Dead in the Family

Dead in the family is Charlain Harris' tenth Sookie Stackhouse novel. This time round Sookie is recovering from the Fae War that killed so many of her friends including her fairy godmother and cousin Claudine. Trouble is brewing with Eric's maker and brother coming to town, and to make matters worse a dead body ends up on her land.
Once again, Harris fails to impress me with her characters. I distinctly recall a fight where death is immediate and all Sookie can say is 'Don't kill Claude he's my family and I don't have much of that left.' I could not feel the terror that Sookie should have been feeling, I felt like a bystander which is not the reading experience I want. But I will continue to read her books even if the emotional connection to the characters are flatter than Stanley.

Cry of the Icemark review

Cry of the Icemark is the story of young Thirrin, a warrior princess to the land of Icemark. Shortly after her 14th birthday, she is officially made heir to the throne in the case of her father's death. Soon after, an army from the south begins to invade north towards Icemark hoping to overtake the small land and claim it as its own. After her father's brave death in battle Thirrin is then faced with the large responsibility of Queen. Knowing she cannot defeat the invading army she reaches out to the most unlikely sources for allies involving the Wolf-folk, the King and Queen of the Vampires, and the Snow Leopards.
This book has the coming of age quality that one would look for in a young adult novel, Thirrin tends to be very unsure of herself at times stating that she hopes people don't notice that she's making this up as she goes. Along with Thirrin is a Warlock who is her age, her Royal Advisor, and must face his decision of turning to the light or the dark. I found the battle scenes quite vivid, and the tension between technology and the unknown thought-provoking. Overall, I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either.