230. & 231. Dead to the World & East of Peculiar
Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris - this is the next in the series of books featuring Sookie Stackhouse, following on from Club Dead (which I reviewed back in August).
In that review, I said how much I preferred the character of Eric and I had no idea at the time that this next book, Dead to the World, saw him play a much more significant part. Well, except for the fact that he's lost his memory because of a bunch of renegade witches who want to take over his territory, which means it isn't really Eric as usual.
Harris does a nice job of tying up some of the loose ends from the previous books in this one and also setting things up for the next in the series, Dead as a Doornail, including apparently a bigger role for Sookie's ne'er-do-well brother Jason.
East of Peculiar by Suzann Ledbetter - another one for the growing 'I probably wouldn't have picked this up except for bookswapping' pile.
Disgruntled ad executive Hannah Garvey gets bored with life in the fast lane and decides to take up the change of pace she's been offered, becoming the resident manager of a retirement complex. Of course, nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it seems and so Hannah is confronted on her arrival with both a murder and the attentions of the handsome sheriff, himself half a dozen years her junior.
The most annoying thing about East of Peculiar is the way the main character thinks of herself as pretty much dead and waiting to be buried, when she's only in her early 40's. This is given stiff competition by the immediate willingness of the sheriff to jump her bones despite the fact she's just so gosh darned decrepit he might as well be shagging an Egyptian mummy. The series continues in South of Sanity, but I found the whole thing so vexing that Ledbetter will have to carry on without me.
In that review, I said how much I preferred the character of Eric and I had no idea at the time that this next book, Dead to the World, saw him play a much more significant part. Well, except for the fact that he's lost his memory because of a bunch of renegade witches who want to take over his territory, which means it isn't really Eric as usual.
Harris does a nice job of tying up some of the loose ends from the previous books in this one and also setting things up for the next in the series, Dead as a Doornail, including apparently a bigger role for Sookie's ne'er-do-well brother Jason.
Disgruntled ad executive Hannah Garvey gets bored with life in the fast lane and decides to take up the change of pace she's been offered, becoming the resident manager of a retirement complex. Of course, nothing is ever quite as straightforward as it seems and so Hannah is confronted on her arrival with both a murder and the attentions of the handsome sheriff, himself half a dozen years her junior.
The most annoying thing about East of Peculiar is the way the main character thinks of herself as pretty much dead and waiting to be buried, when she's only in her early 40's. This is given stiff competition by the immediate willingness of the sheriff to jump her bones despite the fact she's just so gosh darned decrepit he might as well be shagging an Egyptian mummy. The series continues in South of Sanity, but I found the whole thing so vexing that Ledbetter will have to carry on without me.
