Review: DEAD IN THE FAMILY

Dead In The Family by Charlaine Harris
Read by Johanna Parker
Book 10 of the Sookie Stackhouse series
Format: audiobook
Genre: adult urban fantasy

About Dead In The Family:

After enduring torture and the loss of loved ones during the brief but deadly Faery War, Sookie Stackhouse is hurt and she's angry. Just about the only bright spot in her life is the love she thinks she feels for vampire Eric Northman. But he's under scrutiny by the new Vampire King because of their relationship. And as the political implications of the Shifters coming out are beginning to be felt, Sookie's connection to the Shreveport pack draws her into the debate. Worst of all, though the door to Faery has been closed, there are still some Fae on the human side-and one of them is angry at Sookie. Very, very angry...

Source: Info in the About Dead In The Family was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7091488-dead-in-the-family on 20/09/2011.

My Thoughts:

I think this is my favouritest book in the series so far. Sookie is still stupid but her TSTL is at a minimum and the plot's drama did not rely on Sookie acting stupid so that the heroes could save the world. The plot actually have depth which I appreciated! In this book we get to meet Alexei Romanov. The plot was nicely fitted into known history which I think historical people would find mighty interesting! This is also the book with the most coherent story structure out of the entire series. There is a beginning, a central dilemma and an ending which addressed the central dilemma. I think Miss Harris is actually improving in her writing style and as a reader, I appreciate that wholeheartedly! Dead In The Family being book 10 in the series, I don't think that this book is meant to be read on it's own. Too many events and characters make references to previous books, in which case if read as a stand alone, the reader would not fully appreciate the story and the intricate beauty of the world building.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story Telling Quality = 4.5
World Building = 5
Character Development = 4
Plot = 4
Pace = N/A (9 hours & 22 mins)
Story Itself = 4.5
Ending = 4
Narration = 4

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Books In The Sookie Stackhouse series:

WW28: PAX OMEGA

WW28
A chance to showcase your favourite!

• First you grab our Wicked Wednesday pic.
• Then you grab a book. Turn to page 28. Take the first sentence. And then you post it in your site with a link back to WW28.
• Come back to Cherry Mischievous - WW28 and give us the url of your post (in a comment at a WW28 post) so that other WW28 readers can find your WW28 offering.

WW28 book offering: Pax Omega by Al Ewing

Oh, yes. We need creatures to take this hypothetical device of Soran's - which we will mass-produce - and kill the lizards with it.

A heinous plan hatching or that which saves the world?

About Pax Omega:

Doc Thunder's last stand against a deadly foe whose true identity will shock you to your core El Sombra's final battle against the forces of the Ultimate Reich The Locomotive Man in a showdown with cosmic science on the prairies of the Old West Jackson Steele defends the "25th Century" against the massed armies of the Space Satan A duel of minds in the mystery palaces of One Million AD Blazing steam-pulp sci-fi the way you crave it From the Big Bang to the End Of Time - eleven tales from "Pax Britannia"'s past, present and distant future combine into one star-spanning saga set to shake the universe to its foundations - or destroy it.

Source: Info in the About Pax Omega was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14570959-pax-omega on 19/07/2012.

Review: THE SOUL MIRROR

The Soul Mirror by Carol Berg
Read by Angele Masters
Book 2 of The Soul Mirror (Collegia Magica, #2) series
Genre: renaissance, fantasy, murder mystery, investigative suspense
Format: paperback, unabridged audiobook

About The Soul Mirror:

By order of His Royal Majesty Philippe de Savin-Journia y Sabria, Anne de Vernase is hereby summoned to attend His Majesty's Court at Merona...

Anne de Vernase rejoices that she has no talent for magic. Her father's pursuit of depraved sorcery has left her family in ruins, and he remains at large, convicted of treason and murder by Anne's own testimony. Now, the tutors at Collegia Seravain inform her that her gifted younger sister has died in a magical accident. It seems but life's final mockery that cool, distant Portier de Savin-Duplais, the librarian turned royal prosecutor, arrives with the news that the king intends to barter her hand in marriage.

Anne recognizes that the summoning carries implications far beyond a bleak personal future - and they are all about magic. Merona, the royal city, is beset by plagues of rats and birds, and mysterious sinkholes that swallow light and collapse buildings. Whispers of hauntings and illicit necromancy swirl about the queen's volatile sorcerer. And a murder in the queen's inner circle convinces Anne that her sister's death was no accident. With no one to trust but a friend she cannot see, Anne takes up her sister's magical puzzle, plunging into the midst of a centuries-old rivalry and coming face-to-face with the most dangerous sorcerer in Sabria. His name is Dante.

Source: Info in the About The Soul Mirror was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8626348-the-soul-mirror on 21/08/2012.

Review:

Angele Masters' voice is not as soothing to my ears as Therese Plummer's is. Nor as appealing as Alyssa Bresnahan. Plus I like it when the same narrator reads the books in the same series. I'm anal that way. Angele Masters also have the tendency to read "happy" lines and "excited" lines in a flat and monotonous voice at times. I am guessing this happens when she is already tired as this does not happen all the time. But still quite apparent to my reader's ears. And quite irritating. The change in POV from Portier de Savin-Duplais in Book 1 to Anne de Vernase in this book (Book 2) also took a little getting used to.

Maybe I've been listening to this series long enough that I now appreciated the intricacies of the world of Collegia Magica. Or more likely, the author just spins a beautiful world for us. Either way, I think the world building is even more beautiful with this book than it was with Book 1. And unlike the Lighthouse series, this book actually has a well-structured story with a beginning, a central dilemma and a resolution in the ending at the same time as fitting into the main story arc of the series. That, earned a lot of brownie points with me!! As if that is not enough to add to the goodness of this book, the plot is so twisty it threw me surprises where I never expected it! There were tiny holes in the plot but I choose to ignore those for the reading pleasure that this book gave me! And thank you to Me And Reading for hosting a blog contest and making it possible for me to win a copy of The Daemon Prism (Book 3)! A huge thanks to Me And Reading!!

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 4.5
Character development = 4.5
Story itself = 4.5
Ending = 4
World building = 5
Cover art = 4
Pace = (18-hour listening time)
Plot = 4.5
Narrator = 3

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries

Review: WICKED BUSINESS

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich
Book 2 of The Unmentionables series
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: hardback

About Wicked Business:

When Harvard University English professor and dyed-in-the-wool romantic Gilbert Reedy is mysteriously murdered and thrown off his fourth-floor balcony, Lizzy and Diesel take up his twenty-year quest for the Luxuria Stone, an ancient relic believed by some to be infused with the power of lust. Following clues contained in a cryptic nineteenth-century book of sonnets, Lizzy and Diesel tear through Boston catacombs, government buildings, and multimillion-dollar residences, leaving a trail of robbed graves, public disturbances, and spontaneous seduction.

Source: Info in the About Wicked Business was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12275680-wicked-business on 22/09/2012.

Review:

I had the same dilemma with this book that I experienced with Book 1, it took me forever to read this book. The review copy (hardback) was sent to me months and months ago and I could never finish it. But I keep re-picking it up because I feel guilty that somebody made the effort of sending me this book and I hadn't read it. But I finally finished it. As you can see this book is not that fast-paced for me. Another downer for me about this series is that the main protagonist, Lizzy, is just this side of stupid. However, she is painted as a baker and not as a kick-ass ninja so being too stupid to live is something that might be expected of her character. Still annoyed me a little though... Book 1 saw Lizzy and Diesel chase around for the first stone of power. This book picks up where Book 1 left off and this time around it's for the second stone of power, the Luxuria Stone. This brown stone image here is how I imagine the Luxuria Stone looks like as describe by the book. There are supposedly seven stones of power. I am starting to worry that the entire series might be monotonously like this with seven books. Because judging by the first two books thus far, it is feeling like it is going to be like that... Wicked Business is exactly like Wicked Appetite with the only difference is that the stones they are running after are stones one and two respectively. So I think I'm going to stop reading this series for now and just wait for the seventh book to get released before picking it back up again then I can read them one right after the other until the finale of the series.

Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 3.5
Character development = 3.5
Story itself = 3.5
Ending = 3.5
World building = 3.5
Cover art = 4.5
Pace = 2
Plot = 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

Thank you to Headline Publishing for the review copy of Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich received.

FTC Disclosure:
No money received for this review.