Whew! This one went by quickly. Well that's partially because I had to finish it before taking off for the US Social Forum in Detroit. It's a new book, so I couldn't renew it, and it's due before I'll get back. Anyway, it's the continuing saga of Cincinnati witch Rachel Morgan and her partners Jenks, a pixy; and Ivy, a vampire as they fend off coven witches, powerful elves, and greedy fairies trying to fuck with them.
Sophie Mercer is a social outcast from a broken home who has finally been sentenced to the school you go to when you've been kicked out of all the others: Hecate Hall. Well, where witches, shape shifters, and faeries go anyway. Raised by a human mother and yet to meet her warlock father, Sophie doesn't know a lot about witchery (history and powers), which is kind of a drag when she gets to Hecate (Hex) Hall, because the other kids are steeped in it and even know more about her father than she does. Assigned to the school pariah as a roommate, a pink loving vampire named Jenna, Sophie is not off to a good start at her new school.
I read this book while in the process of packing up the apartment I lived in for the last ten years. I needed something that was...easy. Industrial Magic, like it's prequel went down easy. I still find narrator Paige Winterbourne a little middle-aged for a 23-year-old, but the story is damned absorbing.
I felt like I earned this one. So far in 2010 I've only read one other paranormal fiction book, and I didn't even like it very much. I'd put a hold on Dime Store Magic, from Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series at NYPL 100 years ago, and so was pleasantly surprised when I finally got notice that my turn had arrived.
With every man in her life attracted to her, why is it that Sookie can't find a decent boyfriend she can stick with? Which one would you choose?--the current contenders being, alphabetically, Bill, Eric, Quinn, and Sam. You can also consider Alcide, Calvin, or anyone else who has expressed having the hots for the telepath. I think there is one woman in there somewhere, too.
Thinking about my zine, I realize that I need to start writing shorter reviews, like I did when they debuted on paper. So, this will be quick. Night World no. 1, consists of three novels: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, and Spellbinder. They all take place in the same universe but have few characters in common. I'm hoping that after we've met everyone (There are nine novels in the series.), they'll interact. However, I suspect that they'll stay as they are, primarily about the forbidden soul mate pairings of humans and supes.
If you're paying attention--and I don't blame you if you're not--in my last Sookie Stackhouse novel review, I complained about "every unrelated heterosexual man in Sookie's life being totally hot for her." Well, that question is answered in book six of the series.
Four books into the Sookie Stackhouse series, I'm finally willing to admit I'm getting hooked. That's not entirely stubbornness or snobbery talking; only with this one and it's predecessor, Club Dead did I read the books in a hurry. Plus, I liked that Harris thanked a librarian, Doris Ann Norris, in her acknowledgments page.
