Title: Definitely Dead
Author(s): Charlaine Harris
Genre: Fiction – Paranormal
Finished: May 21, 2009
Rating: 4 Stars

Definitely Dead is book 6 in the Southern Vampire Mysteries. Sookie, weary and battle scarred, once again has high hopes that her life can return to normal. She has enough stress as it is between her brother’s personal life, rebuilding her kitchen, Debbie Pelt’s family’s meddling, her broken heart, the dead demon left on her lawn, and the murder of her cousin Hadley. As it turns out, Hadley was a vampire and a favorite of the Queen of Louisiana. Sookie must go to New Orleans to clean out her cousin’s old apartment, which means entering the paranormal world of the vampires once more.

On the bright side, she has a new boyfriend. Her new boyfriend is a were-tiger named Quinn. Quinn is tall, bald, patient, and seemingly without drama. Unfortunately for them, they are attacked by crazed bitten weres on their first date. It is all downhill for Sookie from there. Weres and vampires attacking from all angles, oh my. Additionally, not only does Sookie want to clean out Hadley’s apartment, but she wants to find out what truly happened to her cousin. That opens up its own can of worms to add to the already smoldering pot of problems simmering.

I’ll be honest with you guys. If this had been the first or second book that I read in the series, I wouldn’t have continued. Though it was good, I gave it a lot more credit because I already know and love the characters. If Definitely Dead were my introduction to the Sookie Stackhouse world, I wouldn’t have thought twice about not picking up the next book. Don’t get me wrong, Definitely Dead is a good book, it just isn’t the type of book that would capture my attention and make want to read again.

A lot of the book just seemed to be… out of character. Sookie is slowly exiting the world of being your average every day telepathic waitress who is cutely modest to being a supervixen special something who has all the guys stare when she flips her hair. And Bill did a total 180. Only Eric was the same, which was a relief because I would take it too hard if he changed at all.

It is disappointing that there is such an influx of new characters because the old characters, the ones I enjoy, are being pushed to the wayside. I don’t need a whole new league of witches and boyfriends and vampire buddies to enjoy The Southern Vampire Mysteries. I just want to read about the world of Sookie and her close companions. Adding too many characters makes things overly complex and complicated. Of course, fresh blood is necessary to keep a book active, and new people are always coming and going in life, but within the limited confines of a book they only end up pushing out other characters since only so many can be in focus at a time.

Also, a word of warning. If you’ve ONLY read the books, you will be confused. If this book is to make sense to you from the start, I suggest you read the short story One Word Answer from Bite. The events of that story come to fruition in Definitely Dead and are unfortunately never mentioned anywhere else. So, if you haven’t read One Word Answer, you are going to be very confused about Hadley and the Queen and the Queen’s request. It doesn’t make sense that the story wasn’t included as a prelude or a first chapter, but I suppose it makes more money selling in parts.

I have high hopes for the next one and can only cross my fingers that Sookie and her world will return to how it was when I fell in love with it. I want Sookie to go back to being a normal girl with a special gift, not some half-supernatural creature like everyone else. How can I relate to her that way? And I want more of the old characters, more Eric and Bill and Sam.

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Disclaimer(s):

- More can be found in my Reviews section.
- If you would like me to review your book, send an email to me at morbidromantic@gmail.com. Read my Book Review Policy for more information.

I like to splurge on myself every now and then, but I don’t go out and buy expensive things. When I decide to treat myself, every few months or so, I go to Etsy and buy something small, cute, cheap, and handmade. I’ve been under stress lately scheduling classes, waiting for news on my GTAI, and worrying about school loans and tuition (which I have pretty much resolved myself to at this point… sometimes school loans are necessary and have to be taken out). I decided to take $10 and get some cute things.

Cute and Creepy

WinterRoseDesigns

Too Hot to Handle by Robin Kaye
Dr. Mike Flynn’s single mom taught him early how to cook and clean, and there’s nothing like vacuuming or doing dishes to help a guy relax. Annabelle Ronaldi is an artist without a domestic bone in her body. Since her fiance’s death, she can’t paint, and life looks hopeless. Until the day after her sister’s wedding, when she wakes up with Mike next to her in bed, and then she’s really beside herself – because the handsome stranger is a dead ringer for her dead fiance. After their mind-blowing one night stand, Mike is sure this is the woman he wants to take care of forever, but she acts like she’s seen a ghost. While Mike sets to work wooing Annabelle, she sets to work sniffing out the truth of the convoluted family secret that turns everybody’s lives upside down.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqyist
One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state of the art recreation facilities, and live the few remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty–single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries–are sequestered for their final few years; they are considered outsiders. In the Unit they are expected to contribute themselves for drug and psychological testing, and ultimately donate their organs, little by little, until the final donation. Despite the ruthless nature of this practice, the ethos of this near-future society and the Unit is to take care of others, and Dorrit finds herself living under very pleasant conditions: well-housed, well-fed, and well-attended. She is resigned to her fate and discovers her days there to be rather consoling and peaceful. But when she meets a man inside the Unit and falls in love, the extraordinary becomes a reality and life suddenly turns unbearable. Dorrit is faced with compliance or escape, and…well, then what?

Chasing Demons by R.L. Geerdes
The fantasy book Chasing Demons takes place a year after the conclusion of the first Mistress of Beasts book, Wizard’s Secrets. Our friends, Castin, Katrina, Drestin, and Cypris find themselves the target of a sorceress bent on revenge. Using magic, cunning, and sword-play, they struggle to learn trust and overcome betrayal as they out-wit the sorceress. After choosing to stay in Arconia instead of returning to Earth, Katrina settled with Castin in a small cabin in the Black Forest to lead a secluded life away from the problems of the rest of the races. Trouble comes calling, when a sorceress kidnaps Katrina and sends her to Earth, using a powerful spell to make her think she’s been in a coma. Quickly forgetting her time in Arconia, she tries to pick up her life where she’d left off before being taken to the magical land by her griffin father. But strange occurrences, memory lapses, and nightmares quickly make her and others question her sanity, landing her in an asylum. Castin and Drestin follow, searching for her on Earth. Unable to use his natural druid magic, Castin begins his own journey of self discovery, relearning to use abilities from his elven upbringing. After facing off with local law enforcement and a beast in the guise of Katrina’s ex-fiancé, the group realizes that the sorceress has cut off their means of returning to Arconia, leaving them with the question of how to get home. Left behind, Cypris and Rueben, druid apprentice, travel the lands searching for the troublesome sorceress. But the only way to track her is for Rueben to sync his mind with the sorceress’, unwittingly giving her the ability to know where they are as well, and she is more than happy to take advantage of the knowledge. They begin to wonder if they’ll reach her before being killed by some nasty trap she’s set.

Bees & Mist by Erick Setiawan
Of Bees and Mist is the tale of Meridia-raised in a sepulchral house where ghosts dwell in mirrors, she spends her childhood feeling neglected and invisible. Every evening her father vanishes inside a blue mist without so much as an explanation, and her mother spends her days venomously beheading cauliflowers in the kitchen. At sixteen, desperate to escape, Meridia marries a tenderhearted young man and moves into his seemingly warm and charming family home. Little does she suspect that his parents are harboring secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden. There are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other. And there is Eva, the formidable matriarch whose grievances swarm the air like an army of bees. In this haunting story, Setiawan takes Meridia on a tumultuous ride of hope and heartbreak as she struggles to keep her young family together and discovers long-kept secrets about her own past as well as the shocking truths about her husband’s family.

Annie’s Ghosts by Steve Luxenberg
Beth Luxenberg was an only child. Everyone knew it: her grown children, her friends, even people she’d only recently met. So when her secret emerged, her son Steve Luxenberg was bewildered. He was certain that his mother had no siblings, just as he knew that her name was Beth, and that she had raised her children, above all, to tell the truth. By then, Beth was nearly eighty, and in fragile health. While seeing a new doctor, she had casually mentioned a disabled sister, sent away at age two. For what reason? Was she physically disabled? Mentally ill? The questions were dizzying, the answers out of reach. Beth had said she knew nothing of her sister’s fate. Six months after Beth’s death in 1999, the secret surfaced once more. This time, it had a name: Annie. Steve Luxenberg began digging. As he dug, he uncovered more and more. His mother’s name wasn’t Beth. His aunt hadn’t been two when she’d been hospitalized. She’d been twenty-one; his mother had been twenty-three. The sisters had grown up together. Annie had spent the rest of her life in a mental institution, while Beth had set out to hide her sister’s existence. Why? Employing his skills as a journalist while struggling to maintain his empathy as a son, Luxenberg pieces together the story of his mother’s motivations, his aunt’s unknown life, and the times in which they lived. His search takes him to imperial Russia and Depression-era Detroit, through the Holocaust in Ukraine and the Philippine war zone, and back to the hospitals where Annie and many others were lost to memory. Combining the power of reportage with the intrigue of mystery, Annie’s Ghosts explores the nature of self-deception and self-preservation. The result is equal parts memoir, social history, and riveting detective story.

Deadly Little Secret by Laurie Stolarz
Some secrets shouldn’t be kept… Up until three months ago, everything in sixteen-year-old Camelia’s life had been fairly ordinary: decent grades; an okay relationship with her parents; and a pretty cool part-time job at the art studio downtown. But when Ben, the mysterious new guy, starts junior year at her high school, Camelia’s life becomes anything but ordinary. Rumored to be somehow responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s accidental death, Ben is immediately ostracized by everyone on campus. Except for Camelia. She’s reluctant to believe the rumors, even when her friends try to convince her otherwise. She’s inexplicably drawn to Ben…and to his touch. But soon, Camelia is receiving eerie phone calls and strange packages with threatening notes. Ben insists she is in danger, and that he can help–but can he be trusted? She knows he’s hiding something… but he’s not the only one with a secret.

Roastbeef’s Promise by David Jerome
When Jim Roastbeef Hume embarks on a quest to sprinkle his father’s ashes in each of the forty-eight contiguous states, he has no idea that a series of bizarre and ridiculous adventures await. But nothing will deter him from fulfilling the promise he made to his dying father–not a brief incarceration in Iowa or a punctured lung in South Dakota. As he travels across the country, he picks up numerous new friends, presides over the ultimate party, poses as a lesbian s boyfriend, and gives away a very pregnant bride in a Las Vegas wedding. And who could have dreamed that somewhere amidst the craziness of dropping ashes from a crop duster and finding Elvis’s toenail, Roastbeef would stumble upon a lucrative new career?

The Southern Devil by Diane Whiteside
myn Tyler, an impoverished Civil War widow, is in Kansas City for the reading of her uncle’s will, which first of all dictates that a man must accompany her to the reading. She runs into Morgan Evans, who is on his own angry mission, and reluctantly asks him to attend. He agrees, as long as she agrees to go to bed with him. The inheritance is gold hidden in the Colorado mountains, with the spoils going to either Jessamyn or her cousin, depending on who reaches it first. Again she must rely on Morgan to help her on this dangerous quest. He again agrees, contingent on her continued presence in his bed, and Jessamyn more than meets Morgan’s demands in bed and out. Another Whiteside winner, filled with raw sex and realistic portrayals of the sights and sounds of the Colorado West. Newcomers may be a bit shocked, but fans will find it a satisfying tale.

I have been given the amazing opportunity by Hachette Book Group to give out 5 copies of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson.

Laurel, a high-end quilt maker, sees the ghost of a little girl in her bedroom one night. When it leads her to the backyard and a dead girl in the swimming pool, the life Laurel had hoped to build in her gated Florida neighborhood with her video-game designer husband, David, and their tween daughter, Shelby, starts to fall apart. Though the police clear the drowning as accidental, it soon appears that Shelby and her friend Bet may have been involved. Bet, who lives in DeLop, Laurel’s impoverished hometown, was staying over the night of the drowning and plays an increasingly important role as the truth behind the drowning comes to light. Meanwhile, Laurel’s sister, Thalia, whose unconventional ways are anathema to Laurel’s staid existence, comes to stay with the family and helps sort things out. Subplots abound: Laurel thinks David is having an affair, and Thalia reveals some ugly family secrets involving the death of their uncle. What makes this novel shine are its revelations about the dark side of Southern society and Thalia and Laurel’s finely honed relationship, which shows just how much thicker blood is than water.

So now… GIVEAWAY!

Would you like the chance to win a copy of The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson? This is your lucky night. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.

1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
6.) Comment on any of my previous blog posts and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
7.) Answer this question: Have you almost ever drowned (I HAVE!)?

If you do all of the above, you will get seven entries. That’s seven chances to win.

Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on May 30th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.

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Here are the latest book giveaways I have come across in my travels through the world wide web. Whenever I see a book up for giveaway that I think sounds like a good read, I will post a link to the giveaway so that all of you, my readers, can go to the website and snag a chance to win for yourself. Below you will find cover images (clickable to their Amazon.com page), the name of the author, the name of the book, the link to the giveaway, and the date the contest ends. If you need any help or have any questions, feel free to comment.

If you are hosting a book giveaway and would like me to list it here, leave me a comment with the contest URL or send me an email at morbidromantic@gmail.com.

Win Helen Scott Taylor’s The Magic Knot at Bitten by Books
Contest ends May 19th

Win Viola Estrella’s Angel Vindicated at Patricia’s Vampire Notes
Contest ends May 21st

Win a red iPop Nano at Bitten by Books
Contest ends May 27th

Win Joy Fielding’s Still Life at Lori’s Reading Corner
Contest ends May 27th

Win Mark Mynheir’s The Night Watchman at Lori’s Reading Corner
Contest ends May 27th

Win Diana Spechler’s Who By Fire at A Circle of Books
Contest ends May 30th

Win Lori Wilde’s All of Me at Booking With Bingo
Contest ends May 30th

Win David Ebershoff’s The 19th Wife at Hey Lady, Whatcha Reading
Contest ends May 31st

Win Nancy Springer’s The Enola Holmes Mysteries 1-3 at Bookish Ruth
Contest ends June 2nd

Win a Penguin Fantasy Prize Pack at Presenting Lenore
Contest ends June 3rd

Win a Penguin Reality Prize Pack at Presenting Lenore
Contest ends June 3rd

Win Donna Woolfolk Cross’s Pope Joan at Passages to the Past
Contest ends June 8th