Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

This is the first book of the Southern Vampire Mysteries. You meet Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at Merlotte's Bar who also happens to be telepathic. She has tried to hide it all of her life, but people in town know and consider her "Crazy Sookie". At the beginning of the story Sookie meets Bill Compton, a vampire circa the Civil War. The Vampires have been "out of the coffin" for two years since the invention of TrueBlood, a synthetic blood that will sustain a vampire and allows them to mainstream and live among humans with out having to feed on them. Although the Vampires fare better with human blood. Anyways, there is a serial killer on the loose that is targeting "fangbangers" or human women who primarily sleep with Vampires. Sookie is one of the main targets because of her relationship with Bill and the fact that she has ingested Bill's blood which causes her to become stonger and more sexually appealing to vampires and humans alike. Sookie's grandmother was the killers last victim before he caught up with Sookie. Sookie ends up having to fight off the serial killer and discovers that it is her best friend's boyfriend. She is very seriously injured.



I like this book a lot. The plot is intriguing and it is interesting to find yet another take on Vampire lore. Sookie is very much the sweet, innocent girl next door until she meets Bill, and he brings out the sexy, glamorous Sookie. In my opinion Sookie is a very strong female character. She is very well fleshed out. The story is a page turner and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Especially at the end. I definitely recommend this book.

The Virgin's Lover by Philippa Gregory *spoilers*

Hey guys!!



I just finished this wonderful book today. This was my second time reading it, and i found it just as incredible as I did the first time.



SPOILER ALERT



This is the story of Queen Elizabeth I. It tells the story of her first 2 years as Queen of England. The main focus is her affair with Robert Dudley. It takes the stance that she was not in fact a virgin Queen, but was in fact Robert Dudley's lover. It was a very big scandal because he was a married man. He tries desperately to get Elizabeth to grant him a divorce, but she refuses because her adviser,William Cecil tells her that with out grounds Robert can not just cast his wife aside. Elizabeth is torn. When Robert starts talking about being named king instead of king-consort as would have been his proper title, Elizabeth gets scared and asks Cecil for advise. He tells her the only way to knock Robert down is to attach his name to a scandal. She asks what it would entail, and he tells her the death of an innocent person and she agrees. So he sends an assassin to kill Amy Robsart who is Robert's neglected wife. This gives Elizabeth the scandal that she needs as seeing that Dudley would be the prime suspect. He was cleared of the charges, but that ended his hopes of ever ruling England. While the whole love triangle, Dudley over shooting himself thing unfolds, England is under threat of invasion from France. Elizabeth spends most of the story wheeling and dealing to make a marriage that would give her an ally in a war with France.

End Spoiler



I really like this book because it is very interesting. It pulls you in almost from the first page. Ms. Gregory spends a lot of time researching and most of her events and characters are true to life. This book has just about everything. Love, the glamor of court, backstabbing and double dealing, and spying. It even includes a murder mystery! I highly recommend this book if you like historical fiction!