Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris

Telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse has her share of problems  from her sweet but mildly idiotic brother to the vampires that have started residing in her town.  While most of the residents of Bon Temps, Louisiana just think her a little strange she spends her days reading the thoughts of others and trying not to be killed.

Harris mixes mystery, romance, science fiction and just a dash of gore into a simply mind-numbing read.  Sometimes her writing can be a little flat but overall it hits just the right chord of guilty pleasure and day time tele-drama.  This explains why the HBO series TrueBlood (based on the novels) has been so wildly popular.

Personally, I was glad it didn't veer to much into romance novel territory.  Call it my prudish Amish upbringing or something like that, but I just don't care for sex books.  This year for my bday, Chelsea sent me the box set of these books and I am just now getting around to them.

Book One: "Dead Until Dark"
published in 2001 by Ace Books

Sookie is introduced to the new resident vampire Bill and as she falls in love with him she must protect her friends and family from a killer on the loose in their town.  If you have ever watched the HBO Series, this is almost identical to the pilot episode, which is pretty cool.


Book Two: "Living Dead in Dallas"
published in 2002 by Ace Books

Sookie and Bill are required to help the Dallas area vampires find a missing Vampire, Sookie's friend gets killed, there's a cult, there's a maenad, there's an orgy.  Book two was kind of all over the place and hectic.  It could have been three books.  Not as good as the first.  Also, rereading sentences like "I may be pretty but I'm also smart. . ." don't really give me a lot of faith in her smarts.  That's like saying "I'm really smart and everyone likes me a lot."  If you have to state it publicly, it's probably not true.