Dead Ever After

Southern Vampire series #13: Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris

From Amazon:


THE FINAL SOOKIE STACKHOUSE NOVEL 

There are secrets in the town of Bon Temps, ones that threaten those closest to Sookie—and could destroy her heart....

Sookie Stackhouse  finds it easy to turn down the request of former barmaid Arlene when she wants her job back at Merlotte’s. After all, Arlene tried to have Sookie killed. But her relationship with Eric Northman is not so clear cut. He and his vampires are keeping their distance…and a cold silence. And when Sookie learns the reason why, she is devastated.

Then a shocking murder rocks Bon Temps, and Sookie is arrested for the crime.

But the evidence against Sookie is weak, and she makes bail. Investigating the killing, she’ll learn that what passes for truth in Bon Temps is only a convenient lie. What passes for justice is more spilled blood. And what passes for love is never enough…

My Review:

I usually dislike series that go on and on and on, but in this case, I'm sorry to see it end. This series was my first introduction to paranormal light reading and I was hooked on the first book. Sookie's life didn't turn out like I expected, but life usually doesn't. I am glad there is a bit of closure with all Bon Temps main characters. I know there is a real closure book planned for later this year for more of the characters and I am glad. 

I wish the TV shows hadn't strayed so far from the original story line (except where Lafayette is concerned - I love that character, lol). The books were good material to start with and there was no need to change so much, but it's HBO, whose motto seems to bring on the shocking nasty. I've just about quit watching or caring that the series was supposedly based on the book series.

Finding Colin Firth

Finding Colin Firth by Mia March

From the Publisher:  

After losing her job and leaving the husband she dearly loves, twenty-nine-year-old journalist Gemma Hendricks is desperate to save her career by scoring an interview with Colin Firth. But a much more localstory steals her heart—and just may save her rocky marriage too. Thirty-eight-year-old waitress Veronica Russo, shocked by the unannounced arrival of the daughter she gave up for adoption two decades ago, becomes an extra on the movie set, wondering if happy endings—and a real life Mr. Darcy—are even possible. Twenty-two-year-old student Bea Crane, alone and adrift, longs to connect with Veronica, her birth mother, but she’ll discover more than she ever imagined in this coastal Maine town. And just when they least expect it in a summer full of surprises, all three women may find what they’re looking for most of all…

My Review:

I received this as an Advanced Readers Copy from the publisher. I read about a fourth of the book and ran back to the room with my DVDs and gathered all my Colin Firth movies. I've spent all this weekend reading this book and watching his movies. Loved this book! (and loved the movies, lol)

Pampered Pets

Pampered Pet series #1-3 by Sparkle Abbey

From Barnes & Noble, Book #1:

When Caro Lamont, former psychologist turned pet therapist makes a house call to help Kevin Blackstone with his two misbehaving German Shepherd dogs, she expects frantic dogs, she expects a frantic dog owner, she even expects frantic neighbors. What she doesn't expect is that two hours later the police will find Kevin dead, his dogs impounded; and that as the last person to see Kevin alive (well, except for the killer) she is suddenly a person of interest, at least according to Homicide Detective Judd Malone. 

Sparkle Abbey is a pseudonym for two friends, Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter, who like to write books together. Sparkle is Mary Lee's cat and Abbey is Anita's dog. 

My review:

I read a LOT of books in March. 37 to be exact. Being off work all month, plus surgery recovery left a lot of time for reading. This series was one of the highlights. For some reason, I just wanted to read cozy mysteries and these fit the bill beautifully. Great series. I hope to read about more "Pampered Pets" soon.

Jane Jameson

The Jane Jameson series #1-4 by Molly Harper

Unabridged audio, Read by Amanda Ronconi

From Barnes & Noble, Book #1

Maybe it was the Shenanigans gift certificate that put her over the edge. When children's librarian and self-professed nice girl Jane Jameson is fired by her beastly boss and handed twenty-five dollars in potato skins instead of a severance check, she goes on a bender that's sure to become Half Moon Hollow legend. On her way home, she's mistaken for a deer, shot, and left for dead. And thanks to the mysterious stranger she met while chugging neon-colored cocktails, she wakes up with a decidedly unladylike thirst for blood.

Jane is now the latest recipient of a gift basket from the Newly Undead Welcoming Committee, and her life-after-lifestyle is taking some getting used to. Her recently deceased favorite aunt is now her ghostly roommate. She has to fake breathing and endure daytime hours to avoid coming out of the coffin to her family. She's forced to forgo her favorite down-home Southern cooking for bags of O negative. Her relationship with her sexy, mercurial vampire sire keeps running hot and cold. And if all that wasn't enough, it looks like someone in Half Moon Hollow is trying to frame her for a series of vampire murders. What's a nice undead girl to do?

My review: 

These books are some serious FUN! I now want to go read all the other books Molly Harper has written. 

Brownies & Broomsticks

Brownies & Broomsticks by Bailey Cates

From Barnes & Noble:

EASY BAKE COVEN

Katie Lightfoot's tired of loafing around as the assistant manager of an Ohio bakery. So when her aunt Lucy and uncle Ben open a bakery in Savannah's quaint downtown district and ask Katie to join them, she enthusiastically agrees.

While working at the Honeybee Bakery—named after Lucy's cat—Katie notices that her aunt is adding mysterious herbs to her recipes. Turns out these herbal enhancements aren't just tasty—Aunt Lucy is a witch and her recipes are actually spells!

When a curmudgeonly customer is murdered outside the Honeybee Bakery, Uncle Ben becomes the prime suspect. With the help of handsome journalist Steve Dawes, charming firefighter Declan McCarthy, and a few spells, Katie and Aunt Lucy stir up some toil and trouble to clear Ben's name and find the real killer..

My review:

Great start to a new series! I can't wait to read more about Kate and her Bakery.

Wool

Wool Omibus by Hugh Howey

From Barnes & Noble:  

In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.

His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.

My Review:
Extremely good read. I got the first part as a freebe from Amazon. I soon purchased omibus and kept reading till the end. Originally, this was highly recommended from WSS4 on BookObsessed and I'm glad she told me about it.

Die Snow White Die Damn You!

Die Snow White! Die Damn You! by Yuri Rasovsky, Unabridged audiobook, Read by a full Cast

From Amazon:  

With the premiere of two new film versions of the Snow White tale, Blackstone enters the fray with its own adult, edgy, and not altogether serious full-cast expose of fairy-taledom. At last it can be told! Was Snow White really as pure as the driven snow? Did her allegedly wicked stepmother get a bum rap from the Grimm brothers? What went on behind the closed Dutch doors of the dwarves' cottage? How many handsome princes does it take to screw in a light bulb? These and other burning questions may or may not be answered in this new pseudogothic audio play that Blackstone commissioned from award-winning author and audio dramatist Yuri Rasovsky.

My Review:
Extremely funny! I would love to see more fairy tales retold as adult novels.