August 2009 Archives

Once again Richelle Mead has outdone herself with the fourth book, Blood Promise, in the Vampire Academy series. You’ll follow Rose as she travels through Russia and SIberia killing Strigoi and learning more secrets about her own world that she didn’t find out due to not graduating. She’s searching for Dimitri in hopes to release him from his Strigoi self and gets more than she bargained for.

You’ll meet Sydney, a secret part of the Moroi world, who thinks that all Dhampirs and Moroi are dark and twisted like the Strigoi, if not as much. She helps Rose against her will to get where she needs to go and gets a sweet car out of the deal. Even though they may not be the best of friends they certainly become allies.

Following Rose through this book while she searches for Dimitri you’ll relive moments of her and Dimitri together as she reminisces during her search and while she visits with his family. During her stay with the Belikova family, Rose learns a lot about Dimitri’s past and his family immediately considers her one of their own, going so far as indicating they’d be thrilled if she decided to stay with them.

Rose learns a lot about the other side of Dhampir life from Dimitri’s family. They aren’t all Blood Whores as she grew up hearing, they simply want to raise their children and live their lives.

During her stay with the Belikova family a local ‘mobster’ type decides that he needs to run her out of town but refuses to tell her why. He keeps an eye on her, following her around and showing up when unexpected. Rose learns about who this man is exactly when she finally returns to St. Vladimir’s Academy in Minnesota.

While on the other side of the world Lissa is slowly spiraling out of control and doing more and more dangerous stunts while drinking and partying with a new friend, Avery. All Rose can do is watch what’s happening but she’s so tied up in what’s going on with her at the moment that she tells Adrian to back off and leave her alone when he visits her dreams. Rose feels that Lissa has replaced her and simply focuses on what she’s got to do and decides to worry about her later.

Blood Promise will keep you on your toes and a tissue in one hand. Rose finds what she’s looking for, Dimitri, and almost doesn’t survive the meeting. She gets a special package when she returns to the Academy and it drops her to her knees. There’s the hope of a miracle in the future but Rose and Lissa will have to break some serious laws to find out for sure and that may just get them killed for sure.

Remember, Blood Promise isn’t the first book, it’s the fourth. You’ll want to start with Vampire Academy before cracking the cover on this one. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have, through laughter and tears both.

At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to read the entire series (currently 6 books, plus 1 to come) or not. Then it got interesting. Picture this: College girl, somewhat naive, goes to a party, doesn’t get taken home properly but raped instead. She throws herself out of the asshole’s vehicle and after asking her if she wanted a ride home, he drives off. This is (of course) the night of the full moon and she’s near the picnic area of the park.

This isn’t where the story starts off, though. This is simply the explanation of how Kitty got to where she is at the beginning. And then things heat up even more. You see, she’s a werewolf. Named Kitty. She’s a DJ at a little station in Denver and plays all kinds of heavy and classic rock late at night. It all starts when she can’t keep her mouth shut and she starts talking about the things that go ‘bump in the night’ and taking calls.

At first people think it’s a joke, a way to boost ratings, and then someone tries to kill her while she’s on the air and she has to admit what she is. She could have saved herself the trouble simply by having the show go off the air but she was too hyped up about what it would mean for ratings and so forth.

After this Kitty is launched nationally on the airwaves, exiled from her pack and Denver and living on the road going from city to city. Her adventures take you all over and she befriends the hunter, Cormac and even puts his lawyer, Ben (who’s also Cormac’s cousin) on retainer. The story doesn’t end there. Find out what happens between Cormac and Kitty (werewolf hunter and werewolf), how Kitty brings the monsters into the light of day and saves a bunch of them as well, and how she returns home to Denver.

Again, I didn’t think I’d like this series but the characters are well written, no one is perfect and arguments aren’t always reasonable. They are quite human, so to speak. So take a chance and read them, you’ll like what you’re getting into. I’ve read the first 4 and I plan on reading the rest. Enjoy!

First, I want to say WOW. I watched all of season 1 and caught up with 2 in three days. THREE DAYS. That is just how good the series is and YES there are huge gaping differences with the tv show and the books. So if you’re watching the show and not reading the novels, don’t worry about it. If you don’t want to read them, you don’t have to and you won’t be concerned about all the differences.

If you’ve read the novels then you’re going to be like “HOLY CRAP!” when you watch the show. Even though they have made some HUGE changes the show it still worth watching. You can just be like me and wonder how the hell are they going to pull off Stan being Sherriff of Texas if he’s dead? Lafayette is alive and working for Eric, unwillingly, of course.

I do have compliments for a lot of the effects though. Shifting is semi-believable. It’s not “my bones are breaking and reforming and there’s all kinds of clear goop you’re going t have to clean up off the bathroom floor”. It looks magical, first you see human, then you see dog, then you see human and of course they are naked. It’s absolutely hilarious when Sookie finds out about Sam and how - which is pretty close in the book, but not quite. The book version was better.

It’s also quite nice to see what’s going on with other people living in Bon Temps. I’d never think of Jason doing V or kidnapping a vampire. They changed the way Rene died and I wasn’t thrilled about that. Sookie saved her own life in the book and I think it would have been nice if they had followed that scene in the show. It wasn’t in the middle of the day and I think Bill was out of town. Oh, and Rene didn’t die, he’d started confessing like crazy in the hospital. I don’t recall if he made it or not.

The entire story regarding Long Shadow was done differently, except for the embezzlement, but there was a lot more going on afterwards that connected to his death and his maker in the book. There wasn’t any tribunal that Bill and Eric had to go to and he sure as hell didn’t have to make a new vampire. Although I do like the twist it adds and of course, the drama, for the show.

There are enough differences between the series and the show to make it interesting enough to want to follow both. I’ve read all 9 books now and I’m going to finish watching season 2. HBO has said it’s going to have a season 3. I think that’s a pretty good thing. I just wish I knew the thinking behind the screenwriters reasons as to why they changed parts of the main story itself (Lafayette dies, Stan Lives in the books) because I think it was fine the way it was.

If you’re interested in the show and haven’t read the books, you might want to do so. Check your library, they may have them, or download it to your Kindle if you have one. They are worth reading and comparing to the show. Enjoy.

Honey and I thought we’d like the TrueBlood series on HBO but after watching a few episodes it didn’t seem to be our thing. Now that I’ve read the first 8 books I may have to check it out again for myself. If anyone out there has read the books and watches the series, let me know what you think.

The books are excellent reads. They didn’t make me cry like the Vampire Academy books did, but they did make me laugh quite a bit. I feel bad for Sookie a lot of the time with the things that happen to her. She’s just trying to use her gift (or curse) to help someone. I like the fact that even though she’s almost been killed several times she still continues to help the vampires and the Weres.

If you like a lot of action, puzzles or mysteries, you’ll enjoy trying to figure out who’s behind what, why someone did such and such and if you know people in the south you may even end up hearing the book in your head in a southern accent. Weird, I know, but it happens to me that way. I have truly started prefering books that are written in first person as well. I think it was great insight of Charlaine Harris to make Sookie a telepath so that you can find out what others are thinking. It’s got to be very hard to not have Sookie helping everyone and revealing everyone’s secrets and turning in those who are supposed to be lawful and aren’t.

I like Sookie. She’s one of my more favorite characters lately. I’m surprised that Charlaine hasn’t had her taking self defense classes with all the trouble that keeps coming after her. But then again, between work and crisis after crisis it would be kind of hard to work that into your schedule. So take the time to sit down and read the books, not just watch the series on HBO. You might get more insight by reading the books than watching the shows, as is normal.

It’s actually cheaper to buy the first 7 all together.

Even though the Vampire Academy series is rated as Young Adult I truly enjoyed reading the first three books and I’m anxious to get my fingers on the fourth when it comes out later this month. I love reading Richelle Mead. She makes her characters so very realistic. I’m sure you recall me trying to read Twilight and I just couldn’t get into it? Well, Richelle Mead’s teen saga is 1000 times better and she puts you right in the middle of the mess.

The relationships between her characters are quite intense, too. I love to hate the characters that are trying to mess with the ones I love, but then that’s what she wants you to do. When I started the first book I figured that Lissa was going to be weak and constantly in need of reassurance and coddling. That was right, but wrong later on. She ends up turning out to be quite strong and self-assured. She still has all kinds of personal issues, but what teen doesn’t? She’s got the love of Christian and Rose to back her up.

The second book was even better. Love, Lust and Ass-Kickings. I absolutely fell in love with the character Dimitri. He’s an amazing personality and if he were real I’d love to meet him. Lissa starts losing it but Rose is there for her.

I enjoyed book three more than words can say. I laughed, I wanted to yell and I definitely cried. That’s all I will say about this book. I hope that it isn’t true about Dimitri but if it is I know Rose will take care of it and do the right thing. Seriously, you have to read these books if you’ve read the Succubus series. They are just as exciting, thrilling and heartbreaking.