Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Gosh, Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris isn't really YAF either, but please indulge me - I'll be done soon. I just finished Partials!

Anyhooze, people who have more money than I do (or who are more willing to spend it on premium cable than I am) often rave about True Blood and how great the HBO series is. About 3 years ago, my friend lent me his DVD of the first season and I think I watched it over one weekend - it was great (albeit, not PG!).

In addition, Grad Student and Mama Pajama have also been crusin' through this series for a long time as new books become available, so I decided I needed to pick this up (let's be honest, there was no wait list at NPYL.org, so I snapped it up!). That, my friends, was a good choice!

• Originality: 8 - Based on the first book, there is a LOT that happens in this series - almost every paranormal instance (shapeshifters, vampires, mind reading - shall I go on?) is thrown in. And you know what? Why not - if you're going to paranormal, you may as well go all in!
• Absurdity: 8 - Gosh, there is a lot of absurdity that happens just in the first book (also, seeing all the story lines that weave their way in and out of the first season of True Blood helps reinforce this point!), so I'm ranking it pretty high. That being said, I think that within the the grand scheme of the series, this is probably the most normal book, so I may have to lower it once I read a few more!
• Level of Paranormal Romance: 7 - It's romantic, I guess, but not really PG. Sukkeh and Bielllll  - what's not to love (although I can't picture anyone but Anna Paquin and Steven Moyer in the role and I don't know if that's a good thing!)?!
• Level of Harry Potterness: 4.5 - Not the best or worst-written book I've ever read (how's that for vague??) but I liked it and was legitimately obsessed with reading it, so all in all, I'd recommend!

Don't worry - up next a bunch of actual YAF for the blog. Thanks for bearing with me!!

Top Ten Tuesday: If you liked Graceling by Kristin Cashore, you will love....

For the love of YA, read
these books!

This Top Ten Tuesday is a list of suggestions for those of you who like strong, kick-ass female characters! If you liked Graceling by Kristin Cashore, then these books are for you! (we know Katniss isn't on this list, but you already know she kicks butt).

1.Alanna from The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce.  First female knight. 'Nough said. OUR ORIGINAL favorite strong female lead.
2.Anna from Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. She can rip off a person's head. And does.
3. Dru from Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow. She spends most of this series in fights. And she says "Better to be strong than pretty and useless.” 
4.Frankie from The Disreputable History of Frankie Laudau-Banks by E. Lockhart. Criminal mastermind and rule breaker.
5. Ellie from Tomorrow When the War Began by James Marsden.When Australia is invaded my an enemy nation Ellie fights back as a gorilla warrior. I have read the first two, and they are gritty and awesome.
6. Allie from The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. Vampire powers to kick butt.
7. Puck from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. She loves to be terrible and grumpy, but is also strong and determined to save her family.

8. Donna from the Iron Witch series by Karen Mahoney
9. Sookie from the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. She will non-nonsense you, throw you out of her house, or kill you with an iron trowel (if you mess with her tanning time.)

10. Heromine from the Harry Potter Series. Smarts can be kickass, too!
BONUS 11. Elisa from The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson wins most improved. By the end, she is totally invading-enemy-camps badass. Take that early shy wishy-washy Elisa!

Ellie being badass

 A cheers of our Whiskey Sours to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting Top Ten Tuesdays!

Want to know more about why we love these ladies? See our reviews for Graceling, Anna Dressed in Blood, The Disreputable History of Frankie Laudau-Banks, The Iron Witch, The Scorpio Races, Strange Angels, and The Girl of Fire and Thorns!

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer Must-Reads

This Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is dedicated to books on our Summer "to be read" lists. Most of these are not new books. But summer is a time to log serious beach-reading hours, and these are the top of the reading lists at YAF and WS.


Grad Student:
1. Rules of Civility by Armor Towles.  In prep for The Great Gatsby film!

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Because the trailer is adorbs with Hermione and Zack Effron-Light ( apparently other people call him Logan).

3. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith. It looks like perfect summer fluff.

4. Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore.  Paranormal YA and cute cowboys.

5-7: The Shade series by by Jeri Smith-Ready. I heard Jeri Smith-Ready speak recently (and she reminded me of Tonks from the Harry Potter movies. To clarify, this is a compliment). People have SWOONED over Shine, the last book, which recently came out.  I am ready to jump on the bandwagon!

Crazy Camper:
8. Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. (DO THIS so I can talk to someone about book 5- love, GS)

Goosie Mama:

9. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

10. The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris. I'm on the first one and i'm already obsessed. BEEEIIIIILLLL!

11. The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting, the 3rd Body Finders novel!!! I might have to take out the physical book from the lib instead of using eReader. Gasp.

Top Ten Tuesday: Fictional Crushes

Today's Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is a freebie and we have decided on Top Fictional Crushes.  I considered making a  list alternating between Joe Fontaine and Augustus Waters since Goosie Mama has jumped on the Fontaine bandwagon. Those eye lashes! But here are some other favorites we don't discuss as frequently at YAF & WS:

1. Numair from the Immortals series by Tamora Pierce. How the twins learned that manly chest hair = great-- Crazy Camper and Grad Student.*
2. Eric Northman from the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris--Crazy Camper and Grad Student.
3. Tod in the Soul Screamers series by Rachel Vincent (more GS's love of Tod here!)
4. Graves from the Strange Angels series by Lili St. Crow. From classmate to werewolf to friend to save-your-life-no-questions-asked-friend to love. (Ignoring the end of book 5: angry side-eye from Grad Student to St. Crow).

5. Eldric from Chime by Franny Billingsley. (see here for why you should be swooning over Eldric)--Grad Student. 

6. Kaleb from the Hourglass series by Myra McEntire. YAAAA for those tattoos and (slightly cocky) frat boy style--Grad Student.

7. Four from the Divergent series by Veronica Roth is Goosie Mama's number one pick. When I asked about fictional crushes she said: "Tobias, duh..."
8. Bram from Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel. "big time"crush--Goosie Mama (her review)
9 & 10: George vs Jonathan from Tamora Pierce's Alanna Quartet (the purple eyed Lioness, she had excellent choice in men) while my young self would have loved Jonathan, George won in the end. And I can't lie, one of my best friends from college also read these books and while on a road trip this weekend, we referenced her new relationship to our mutual best friend as a George vs. Jonathan debate, where again, the George character won-- Crazy Camper.

CC:  I bet you wish this was your
phone- Alana Quartet! - GS

Apparently the internet thinks Max Irons should be Eldric. I agree. And Ian Somerhalder does the best drunk-handsome-heart of gold guy on TV. Who cares if he is  too old to be Kaleb?! I am casting him. Its my TTT. 


Crazy Camper says: GS, remember that time you came down to visit and do research and instead we watched every episode of Vampire Diaries we could? and then spent $50 dollars to buy the rest of the season on iTunes? I blame Ian.


*Crazy Camper and I are twins. Have we mentioned this? TRUE FACT. Although Goosie-Mama tried to Talented-Mr.-Ripley CC's spot in the fam over Memorial Day Weekend.

Review: Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris

FRIENDS I am not sure how I feel about Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. To start, lets recap the 12th installment of the Sookie Stackhouse crazy-fest:

With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down. (Good Reads)

•  Level of Originality: 2. It is hard to review a book that is so far along in a series for originality--so much ground has been covered! It is even harder with Deadlocked because there is not much to the plot. What mystery was at the center of the book? The dead person on Eric’s lawn, or the missing Fangtasia employees, or the fact that someone is after Sookie’s antiques? (ya, that is about as boring as it sounds). Book #12 does not stand out.
• Level of Absurdity: 2 or 10 (depending on how you feel about this series). I give this a 2 since no NEW paranormal species are introduced in Deadlocked. But if you have not accepted the witch-fairy-vamp-shifter mixing, this is a 10.
• Level of Paranormal Romance:  3. Eric was not as awesome as he usually is and SHOULD be. I mean, if I like Bill more than Eric, you know there is a problem. Because Bill is 90% made of boring.  CHARLAINE HARRIS DO NOT RUIN THE AWESOME THAT IS ERIC.  Please realize that you have been warned.  
• Level of Harry-Potterness: 2. I was not taken with Deadlocked. I was delighted by the first couple of these books. But in the end, I still love Sooks. She is strong-minded. She  unwinds with a clean house, sunbathing, and doing a bit of nothing alone--I wish I had a cool old farmhouse somewhere in the woods to do this, too. But this plot really dragged. AND can Sam get a normal, good girlfriend for once?!

The best part: for Sookie’s birthday the vamps stopped by and Eric said:

“And I suppose as usual, Bill will want to express his undying love that surpasses my love, as he'll tell you--and Pam will want to say something sarcastic and nearly painful, while reminding you that she loves you too." 

MORE OF THIS, please.
Breaking News! Dead Ever After, the 13th book, due out in 2013, will be the last! (Vulture)

Friday Library Updates

I arrived at my parent's house on Wednesday and my Mom was all, "Hi hunnie, I saw the new Sookie  Stackhouse at the library, so I picked it up for you." And I said, "Gee, thanks!" Then I came into the kitchen to this:

MOM IS AWESOME. Then I turned the books over and almost died: 

I followed her around the kitchen holding this to my face pretending to be Charlaine, but she would not participate (we could BOTH do it with our Mommy and Me books). Moral of the story, Mom didn't want to have to fight me for Deadlocked. 'Cause shiz would have gotten real fast. I told Crazy Camper, and this is the g-chat conversation that followed:

 Crazy Camper:  can you finish it so i can take it home? [CC comes to NYC this weekend. Huzzah!]

 me:  its a lib book

 Crazy Camper:  SOUL CRUSHING

i could mail it back?

 me:  7 day loan- sorry to be a dream crusher

 Crazy Camper:  library book woes

Meanwhile in Insurgent library news.... Goosie Mama needs to GET HER ACT TOGETHER because I am #130 on the list* to get Insurgent  by Veronica Roth from the NYPL. And that list is not getting any shorter. Goosie Mama is a much bigger fan than me. What is she thinking!?!

(Note: We are hoping the library buys like 80 more copies of this book. They do that sometimes, because libraries are awesome.)

Top Ten Tuesday: "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books"

Today's Top Ten Tuesday is entitled "Top Ten All Time Favorite Characters In Books." Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish TTT is a weekly feature dedicated to book-list-mania.  I found this top ten hard to do--recent characters I read and liked, but had not necessarily upgraded to love status, crowded for attention. Sheesh (made-up) people, get in line! Not to mention I tend to love supporting characters best. I didn't realize it until I made this list! Without further ado, characters we love fall into these categories:

Ridiculousness Incarnate 

1. Peasebottom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed from the Theatre Illuminate series by Lisa Mantchev. I dare you to resist them! For example, this is such a funny play on famous first lines (as the first lines of Perchance to Dream, the second book in the series).  Ridiculous AND smart at once!

 “It is a truth universally acknowledged,” Mustardseed said, flying in lazy loops like an intoxicated bumblebee, “that a fairy in possession of a good appetite must be in want of a pie.” “Yes, indeed,” Cobweb said over the rattle of the caravan, “though I awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, I found myself transformed in my bed into a gigantic pie.” “It was the best of pie, it was the worst of pie,” was Moth’s contribution."

Exuberant characters!! Exclamation point!!

2. Eldric from Chime by Franny Billingsley. McDREAMY with an excellent vocabulary and a vivid imagination. (my review!)

3. Augustus Waters from The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

“When surprised and excited and innocent Gus emerged from Grand Gesture Metaphorically Inclined Augustus, I literally could not resist.” --ME EITHER. Augustus loves life and I love him. He is my new favorite (made-up) person.

4. Joe Fontaine from The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. (my review!)

 “The guy is life drunk, I think, makes Candide look like a sourpuss.”

Spunky Heroines 
5. Alanna of Trebond from the Song of the Lioness books by Tamora Pierce. We talk about these books a lot. Alanna is the original gusty heroine in the reading lives of Crazy Camper and Grad Student. When my roommate ran in (last month) and said “did you ever read those books about the girl with purple eyes?” I KNEW EXACTLY what she meant. We love her still.

6. Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling's HP. Smart and Sassy. What is not to like? Points to Crazy Camper for adding to the list.

7. Puck from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. She loves being terrible! But is really awesome. (my review!)

8. Sookie Stackhouse from the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Sassy and southern. YES. This was Crazy Camper's second excellent addition. I think it says something that 12 books in we still get a kick out of Sookie.

Waiting on Wednesday- Sookie Stackhouse Book 12 Deadlocked

This Waiting On Wednesday, hosted by Breaking the Spine, is dedicated to books we (today represented by Sweet Tea, Crazy Camper, and Grad Student) just can't wait for.

O Sookie, Sookie, Sookie.... We can't wait for your new book! On May 17th, Book 12, Deadlocked arrives.

"With Felipe de Castro, the Vampire King of Louisiana (and Arkansas and Nevada), in town, it’s the worst possible time for a body to show up in Eric Northman’s front yard—especially the body of a woman whose blood he just drank. Now, it’s up to Sookie and Bill, the official Area Five investigator, to solve the murder. Sookie thinks that, at least this time, the dead girl’s fate has nothing to do with her. But she is wrong. She has an enemy, one far more devious than she would ever suspect, who’s out to make Sookie’s world come crashing down."

Check out this supercut video of everyone saying Sookie's name...enough said.

(New York Magazine-Vulture)