Club Dead takes Sookie outside of Bon Temps and into Jackson, Mississippi where she is in search of Bill, who has gone missing while working on a vital and mysterious mission for the vampire Queen of Louisiana.

I haven’t ever been a huge fan of the Sookie Stackhouse books and so it has taken me a good three years to get through the first three books. But my main problem with them has always been the relationship between Bill and Sookie, which has always seemed very cardboard and boring. So right off the bat the thing I loved most about this book was that it allowed Sookie to stand apart from Bill and has virtually no Bill in sight for the majority of the book — which I liked.

I think that Sookie is actually a better character when she’s not around Bill. She has spunk and “moxy” I guess you could say. She’s not too scared of the things thrown at her and even if she is scared, she’s good at hiding it and pushing through to get whatever needs to get done done. So I liked that we got to know this side of Sookie and that the books seem to be going away from being just about Bill and Sookie’s relationship.

But as a fan of the TV show True Blood it’s hard not to compare the two. While the show doesn’t follow the books to the letter, it does have the same core characters and overall story. Comparing the books to the TV show makes it very hard to like the books as much because the TV show is miles better, which is a rare thing with books hitting the big or small screen. But in this case it’s true. The characters translate better to the TV show and it’s nice to step outside of Sookie’s head and see other stories going on from Jason, Tara (who is much different on the show), and the other side characters. In the books we only get Sookie’s perspective, which is quite restricting in such a big and vivid world that Charlaine Harris has created.

Even so I will continue the books if for nothing else than because I miss the world while the show is on break and so even though it’s different than True Blood, it’s cool to be back in this world for a little while. I hope that in the upcoming books there’s more Eric and even Alcide, but less Bill and I also hope she brings back some of the mystery that was more present in the first two books and not-so-much there in this one because Harris is really good at that part of the story.

The Dream Hunter is Kenyon’s first formal introduction to the Dream-Hunters (also known as the Oneroi and the Skoti) within the world of the Dark-Hunters. Although we have met and heard of them in a few short-stories and full-length Dark-Hunter books. I can’t say that they’re my favorite thing about this series though. I don’t hate them, I just don’t find them particularly interesting at all.

So right off the bat I wasn’t too interested in this book, but I also went into it with an open mind. However, it still isn’t a very strong representation of the Dark-Hunter series. I’ve always found Kenyon to be very good at building relationships within a short span of time. But with Arik and Megeara/Geary I didn’t really ever feel that spark between them. It could have to do with the fact that we never really witnessed their first encounters within the dream realm, we were only told about them. But even so I didn’t really feel the connection between them. It seemed to me that Arik came to the human realm for one purpose — to get laid — and even so I didn’t feel an emotional or physical attraction between them.

In addition to that, I felt like the humor was really lacking in this and the last book. I miss the sarcastic and witty tidbits we typically get in these books so I hope Kenyon brings some of that back soon.

But some good did come from this book. We meet a few new faces such as Kat/Katra and Zebulon/ZT, both of whom I found to be really interesting characters who I hope to come across in future books. We also get a glimpse of some Ash action going on that sets this book as taking place before/around the same time as the first few books (Kyrian and Zarek’s books) in the series.

Although those were very small things in this book it was interesting nonetheless and cool to see some other parts of the Dark-Hunter universe having to do with the gods and goddesses we hear so much about.

Overall this definitely wasn’t my favorite book in the series, probably just about my least favorite, but it wasn’t terrible and I’m happy to have learned a little more about Ash and met a few more interesting characters. I’m just counting down the books until I can finally read Ash’s book — and no I’m not cheating and skipping ahead.

Spoiler Warning: This review may contain spoilers for the first two books in the series so please do not read it unless you’ve already read those two. Any spoilers for this book will be hidden behind spoiler tags.

Katy and Daemon are finally together and boy-oh-boy does Daemon make one shmexy boyfriend. He’s sweet and sexy but we still get to see the cocky and teasing Daemon from time-to-time as well. It’s really the perfect balance. Unfortunately though all is not well on the home front. Dawson is back but miserable and he’ll do anything to try to get Beth back. So Katy, Daemon, and the others must find a way to keep Dawson from running back into the arms of their enemies and really the only way to do that is by agreeing to help him to get Beth back. So things are far from over and even farther from perfect.

Like the first two books in the Lux series, I had an extremely hard time putting this book down. Armentrout has really found the perfect balance between romance and an amazing storyline because even though I love the romance, I’m also very much invested in the storyline and what’s going to happen not only in this book but in the series as a whole. Of course, if it were up to me she’d just keep writing these books forever, but I do know that she has a plan to write five books for the series — so only two more. Even though I am sad about that, I’m also excited to see how Katy and Daemon will be able to come out on top because the situation seems so dire and impossible to win.

In this book Katy an Daemon’s relationship is built upon even more and I have to say that even though I’d love to have Daemon for myself I am very impressed by how well their relationship has been developed. Over the first three books you could really see them gradually falling in love with each other and it didn’t just happen overnight. I also really liked that the conflict in this book was more outside of their relationship rather then having a love triangle or something else thrown in to keep the story interesting. Armentrout was able to finally have them be together but keep the book from being boring, which seems to be a hard feat. for a lot of YA authors. I love it when an author can write relationships so well because it makes such a huge difference in how real the characters feel. I love these characters — all of them, not just Katy and Daemon.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Overall this is such an amazing series. I can’t recommend it enough. I only wish I could describe how wonderfully this series has sucked me — which I love because they’re such a great escape, but hate because they take over my life when I pick one up! lol I will say though that this book leaves off with a huge-normous cliffhanger so if you hate those then you will probably want to read the first two books and then wait until August to read this one because I know it’s going to be absolute torture waiting for the next one. But either way, this has easily become one of my favorite series’ and I will be anxiously waiting to see what happens next!

As soon as I turned the last page of Obsidian, I picked up the second book in the series, Onyx. Well, after reading the short story about Daemon’s brother Dawson, Shadows (which I recommend reading before this book). Anyways, it was just that good that I wanted to stay immersed in the world and never leave, and thankfully Onyx didn’t let me down either.

Onyx picks up right where Obsidian left off and if I thought I fell hard for Daemon in Obsidian, I pretty much keeled over for him in Onyx. Things have changed in big ways and now Daemon is determined to win over Katy. Katy isn’t quite so sure, after the stunts he’s pulled luring her in only to leave her feeling a little bit too vulnerable she’s not quick to trust him. But c’mon, he’s Daemon and he can be ridiculously charming when he wants to be.

But Katy and Daemon’s love life isn’t her biggest concern at the moment. The DOD (Department of Defense) have been lurking around town a lot lately and after Daemon healed Katy at the end of Obsidian she’s been experiencing some very strange changes in herself. So both her and Daemon are scared the DOD might catch on and make her (or both of them) disappear. Kind of like what happened with Daemon’s brother Dawson and his girlfriend Beth. On top of that a seemingly normal new guy named Blake has his sights set on Katy and she’s liking feeling a little normal for a change — until things get even more strange.

This is seriously one of the most engaging series’ I’ve read in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great books out there. But I am normally able to bounce around between book series’ in order to spread out the love. But every so often a series comes around that I just cannot get enough of and simply need to read the books back-to-back because I don’t want it to end — and this is one of those times.

Filled with action, suspense, an engaging storyline and of course there’s the sexpot that is Daemon, you just can’t go wrong with these books and it really goes to show you how amazing of a writer Jennifer L. Armentrout is. She’s created a solid and addictive page-turner of a series that I simply never want to end!

In Dark Side of the Moon Sherrilyn Kenyon takes us back into the world where the war between the Dark-Hunters and the Daimons has gotten even more dangerous. This time, we jump into the minds of Ravyn and Susan. Ravyn is a Were-Hunter gone Dark-Hunter so he’s an interesting mix of vampire (Dark-Hunter) and Were-cat. Susan is a reporter for a cheesy tabloid magazine and one of the stories she’s assigned to write is about to get all too real.

As always, Kenyon has created two wonderful characters who I fell in love with quickly. My favorite thing about Susan and Ravyn was that they seemed to really become friends before entering to romantic zone. Although the time frame is fairly short (like always), it still felt pretty gradual between them. I loved that Susan acted as a really true friend to Ravyn when he needed her and I think that really helped him to open up to the idea of loving someone again.

But whereas I did love the characters, the story left a lot to be desired. Some interesting things were going on in this book — both with a change in the Daimons’ strategy an with Acheron — but it felt very slow going and frankly a little boring. There just wasn’t enough action and the pace was a bit too slow compared to the previous books. So that’s the main reason that this book fell below the four star mark for me. It was still written well an the characters were really likeable though.

A couple other things that bugged me were that there wasn’t as much humor in this one. In fact, there were some things that made me kind of sad.

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

The other thing is that while I did really like both Ravyn and Susan and I liked their relationship, which seemed realistic and loving, the sexual chemistry between them was a little lukewarm. I could tell they cared about each other, but it wasn’t as steamy as some of the previous DH romances.

So overall this was still a good book and I enjoyed being back in the Dark-Hunter world after being gone from it for so long, but it certainly wasn’t my favorite Dark-Hunter book. I’m hoping the next one has a bit more action and steaminess that’s more up to par with the majority of books in the series.

I’ve had Warm Bodies on my radar for quite awhile but finally decided to pick it up because I want to watch it’s movie counterpart! The movie previews have been so charming and cute that it really gave me the final push to read it — and boy am I glad I did!

It’s no secret that just because a book makes it to the big (or small) screen doesn’t mean it’s a very good book. Plenty of pretty crappy books have graced the boob tube. But Warm Bodies is a different story. Isaac Marion has a refreshingly vivid and charismatic writing style that brings R and the world he lives in to life right off the page.

R is a zombie living in a world overrun by those of his kind. But he’s not the same as the others who moan and groan and don’t seem to wonder why they can’t remember anything from their previous lives as humans — not even their names. But while R can only remember the first letter of his former name, he ponders the life around him and the things he and his kind are forced to do by what feels like the very nature inside of them.

When he meets Julie he immediately feels a connection to her because…well because he just ate her boyfriend Perry’s brain and gained glimpses of his memories while chowing down. But he doesn’t kill Julie because Perry’s memories of her strike a chord within R, one that he wants to explore a little further, and one that might challenge the very existence of him and his kind.

While Warm Bodies is, on the surface, you’re typical zombie eats girls’ boyfriend, girl is grateful for not becoming a snack as well, zombie likes girl, girl might just like zombie too kind of story, it is also so much more than that. It’s funny and entertaining but at the same time the ironic sort of conclusion that comes from it can be a great lesson about life and having the courage to hope for more than you can ever dream possible.

Overall I definitely loved this and recommend it to anyone who likes a good story with a few laughs here and there. Even if you’re not a fan of zombie stories, you’ll probably enjoy this one. There was only one thing that was disappointing to me:

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Other than that I loved the book, the characters, and the story it had to tell.

Holy. Cow. Let me start by saying that Katy an Daemon have some of the most incredible sexual tension I have ever read — in both young adult and adult books. It’s so combustible that they seriously might end up blowing something up in one of these books. lol

In all seriousness though, I really have to applaud Armentrout because writing sexual tension is hard to do — if it were easy, more authors would do it better!

But their relationship is just so…gah I just don’t even know how to describe it without going all out fangirl. Sure they fight, they argue and they “hate” each other. But from the moment they meet you could just feel their attraction sizzling across the pages. They both want what they don’t want to admit they want and by the time they both realize they both want it they’ve already been playing the “I hate you” game so much they can’t just stop. haha Hopefully that made sense.

I wanted to say that first because it’s really what blew this book out of the water for me. But there is also a whole slew of other reasons why this book — and because of this book Jennifer L. Armentrout — became one of my favorites (book and author). I’m not a reader of alien books. The word even kind of freaks me out (well, before this book). How could an alien be hot? But oh, trust me, this was done so well I was very pleasantly surprised. Even when you find out the “secrets” about Daemon, you will not be freaked out, which is what worried me. But I won’t spoil that for you.

What makes this book so great is that it’s got everything you could want in a good book. Not only is Daemon so hot it kind of hurts to know he’s only fictional, but all the other characters are great, Katy is a book blogger (c’mon, that’s just awesome), the story is compelling, the action is breath-taking, I laughed out loud on more than one occasion, and I don’t even need to round back to the whole point about the amazing sexual tension, do I? Anyways, it has every single element I look for in a book. I think I honestly had a perma-smile on my face for the entirety of this book. It’s just one of those books you want to hug close and thank for gifting you with such a lovely time.

Okay, I think I’ve fangirled it up enough. I think you get how much I loved this book. If you haven’t picked up Obsidian yet, I urge you to do so. You won’t be disappointed. In fact, you’ll probably find a new favorite series — I know I just did!

Each month I’ll create a list of categories which should remain (for the most part) the same. Then I will pick a book for each category to ensure I read something from that category each month. Some fiction categories that I read each month will have more than one, but others might just have one. As the month progresses I will add to each section and it will give me a better idea for how I might need to balance out my reading a bit more.

Why am I doing this? Well, I love reading. I really do. But I also know myself and I know that I get stuck in my ways. Reading is supposed to be about exploring and learning and while it’s also about entertainment, I feel like it’s an extremely valuable tool all of us have to learn more about the world. I think being a well-rounded and widely read reader is important to build character and learn more about the world. So while I will by no means be giving up my paranormal romances and young adult lit, I will be expanding my reading portfolio each month and who knows, maybe I’ll even find new genres that I never thought I’d enjoy but do!

If this is something you’d like to do as well, by all means feel free. I think it’s a good challenge for anyone to work towards. If not, and if it bores you then also feel free to ignore these posts. lol

Either way without further ado, here is my genre/category list for the first month, May 2013, and the book(s) I plan to read for that category for this month:

1. (nonfic) Self-Help/Improvement:
   • Garden Makeovers by Liz Dobbs & Sarah Wood (currently reading)
   • Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (currently reading)
2. (nonfic) Historical/Ancient/Biography (might separate later):
   • John Adams by David McCullough (checked out)
3. (fiction) Classics:
   • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Random Reads) (read)
   • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (checked out)
4. (fiction) Graphic Novel:
   • The Walking Dead, Vol 1: Days Gone Bye by Robert Kirkman (read)
   • Vampire Academy: The Graphic Novel by Richelle Mead (read)
5. (fiction) Chick-Lit, Humorous, or Realistic (adult or young adult):
   • The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger (checked out)
6. (fiction) Historical Romance:
   • Love in the Afternoon by Lisa Kleypas (checked out)
7. (fiction) Mystery (adult or young adult):
   • And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (checked out)
8. (fiction) Sci-Fi, Steampunk, or Dystopian (adult or young adult):
   • Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout (young adult) (read)
   • Shadows by Jennifer L. Armentrout (young adult) (read)
   • Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout (young adult) (read)
   • Opal by Jennifer L. Armentrout (young adult) (read)
   • Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (currently reading)
9. (fiction) Fantasy (non-urban) (adult or young adult):
   • Asunder by Jodi Meadows (read)
   • Graceling by Kristin Cashore (young adult) (checked out)
10. (fiction) Young Adult (if all above are adult):
    • N/A (see above)
11. (fiction) Urban Fantasy (adult):
    • Club Dead by Charlaine Harris (read)
12. (fiction) Paranormal Romance (adult):
    • Dark Side of the Moon by Sherrilyn Kenyon (read)
      
    • The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon (read)

Being the final book in the Paranormalcy trilogy, I knew that Endlessly was a must read for me because I’ve enjoyed the series. The concept and Evie both were refreshing and engaging to read about so I really wanted to know how life would finally get “normal” for Evie as she so lovingly puts it so often.

Despite having some action, Endlessly started off a little slow for me. Perhaps it was just because it had to do with more faeries causing mischief which is mostly the norm in these books. So I wasn’t feeling the push towards the finale so-to-speak. But it did pick up in pace towards a definite goal and at that point it became more interesting.

But I think there were a couple problems for me. The first one is the same as with Supernaturally, the recap is pretty minimal in this one so you either have to read them back to back, or feel a little bit lost. Since I read Supernaturally almost two years ago, I was kind of like “huh” on the details. So I think perhaps more of a friendly reminder about whose-who (for the lesser known side characters that is) would have helped — kind of like a lot of authors do but I just haven’t noticed in this series. The second issue was that I’m not sure if Kiersten White knew where she was going with the trilogy from the start. While I can, thinking back on it, see a few hints in the past books, I’m kind of blurry on if it seemed like what ended up happening was planned (by the author) or not. Again, this could fall under needing a recap or re-read, but I felt like the endgame kind of came out of nowhere and at first it seemed like a strange way to end the series.

However, despite seeming like a strange way to end the series, it was also fitting in a lot of ways. Evie is always wanting normal and for all intents and purposes she essentially gets her wish one way or another — even if it’s not how she expected it to happen. So I like that the ending of the series makes sense in that way. It was a bit of a surreal ending, but mainly because it’s always sad to end a series and say goodbye to characters you’ve come to know. But overall I liked it and I’m happy to have known Evie, Lend, Reth, and the rest of the gang for a little while.

Yay! It’s May and that means summer is on its way! Here in Michigan it’s been on and off — summer-like weather one day and then snowing the next. Hopefully the warm will stick here soon. It also means it’s time for Random Reads! How did you all do with yours for April?

Last month I picked and read Eternal Hunter by Cynthia Eden. Unfortunately I didn’t like it at all and couldn’t finish it. I reviewed it on my Goodreads account, but won’t be reviewing it on the blog because of not finishing it. So you can read my review for it here if you’re interested. But hey, it’s a good thing too because I won’t have to read the rest of the series and I also removed another spin-off series that was apart of the same world from my to-read list too.

In short, Random Reads is a meme where we pick a random book from our shelf to read within the month. Feel free to do more than one per month, but since a lot of people have a lot of books to read each month, only one is “required” for the meme. I’m on Goodreads so I’m using a combination of the sorting feature and Random.org to pick the book I’m going to read.

Want to join in on Random Reads?

It’s easy…

1. If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
2. Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
3. Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
4. Link up to your Random Reads post (below). If you choose more than one book per month, be sure to put a number by your name in the list so it doesn’t look like a duplicate.
5. Read and be merry.

If you’re not on Goodreads just pick a random book from your list in whatever way you want to do it. You can use the method I used above or even just close your eyes and point randomly at a book on your bookshelf if you want (spin the bottle style). lol

Now onto this month’s Random Read! This month Random.org chose…

#3 on my to-read list, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, and it’s been on my to-read list since I first joined Goodreads on August 18, 2009.

This is one of those books that I read in high school but really didn’t pay much attention to. I remember bits and pieces but I figure since it’s a classic I’ll read it again and review it so I can remember it further down the road. What are the chances of picking #3 on my list? Crazy huh? This is one of those first 20 books or so that Goodreads recommends as classics. Most of which I haven’t read or re-read since high school. I’m glad I picked this one though because I’ve really been wanting to read more of the classics lately.

Random Reads Buttons

Here is the meme button you can use and it’s copy/paste code:

<a href=”http://imlovingbooks.com/features/random-reads” title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com”><img title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7008/6433844057_a97e65e3b1_o_d.jpg” alt=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” width=”300″ height=”220″ /></a>

Or you can use the longer “banner” version I used in this post instead:

<a href=”http://imlovingbooks.com/features/random-reads” title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com”><img title=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” src=”http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7016/6433844013_41d65693f6_o_d.jpg” alt=”Random Reads Meme – Hosted by ImLovingBooks.com” width=”500″ height=”100″ /></a>

Link to Your Random Reads Meme