The continuing story of Sookie Stackhouse and her complicated romantic life, surrounded by supernatural creatures. This book features the introduction of Sookie's great-great grandfather, a Were War, a Vampire skirmish, and infidelity. Enjoyable, with a momentum of its own, I was disappointed for this book to end. ( )

Bravo, Ms. Harris! Thank you for getting your book properly edited. This book was surprisingly polished, and I didn't have to stop once to re-read a sentence over and over to understand its meaning. Fantastic!*MINOR SPOILERS (mostly review of plot)*With this book, Harris is back on track producing another captivating story. Although not the best in the series, this book is a definite improvement over the last one. There are wars, restructuring of power, newly discovered relatives, and the best part for me: Eric's recovered memory. I'm slightly disappointed with what Harris has done with Alcide. He was one of my favorite characters and I had hoped his role would have played out differently. However, her direction with Eric more than makes up for it. I'm eager to see what happens now that Eric remembers everything.I couldn't help laughing out loud when Sookie, while trying to help Sam, says, "....Priscilla didn't want to let go of Sam, so she flung herself from side to side to knock me loose. But I was clinging to her like a homicidal monkey."(p.160) Homicidal monkey! Awesome visual. Sam was amazing in the Were War. I love Sam. There just isn't enough of him in the books, but he always manages to show up in time to be Sookie's hero.Even though this book resolved several issues and answered many questions, it seems to have laid the foundation for many more questions to be answered in future books. But not in an unsettling way. More like a "oh wow, I wonder what's going to happen next" kind of way. I especially enjoyed the ending and cannot wait to read the next book! ( )

The good thing I noticed about this series is how Charlaine Harris adds up all the characters until you don't know who was who anymore, then she kills them. Probably because they're not needed in the further advancement of the story anymore, she adds new ones and they're quite interesting. The characters show up every now and then and the reason I gave this a four because there's not much Eric in here.So, Sookie and Quinn broke up, no news there, didn't like him for her anyway. I tried to put myself in her shoes and though it might be a selfish reason, I'd do the same if I were her because she's thinking of terms in the long run. This is the 8th in this series but this is the first time I could honestly say that I like her character a lot. She has greatly developed, she's not too naive anymore, she's open-minded about everything and though she gets irritated easily by vampires being themselves, she still looked at two sides of the coin.Bill was again trying to redeem himself, it was gallant of him but it's great Sookie didn't fall for it, whether his intentions were really good; and this is the best part, Eric remembered! I was so glad he remembered their time together in "Dead to the World". I liked how he called Sookie his lover again, and the way he made up for things. It appeased Sookie somewhat, but at least he still made an effort.And for the a-hole list there's Jason and Alcide (I still didn't like him even when he was being courteous). There were some characters that I never really liked, and never really developed and Crystal was one of them. Calvin was honorable as a man/werepanther could get.I'm still looking forward to reading book 9 (Dead and Gone), and I'm sure there'll be more books. Another thing that makes this series different from the others is change. Not everything is happy, Harris blended facts and fiction in these books and her writing's very concise. They never dragged and not only do I find escapism in reading her Sookie Stackhouse works, I find everyday realism too. ( )

Longer than the last couple of books, better in some ways, it had multiple story lines. Sookie generally has one major issue to work through, this time she had half a dozen or so & it made the book feel a bit unfocused. Not bad & I'm glad I read it. It's fun, fluffy candy reading - very relaxing & enjoyable. It should certainly be read in order with the rest of the series. ( )

You all know how I feel about this series. I have been drawn to it from the very beginning. Shapeshifters, vampires, witches, fairies, telepaths - seriously, what's not to like? So, when I decided to read the eighth book of the series for the RIP Challenge, I couldn't wait to get started.

The book started out promisingly. Ms. Harris inserts plenty of action and suspense to keep the reader turning the pages. Unfortunately, it fizzles out halfway through the book. She resolves the issues fairly early in the book. Either that, or I just wasn't feeling it this time. I didn't fear for Sookie's life as much as I probably should have.

Given how this book ends, I'm concerned what else could be in store for Sookie. Every guy she finds ends up hurting her in some way. Why? Can't she get a happy ending? Or is Ms. Harris trying to tell us that we do not need a man to be happy? I'm not quite certain I buy this argument because Sookie is not happy. She wants to get married and have a family; after eight books, I'm ready for her to be happy. She definitely deserves it.

I found it difficult to truly immerse myself in this book. I feel like it was too easy for me to read while distracted and still follow the book. My ability to lose myself in these books is exactly why I like the series, so the fact that I couldn't do it with this one left me very disappointed.



I would recommend this to anyone who is in love with the series, but this is definitely not a book you can pick up and expect to understand what is happening. Ms. Harris definitely builds upon each book, and I found that she draws all seven books for this one.

I'm curious - was anyone as disappointed with it as I was? What are your thoughts? ( )