The Radleys

(SPOILER ALERT)

So I skipped a week, because I was traumatized by the newest Charlaine Harris book, Dead Reckoning. I LOVE Ms Charlaine, I LOVE Sookie Stackhouse, and I LOVE the first seven or eight books in the series. This one is book 11. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it exactly, but I did think that Ms Charlaine might be watching a bit too much True Blood. I liked Eric better when he was a flirtatious asshole. Now he's just an asshole. And I did hate the scene where Alcide turned up in Sookie's bed. I simply didn't believe that the character Ms Charlaine created in the earlier books would do that. Sorry. It also bugged me that never once did a shifter shift into their animal form, and never once did a vampire bite anyone. The fairies got a little busy, but other than that it was the most normal paranormal fiction that I could imagine. It wasn't a bad book, but I didn't love it.

I did, however, love The Radleys by Matt Haig. In this book a family of four, parents married 17 years with two teenage kids, have something cataclysmic happen. The book explores how they each deal with it, how they are changed by it, and how they come to grips with their new reality. It's a delicate character study, with a truth that resonated for me. I found the wife, Helen, especially heartbreaking as she and her husband cope with the distance that's grown between them. Oh, and they're all vampires. 'Nuff said. It's a quick read, a fun read, a must-read.

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

So my first thought when I finished Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride was, "Oh, what a sweet book." Which was an interesting reaction, because the Big Bad character is SO evil. He's so powerful and sadistic that there were parts that I found hard to read. Now, anyone who likes Anita Blake as much as I do must have a stomach for twisted stuff, but the main characters were young, in their late teens, and that made it harder for me. In the end, though, the likability factor outweighed my squeamishness. The title kills me and the main character's voice is fresh and clear and entertaining. The dialogue is hilarious and I loved that it was set in my own neighborhood in northeast Seattle. I didn't expect that. I chose the book because it was recommended by one of the employees at Powells and had it on hold at the libarary forever, but now I'm going to buy a copy so my kids can read it if they want to.