is a prequel to this book and it explains a few holes at the beginning of the book. You will get the hang of the story in this book even if you don't read the short story, but be warned; You'll feel like as if you've missed a book.

I liked this book a lot more than the previous one. It introduces new characters that are exciting and interesting. Sookie meets some of the vampire royalty and gains a new friend in a witch.

The witch, Amelia, is definitely my kind of girl. She's so bubbly and alive that it makes an awesome contrast to all the dead vampires surrounding Sookie. I wish she sticks around for a long time

Title: Dead as a Doornail

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01333-3

Pages: 295

Date Started: January 8, 2015

Date Finished: January 10, 2015

If the fourth book of the series was the best of the bunch then this must be the worst. There was pretty much nothing new in it and it didn't let me know anything new aout the characters. Nothing truly important anyway. 

I feel Harris could have left this book unwritten and put the few things important to the continuum of the story in the books preceding and following this one. I have nothing more to say about it. It was a boring filler and I could have lived without it.

Visit Charlaine Harris' official site to find out what else she has written.

Title: Dead to the World

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01218-3

Pages: 291

Date Started: January 6, 2015

Date Finished: January 8, 2015

I could review this book using just five words

Eric, Sookie, sex, steamy, awesome.

(show spoiler)

But I'll try to give you more than that.

This the best book of the series so far, and if I recall correctly, this is the best book of the whole series, but I'm not confident enough to give it full five stars, so it gets four and a half.

This book is awesome for the lack of Bill (he's off to Peru) and for the very existence or Eric Northman. This book is sexy as hell and I love every kinky bit of it.

Eric has lost his memory and Sookie finds him trotting up Hummingbird Road half naked. Eventually the best thing for Eric is to stay with Sookie for a while, because that would be the last place the witches would look him from. I have absolutely nothing against Eric staying over in the state that his in; he's sweeter, more thoughtful, considerate and just lovely. Everything he usually is not and Sookie can't resist him.

This book is the prefect combination of steamy sex and bloody action for a girl like me. I think I might keep this book real close to my bedside from now on for having something nice to read on the nights when the husband is away. 

This book had two storylines as had the previous ones, but this time they were both really good and well written storylines.

On the other storyline Sookie's brother, Jason, is missing and at first she thinks it's related to the witches who cursed Eric. There's no trace of him except a bloody pawprint on the dock by his house. Pawprint? Yes. Of a panther.

It's a good book! If you only read one book of this series, let it be this one. You won't be disappointed!

Visit Charlaine Harris' official site to find out what else she has written.

Title: Club Dead

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01051-6

Pages: 292

Date Started: January 5, 2015

Date Finished: January 6, 2015

I was surprised I had rated this just three stars four years ago because this time around I thought I would almost give if five stars, but I settled for four. It really wasn't an amazing "best book ever" sort of book, but I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if it's worth four stars, but that's how felt right after I had finished the book. :)

Let me go through the reasons why I deducted the one star:

1. Bill. Well "duh", he's boring.

2. Sookie

1. Being sookie. She's very annoying!
2. To her, rape is OK (it's not! Never!!!) because he couldn't help it because he's a vampire and he was hungry and tortured, and he didn't know it was her. What if it was someone else!?
3. She saying things such as:

Somehow, it had never crossed my mind—I guess since I'm an American—that the vampires who had snatched Bill might be resorting to evil means to get him to talk

 

D. Being Sookie. She's extremely annoying!

Reasons I thought the book was awesome:

1. Bill and Sookie breaking up.

2. Eric almost having her way with Sookie.

3. Alcide Herveaux

One other thing I can't get over my head with Sookie is what she counts as being OK just because someone is a vampire and what she doesn't count as OK despite that you're a vampire. Like, it's not OK for Bill to go after the Fellowship of the Sun members who brutally attacked a large group of his fellow vampires who he cared about even though it was his natural instinct and he couldn't help it (Book 2), (while Sookie herself was smooching with Eric the Hunk).

However it is OK that Bill almost drains her and pretty much rapes her because that is his natural instinct as a vampire and he couldn't help himself.

But then on the other hand when his maker, Lorena, calls she judges him as cheater without realising that when his maker calls, he actually has to go, because that's how vampires work.

Why is Sookie so frustratingly annoying!?

Visit Charlaine Harris' official site to find out what else she has written.

Title: Living Dead in Dallas

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01824-6

Pages: 291

Date Started: January 3, 2015

Date Finished: January 4, 2015

The second book of the series was a huge disappointment! I had given it four stars out five the last time I read it, but now I only gave it two and a half.

The story itself was quite boring. The main plot was average and it made me want to finish the book, but the secondary plot with people of Bon Temps having orgies for a maenad was just too gory. And a bunch of people died in a disgusting way and no one ever talks about them again )I'm actually reading the sixth book already while I'm writing this review and I just realized that no one ever mentions them again. Doesn't the other people in the small town wonder what happened to them, or didn't they die at all...).

I liked the idea of the Fellowship of the sun in a way. It was cool of Harris to come up with that sort of drastic group of humans who were so much against the vampires. Other then that the book was just big old "Blah"!

I started to dislike Bill even more than I previously had (I mean from the time I read the books the last time. I liked Bill just fine in the first book). Bill is perhaps the most boring character ever. He's like one of those men who doesn't know how to cope unless he has someone (a woman or a master) to tell him what he should do next.

I started loving Eric with more passion than ever before. Everything that wasn't boring in the book involved Eric Northman. He's one cheeky giant heartthrob and I love him! If you love him too, just wait til you get to book four!

Visit Charlaine Harris' official site to find out what else she has written.

Title: Dead Until Dark

Author: Charlaine Harris

ISBN: 978-0-441-01699-0

Pages: 292

Date Started: January 2, 2015

Date Finished: January 3, 2015

Dead Until Dark is the first book of thirteen that tells the story of how the small town waitress, Sookie Stackhouse, had her life flipped upside down by vampire Bill.

Sookie lives in a small town called Bon Temps and no vampire has crossed her path during the two years they've been out of the coffin, (so to speak). Sookie works as a waitress in the Merlotte's Bar and knows a lot more about the patrons than she would like. Sookie has a rare talent; she's telepathic and can hear everything everyone is thinking. She can hardly contain herself on the day a vampire finally walks in to the bar. If she only knew what Vampire Bill had in store for her, but Bill was something whose thoughts she couldn't hear.

Bill takes her for a ride of her life, but then the murders start happening. Sookie has a good reason to fear for her life.

I knew immediately what he was. It amazed me when no one else turned around to stare. They couldn't tell! But to me, his skin had a little glow, and I just knew.

(quote from the book)

 

This is the third time I'm reading the books from the beginning. I first read them maybe eight years ago and re-read then in 2011 when I needed to remind myself of what had been happening before I read the newly released book. Even though the last of the fourteen books was released in 2013 I still haven't read it, which is why I need to remind myself of the story-so-far again.

The main character of the book is Sookie Stackhouse. She's described as pretty, dainty, breasty and blonde. She works as a waitress and she likes to bathe in the sun. From this description you might think she's also dumb as a tree bark but I'm happy to tell you that you'd be wrong. Sookie is one of favorite characters of all time because of this. Even though she might look like the main character of Clueless, she's a lot smarter and much more self-reliant than that. She knows how to stick up for herself, both verbally and physically. 

Sookie's rare telepathic talent gives her some advantage. If she chooses to listen in other people's thoughts she would know what not to say and how better to act in those situations. Regardless of that though, she hates her talent, because most of the time it's really hard to block all the thoughts and it's not fun to hear things you're not supposed to.

Then one fine day, in swoops vampire Bill to ease the cacophony of thoughts in her brain. She can't hear a thing he's thinking and she's thrilled to finally have met a guy she's been wanting to meet all her life. Dream guy or not, dating a vampire could get dangerous, (you being considered as food every now and then) and then there's the age difference (of a hundred years or so) of course, it's not that easy dating a guy whose dating habits are from the 1850's. The murders of other waitresses associated with vampires doesn't make it any easier either. Don't even let me get started on how the vampire pecking order could severely damage the relationship.

Even though Sookie is one of my favorite characters she can be a little annoying as well. When it comes to relationships she can be a little naive which is probably due to the lack of them for her. Because of the telepathy (even though she claims she hates the ability) she has probably grown accustomed to be able to know what other people are thinking and somehow subconsciously expects to know Bill's thoughts as well. What frustrated me the most was why she couldn't just ask him when something was bothering her, but instead made her own conclusions. (And now as I'm writing this review I recall that this get's even worse in the upcoming books)

I liked the book a lot. I like the way Charlaine Harris writes and tells a story. It's easy to read and the story is surprising. From time to time there's too many things happening at the same time though, and then it gets messy and I find it hard it follow. I find myself thinking "When did she/he get there? Wasn't she/he just sitting on the couch and she's outside? What just happened?", but it could just be me and my lack of concentration.

I generally enjoy reading general fiction novels and mysetries, but I like to venture to fantasy books every now and then. The Sookie Stackhouse novels are my favorite vampire-related series and I'm sure I'll re-read the book and the whole series again someday. I might grow out of the series at some point, but until then I'll make sure to read them as many times as possible.

Visit Charlaine Harris' official site to find out what else she has written.

Hi everyone!

My name is Inkeri and I'm a 30-something-year-old woman from Finland. I registered on Booklikes about one or two years ago, but I haven't really utilized it yet. Now that a new year has begun I thought I'd make something out of it and start posting my reviews on here.

A disclaimer of my reviews is in order: I'm not a reviewer! I don't really analyse the books I read as deeply as a review might expect, so when I'm reviewing a book, I'm more likely to be sharing my general thoughts than digging too deep into the depths of the said book. So in case if you're looking for a structured analytically deep review of a book, please go somewhere else, or be disappointed.

The main and the most important reason I wanted to start posting my reviews here on Booklikes is the fifty-fifty challenge. I've been trying to complete the challenge for three years now. This is my fourth try and I'm more than determined to finish it this year. I wanted to have a completely new (well, new for me) platform to be able to sort of start from scratch.

What is a fifty-fifty challenge you might ask?

It's a challenge to read 50 books and watch 50 movies in a year. I know some people read hundreds of books a year (I personally think they're a bit cuckoo... ;) ) but I can hardly finish 20 a year, and I think of myself as an avid reader. :D

What I've learned from the past tries to complete this challenge, I need to read short, fun and easy to read books. I'm glad the challenge allows re-reads, because I'm planning to do a couple of those, such as the Harry Potter series and the Sookie Stackhouse novels, because I know I'll be able to read them pretty fast.

I've also signed myself up for Sock Poppet's 2015 Read-By-the-Month Reading Challenge, because it just seemed like a fun thing to do.

I'm also a member on Goodreads, if you're intrigued, you can check out from my Gooreards profile what I've read in the past and see what else I've planned to read sometime in the future. I will be updating my books on Goodreads as well as here.

Even though I might sometime mistakenly think of myself as shy I'm a pretty outgoing person and some people have told me that I'm an extrovert and the most positive person they've ever met, so don't be afraid to say hi!