Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Every vampire book I have read has been targeted towards teens (or tweens). So I am very used to the sort of romance that one expects in a YA book. Sighing, long stares, a sweet kiss, a take-your-breath-away makeout. This romance also typically includes love at first sight, without any explanation, and a love so intense that each would die without the other. But without any explanation. They would just die.
But I'm fine with that kind of romance and plot, because it's crack and easy to read. That being said, it was finally time for me to dive into a vampire romance meant for adults. I had originally tried to read this book a couple of months ago, but found it difficult to get into. I tried again while on vacation, with much more success.
Our heroine of sorts, Sookie Stackhouse, is a telepathic bar waitress in good ol' Louisiana. She's your regular hottie, but who doesn't know or act like a hottie, because everyone thinks she's a freak due to her "disability." She's got a manwhore brother, a sweet little grandmother, some waitress friends, and a boss who has the hots for her. Oh, and Bill Compton, the vampire that's just returned to the town he used to live in during the Civil War. Cause vampires are "out" and sort of socially accepted.
Obviously, our heroine falls for the vampire. Her first reason? She can't hear his thoughts. So ensues their love story, as she saves him and he falls for her. The only problem with this happy love story is that someone is going around killing bar waitresses who have sex with vampires. Hmm...I think there's someone like that in this story...crap...who was that....oh yeah, Sookie. So the romance storyline weaves into the murder mystery storyline, as someone clearly wants Sookie dead.
Overall, the book was your general brain candy, but a little better than the YA brain candy because these lovebirds actually have sex. And there's none of that fade-to-black junk (*cough* Stephenie Meyer *cough*). My only complaint was some of the jumping around from the narrator's POV. Sometimes it felt like Sookie would be in one place with one thought doing one thing and then the next paragraph without any smooth transition it would be her somewhere else, thinking and doing something else.
I'm planning on reading the next one (like I said, crack) and renting the first season of True Blood (which is based off of the book).
