"Wondrous Strange" by Lesley Livingston

"Wondrous Strange"
by Lesley Livingston
read by author
Produced by Harper Audio
Approx 7 Hours

Kelly Winslow, an aspiring actress in New York City, has just had her big break, when the actress portraying Titania in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" has been injured and Kelly goes from being the understudy to the lead actress. But not all is as good as it seems. Kelly soon learns the world of Fairy and Fae is real, and worse yet, the Winter King, Oberon is not only real but is her real father. This at first may sound good to suddenly find you are a Fairy Princess, but the Fairy-folk are really not a friendly bunch. Someone in the Fairy world has decided they don't want Kelly to realize her birthright.

The troubles all begin when Kelly is rehearsing her lines in Central Park and Sonny Flannery, a Janus Guard for King Oberon (unbeknownst to Kelly) notices something different about Kelly. Spying on her from the bushes he sees she is having a bad day (seems she forgot her lines during rehearsal and the director was a bit cruel). Sonny can't shake the feeling that she is different from most humans so curious he presents her with a rose. Kelly asks why and Sonny says you look like you needed something nice. When they part Kelly begins walking home through Central Park and hears the sound of someone screaming from a pond. It turns out not to be someone but a something, a horse. With Sonny long gone, Kelly realizes no one is around to help so she dives in to save the drowning horse. Kelly risks her life to save the horse that seems to be tangled in the vegetation of the bottom of the pond.

The next day Sonny discovers the area where someone was dragged on shore the mud in the grass and some mysterious black beads and copper colored horse's hairs. Sonny knows the hairs for what they are, Kelpie hairs. Kelpies are fairy creatures that lure people into the water and eat them. When Sonny finds Kelly's script nearby he fears the worst. Sonny shows Oberon the beads which Oberon immediately knows them as part of a spell that is set to begin the Great Hunt in which all the evils of the fairy world will be unleashed into the mortal world killing all in sight until the quarry is found. This time the target is Oberon's daughter.

Sonny must save Kelly from the fairyworld by letting her know who she is. At the same time he must find out who is trying to unleash the Hunt. He suspects Queen Maab, but with a very interesting twist in the tale, the author, Lesley Livingston, creates a bit of a mystery into this fairy tale set in modern day New York City. Very entertaining bit of young adult fiction that will keep you enthralled until the end. This book is part one of a three book series but is easily a standalone novel.

I have to note that at first I was a bit leery at the idea of the author reading her own work as the audiobook. While the authors may have a great feel for what is in the book, the performance as a reader can sometimes lack. Not so with Lesley Livingstone, she does a superb job of performing the many different voices and expressing all necessary emotion. This audiobook is an excellent choice from that aspect alone.

"Dead and Gone" Book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries. by Charlaine Harris

"Dead and Gone"
Book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries.
by Charlaine Harris
Published 2009 by Ace Books

With Season 3 of HBO's "True Blood" starting and the recent publication of book 10 of this series, "Dead in the Family," I decided to get to jumping on the continuing adventures of Sookie Stackhouse from Bon Temps, Louisiana and her life dealing with the supernatural.

Sookie is pretty much the average bar waitress in a small town in Louisiana, it's just that the rest of the world going on around her is way beyond the average. You see, in these novels the vampires have "come out of the coffin," which is to say they have revealed to the rest of the world that they do indeed exist. With the invention of synthetic blood, "True Blood," they no longer have to prey upon humans for their food source. This coming out has created some very interesting times for the world and especially for Sookie Stackhouse. There have been some bad times because of the vamps coming out. One of those is for a religious group taking offense to the existence of vampires, saying they are an abomination. This group calls themselves "The Fellowship of the Sun," and they are always wreaking havoc upon the vampires.

Okay I say Sookie is pretty much average she does have one "disability," she can read people's minds. So as you can figure she doesn't have much of a dating life because she knows exactly what her date is thinking. Enter the vampires. Sookie discovers that (for the most part) she cannot read the thoughts of vampires. With this she finds relief finally she can be with someone and not learn of their deepest darkest secrets. She falls in love with a vampire and then learns of a whole new world that exists within the realms of the "real" world. The supernatural world not only consists of Vampires, but also; werewolves, shapeshifters, witches, fairies & fae, goblins and probably more.

In the previous novel Sookie has just found out that her great-grandfather is a prince of fairies. He is one of the last remaining fairy royalty. This makes Sookie part fairy, and explains why she's so attractive to vampires (vampires cannot resist fairy blood) also this may explain her "disability." In this novel it seems as though the fairies are not happy with the intermingling that has been going on with humans. This starts a civil war amongst the fae and Sookie's great-grandfather, Niall, has come to warn Sookie that her life may be in danger. The fairies all want to go into their own world and never again return to the human world, but before they leave they want to remove all traces that fairies ever existed. This means killing those that are part fairy, like Sookie and her brother, Jason.

As if this weren't enough, the Were community (which includes werewolves, were panthers [Jason Stackhouse has been turned into a werepanther], were tigers, were foxes and shapeshifters of all sorts) have decided to also reveal themselves to the world since the vampires have been pretty successful with their reveal. They do so on television nationwide and in prominent areas have representatives shift into their animal form so the normal humans can see. This includes the bar where Sookie works. Sam, the owner of the bar where Sookie works, and a true shape shifter (he can shift into any animal shape)reveals himself to the community. Many folks take the big reveal with little unease. After all they have vampires, why not werewolves.

At least that's how it seems at first. The next day, Jason's ex-wife and werepanther, Crystal Norris is found crucified in the parking lot of Sam's bar, Merlotte's. Sookie is determined to find the killer.
In the vampire world Louisiana is just getting into the groove of the new King of Louisiana, and the only remaining original sheriff of the vampires, Eric Northman, in order to protect Sookie from becoming a slave to the new King, tricks her into what can be seen as the vampire equivalent of marrying Eric. Sookie seems at first upset, but then again, she does have feelings for Eric, so she decides to see how it plays out.

Soon the fairies attack and Sookie is forced to call in all her markers from the werewolves, the vampires and the witches to keep her safe, but the war begins and Sookie is kidnapped by fairies, keep in mind these aren't your Tinker Bell type fairies...these are vicious killers.

The war is on and Sookie is in the middle, can she be protected? Will she find Crystal's murderer? You'll have to pick this one up yourself and find out. Here's a clue...there is a book 10 in the series and this one is number 9.

"From Dead to Worse" Book 8 in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris

"From Dead to Worse"
Book 8 in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries
by Charlaine Harris


I'm not sure if it is whether I'm becoming more of a fan of these books or if they just keep getting better, but what I do know, is that Charlaine Harris has cram-packed more action into this book than any of the other seven in the series. There's a battle for pack leadership among the werewolves, A hostile coup which leads to the King of the Nevada vampires taking over for Louisiana and Arkansas, and Sookie finds out her great-grandfather is a Fairy Prince. Okay maybe this should all be explained further.

Before I explain the actions in this book I want to say that I'm hoping the HBO series "True Blood," which is based on this series by Charlaine Harris, makes it to eight seasons so I can see this book unfold on my tv. The series is what got me curious about the series, and I'm glad it did. Okay actually it was the book "My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding" (a collection of short stories by various supernatural authors) but I've explained that before. It was after I read the story I heard they were making a series, so I watched the series and was hooked and had to read the books, and the books are way better.

Basically Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic barmaid in Bon Temps, Louisiana, has been forced into the supernatural world after all the world's vampires have come "out of the coffin," which is to say they've revealed their existence to the non-supernatural world. Sookie has fallen in love with a vampire, a werewolf and finally a weretiger. She has found out that she has a real fairy godmother, and that the supernatural has many more creatures which were once only thought to be myth.

In this book, just weeks after the events in "Altogether Dead" and about a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, Sookie's boyfriend the were-tiger, Quinn, is missing. It's as if he's dropped off the face of the Earth. Just as she decides he'll contact her when he wants, she is confronted outside of Merlotte's (the bar where she works, with her boss Sam the shapeshifter) by an Asian vampire. This vampire says he just wants to find out if what they say about her is true. After all Sookie did save the lives of the Queen of Louisiana and her entourage.

After talking with the area vampire sheriff (Eric Northman, a former lover of Sookie's) she finds he knows of no such person in the area and should alert him if she sees him again. Eric then asks Sookie out for dinner. She accepts and on the way to the restaurant Eric says he's bringing her to meet someone. As it turns out that someone is Sookie's great-grandfather, only not the one she thought she had. It turns out that her real great-grandfather is a fairy prince, Niall Brigant, Niall explains the story and Sookie now has to rethink all her family's history. But that does explain why she is irresistable to the vamps and may explain her telepathic powers. He then says to make up for lost time he wants to give her anything she wants. She can't think of anything but takes a rain check.

On the way home Sookie and Eric are attacked by a werewolf, and as it turns out all the femal pack-members are being targeted. The Shreveport werewolf pack has had been divided and in turmoil since the new leader killed to become the leader now so it looks like the wolves are going to have a major battle, and Sookie is right in the middle, after all one of her former boyfriends, Alcide Herveaux, was the son of the pack leader that was killed. But the twist here is that the attacks are not coming from where everyone thinks.

Now that's just the middle of the book. As the rest of the book progresses Sookie's witch room-mate, who is in hiding because she turned her lover into a cat, is found by her coven leader. The Louisiana vampires left weak and low on monetary assets are under attack by the Nevada vampires in hopes that the Nevada King will take over Louisiana and Arkansas.

This book has non-stop action and mysteries in the supernatural as well as the fun humor and wit that is shared through the entire series. I only hope that the next one is just as good.

"Dead to the World" Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 4 by Charlaine Harris

"Dead to the World"
Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 4
by Charlaine Harris
published by Ace, 2004

Continuing in the world of the Southern Vampires and the supernatural events in the life of Sookie Stackhouse, here's book 4, "Dead to the World." This book for me marked a bit of a milestone in the Charlaine Harris creations. This milestone is that this is the book that becomes more like the world of my favorite author, Jim Butcher. After all it was Jim Butcher that got me interested in the Charlaine Harris books.

What I mean by this is that when Jim Butcher writes his Harry Dresden novels he combines as many creatures as possible in his tales of the supernatural. Which makes sense, really, because if there is one creature in the supernatural world there has to be more. Charlaine Harris started this series of books with vampires and some hinting toward shape-shifters. By the 3rd book she had vampires, menads, shape-shifters and werewolves. In this 4th book she introduces the reader to witches, Wiccans and fairies. Thus creating a fun read in the supernatural world, and not just a romance series involving vampires. I will admit there were times in this book where I let out a displeasing sigh when the romance novel would burst out of the pages. But, Ms. Harris knew to keep that as a minor point and to move on with some great supernatural horror and adventure, oh, and some really funny dialogue. You gotta have your comic relief.

The stories are all told by the main character Sookie Stackhouse, a bar-maid in Bon Temps, Louisiana with the gift of telepathy. In this installment (which takes place just weeks after the previous book, "Club Dead") Sookie is ready for the New Year and her resolution is to not get beat up, a resolution that seems to be hard to keep when you run around with vampires and werewolves.

After leaving Merlotte's, the bar in which Sookie works for Sam the shape-shifter, Sookie sees a nearly naked man running in the cold night. From there things just get weirder. She stops to help the man. The nearly naked man turns out to be Eric Northman, the vampire sheriff for that area of Louisiana. The problem is that Eric does not know who Sookie is and worse yet he doesn't know who he is.

As the story unfolds it is discovered a coven of witches have moved into Shreveport, where Eric maintains his area from a bar called Fangtasia. By the way, the vampires are the only supernatural creature that, in the world created by Charlaine Harris, have made themselves known to the world. Vampire rights are an issue in this world. Fangtasia is mainly a "tourist" bar where normal people can come to stare at vampires while the vampires sip on "True Blood," the synthetic alternative to human blood.

Eric refuses the witches and they curse him. This curse sends him to Bon Temps without his memory. Sookie gets help from her brother, Jason, sending him to buy clothes and "True Blood" for Eric. Eric's second in command Pam, meanwhile tries to locate the witches so that the vamps can retaliate.

To add woe to Sookie's now Eric-babysitting service, Jason comes up missing. Thinking the witches may have kidnapped him so Sookie will reveal where she is hiding Eric, Sookie joins the retaliation by helping to recruit the werewolves of Shreveport and the Wiccans of Bon Temps.

In what turns out to be an explosive battle against this dark witch coven by Wiccans, werewolves and vampires, Charlaine Harris has written in an adrenaline fueled thriller with some great humorous moments.

These books just keep getting better.