Dead Until Dark

Dead Until Dark

by Charlaine Harris
Rating: ***

Dead Until Dark is the first novel in the Sookie Stackhouse series. It's about a woman, Sookie, who has the ability to read minds (which she claims to be a disability). In her world, vampires have just "come out of the coffin" and she is waiting to meet on in her small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. When Bill, a vampire, comes into her life she it thrown into a whirlwind of romance, danger, murder and lots more.

Obviously, I wanted to read this book because I've become a little obsessed with vampires. I'd also heard that it was made into a TV show on HBO called True Blood. So I was interested. While I feel like the book is a little slow to pick up, especially if you're a fan of the Twilight series it does have a good story and it's a fast, easy read. I would say that it's written FAR different than I thought it would be but Sookie is a decent character and she makes the book go by fast.

I'm definitely continuing the series. So stay tuned!

The Host

The Host

by Stephenie Meyer
Rating: ❤❤❤❤

Probably thought I forgot all about this little ol' blog, right?

Not so much. But I've been busy reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. And I must say, I'm adding this book to my list of all time favorites!

The Host is about an alien invasion on Earth. The aliens, called Souls, have taken over earth. It's kind of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers; the Souls take over the bodies of humans. The whole point is that the Souls think that the human race has screwed up Earth so they feel that they're doing something good for the planet. The main characters are Wanderer/Melanie. Wandered is the Soul that has taken over Melanie's body. Only rather than fade away, like she's supposed to, Melanie stays there. She forces Wanderer to remember her true love, Jared, and her brother Jamie. Because of this, Wanderer begins to love them too and soon they are on the run, together, from the Souls.

Because I am such a huge Stephenie Meyer fan, I wanted to read this book. However, because it's science fiction (not Young Adult, like Stephenie's previous novels) I was worried I wouldn't like it. While it definitely differed from Stephenie's Twilight books, I really fell in love with this novel. Wanderer is an easy character to love and it's hard to think that she's wrong for wanting to stay in Melanie's body despite the fact that Melanie is still there, fighting right back. The ending could not have been better and it kind of makes you think that even though this planet can seem pretty messed up, maybe there's hope in the fact that some of us are still pretty decent.

The Last Summer (of You and Me)

The Last Summer (of You and Me)
by Ann Brashares
Rating: ❤❤❤

I'm sure pretty much everyone has heard of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by now, right? This book is by the same author and her first time writing an adult novel. It's about two sisters, Alice and Riley, and their childhood friend Paul who has come back to the island where their families have summer homes. This summer Alice and Paul finally act on an attraction that they have had for years but decide to keep it a secret so that they don't hurt Riley. During this secret relationship, Riley starts to have problems of her own that threaten the relationship between Alice and Paul.

I have to say, this book felt more like a YA (young adult) read to me than an adult read. Yes, there were a few more adult themes but mostly the characters acted like teenagers, not adults and so it kind of just read that way. It was a really good story but I wasn't moved by it and I didn't fall in love with the characters. This book is definitely more of a beach read and an easy story to finish in a few days.