Book Review Thursday - 8/2

I think that I am getting back into my reading groove. I have finished 3 books to review for this post and I am currently reading 3 more right now - one audio, one on the Kindle and one real book. It's funny that I can find different things going on where each mode of reading is more convenient than any of the others.

Life Without Parole is the second novel in the Kate Conway series by Clare O'Donohue. It's several months after the events in the first novel and Kate is still dealing with the death of her estranged husband. Everyone seems to have their own idea of how Kate should be moving on and handling the loss, but the consensus is that she is not holding up well. Kate has been throwing herself into work which right now is producing 2 reality TV shows - following 2 inmates serving life sentences and the start up of an upscale restaurant. Kate keeps telling herself that she can handle the inmates, but it's the shock of her husband's mistress Vera at the first restaurant shoot that really throws Kate for a loop. And then, she finds Vera standing over a body.

I thought that this was a very solid second book to the series. I didn't think that there were a lot of new characters added unnecessarily and it was easy to follow the action. Kate did seem to be struggling with depression and fighting off the well meaning friends and family who were looking out for her. It turns out that she was feeling more of a connection with the inmates than with the investors in the restaurant and aligning yourself with inmates is usually a bad sign. This as a nice cozy mystery and I thought it had a good flow.

Better Dead than Read is the second novel in the Psychic Eye series by Victoria Laurie. I was able to check it out from Amazon via my library and read it on my Kindle. Unfortunately, the actual book cover didn't show on the Kindle.

After Kendal covered for Abby while she was in the hospital and recuperating from the attempted murder in the last book, Abby owed him one and he is collecting by asking her to help him read tarot cards for a wedding. Little do they know that it is a mob wedding and when Kendal skips town the next morning, Abby is in over her head trying to stay alive and keep everyone safe while also helping the police find a serial rapist who has escalated to murder.

All I can say is WOW! The action and flow of this book was intense! I really like reading about the intuitive side of things and I wish that I had my own 'crew' in my head to lead the way through life. Abby really trusts her crew and follows them when it's imperative to do so. And the rest of the repeat characters are a hoot, too. Abby ends up playing strip poker with the detectives at the police station and most of them are down to boxers while she is still fully clothed. I ended up reading this book in about 4 days because I just could not put it down!

I'm still working on reading some books that have been on my iPod for a while which is how I came to read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. This is the series that the True Blood HBO show is based on and this is the first book in the series. I also wanted to read it fast because the rest of the series was on sale at Audible and I wanted to see if I would enjoy the series before buying anymore of the books.

I knew that the series involved vampires, but I had no idea that the vampires were more mainstreamed into society than they usually are in books. It was an interesting change of pace!

Sookie Stackhouse has a disability (her words) that involves her reading the minds of almost anyone around her. Because it affects everything she does, she wasn't able to go to college so she is a waitress at a local bar. She is very excited to meet her very first vampire at the bar and is startled that she can not read his mind and she finds it very refreshing. And so begins the love story as Sookie and Bill seem to be drawn to each other.

In this small Louisiana town, there are a couple of women murdered and they just happened to be women who chased after vampires, had sex with vampires and let the vampires bite them. These women happen to be called "fang bangers" and for some reason, that term just cracked me up! The murders almost seemed like a secondary part of the novel because while they were on Sookie's mind for part of the book, it just didn't seem like it was her main focus.

I thought that this book was good. It was a very light and quick listen and the characters were entertaining. The narrator was great with the Southern accents and giving different characters a different voice. There were parts of the vampires being a part of society that allowed Harris to be creative in explanations, ie synthetic blood and fang bangers. I even ordered the next books in the series from Audible.

If you would like to see what I am reading now, just check out my Goodreads widget on the right sidebar of the blog. And leave a comment to let me know what you have been reading lately!