From Dead to Worse by: Charlaine Harris was my 34th book this year. It took me awhile to get through it. I love the Sookie series, but it was a hard read.

The world is very richly layered, but that’s not always necessarily top priority when I read something, especially if we’ve got too many different things going on. I find that I wasn’t interested in every single sub-thread, and some of them I skimmed a bit. I’m mostly interested in the romantic story arc. (Which makes it probably good that I read and write paranormal romance. I’m all about the supernatural bad boys and love stories.)

So mainly the whole book, while I liked parts that didn’t directly involve Eric, I just wanted to know when we were getting back to the Sookie/Eric storyline. The Sookie Stackhouse series very much has an Anita Blake feel to me, in that Sookie is somehow becoming interconnected with all these different supernatural groups based on this one supernatural skill she has. And somehow she’s the friend and love of everybody. Which is fine, it doesn’t bug me like it bugs some fans.

At any rate, this book gave me some hope for the Sookie/Eric eventual happily ever after. These two belong together, and I really hope it happens. I’m glad to see some things about their storyline partially resolved in this book, and I’m thrilled about the guy she dumped. He was hot and all, but something about him was just too white bread for me. He had kind of a “Riley” feel (Buffy reference) that was highly icky for me.

One thing that does puzzle me about this book, and I’m not quite sure how to take it. There is no climax. There’s just a lot of stuff that happens. At various points in the story new problems are introduced in the various situations Sookie finds herself involved in. And as the story goes on, those situations get resolved one by one.

The story hangs together, it’s cohesive, and all the threads get resolved, it’s just, there is no one scene that is the top scene. There is just a string of mini-climaxes, and then an ending. And the ending, though cool and intriguing, doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the book.

So I’m not really sure how to deal with that. I’m left with this bizarre feeling that I’m not sure if we’ve missed something, or if it should have been bigger somewhere. Or if I feel the ending is satisfying or not. I’m not sure because there was no definite point at which I felt like “we won.” Or whatever you’re supposed to feel when the heroine’s journey has come to an end in a particular novel.

I am happy about the developments in the Sookie/Eric situation. And I hate Bill slightly less, though I swear if that vampire tries to come between Eric and Sookie I’ll stop reading.

I know that may make me a bitch, but I’m in it for the Sookie/Eric pairing and that’s where my loyalties end. As soon as the books stop delivering at least a hopeful Eric/Sookie relationship, I’m out. Though from reading other reviews on this issue, I know there is a pretty big fan contingent that agrees with me.