Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Pages: 292
Genre: Fantasy/Vampires
Description: Sookie Stackhouse is just a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. Until the vampire of her dreams walks into her life-and one of her coworkers checks out....Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

Plot Summary: In Dead Until Dark, Sookie Stackhouse is a telepath who lives in a world where vampires have come out to the public and become legal citizens since the Japanese developed a synthetic blood. "True Blood" makes it possible for vampires to live in the open without the need to hunt humans for sustenance. Sookie lives with her grandmother, Adele Stackhouse, and has an older brother, Jason.

Sookie falls in love with a vampire, a Civil War veteran named Bill Compton. Bill's mind is 'silent' to Sookie. In his company, she is free from the constant strain of blocking or ignoring the thoughts of the humans around her. In his first visit, Sookie saves him from the Rattrays (vampire drainers), and Bill returns the favor the next day when the Rattrays attack Sookie.

In the meantime, there are several murders in Bon Temps, and people believe that Bill is behind the murders because many of the bodies have fang marks. The Bon Temps police suspect Sookie's brother Jason and arrest him because he has been romantically linked to two of the victims. Sookie wants to help her brother and asks Bill to take her to a vampire bar called Fangtasia in nearby Shreveport.

Fangtasia is owned by Eric Northman, a vampire sheriff who is much older and more powerful than Bill. Eric soon discovers that Sookie can be useful and orders Bill to have her use her telepathic ability to determine the identity of the person who has been stealing from his bar. Sookie finds out that Eric's partner, Long Shadow (vampire), has been stealing the money and she almost gets killed in the process. Eric saves Sookie's life by staking Long Shadow when he attacks her.

Back in Bon Temps, Sookie finds her grandmother Adele slaughtered in the kitchen.

Bill, concerned with Eric's power over him and Sookie, decides to improve his own position within their vampire hierarchy. He asks Bubba, a dim-witted vampire, to protect Sookie while he is gone.

Sookie discovers that her boss Sam is a shape-shifter when she lets a stray dog sleep beside her and finds a naked Sam in the morning.

While Bill is gone, Sookie discovers that the murderer is her brother's friend Rene Lenier. He almost kills her, but she fights back. Badly injured, Sookie wakes up in the hospital and finds Bill by her side. Bill tells Sookie that he has become his area's investigator, working under Eric.

Thoughts: I absolutely LOVE this series and it means a lot to me to be able to watch True Blood on television as well! (Another post coming talking about that particular discussion!) Anyways... I started reading these books LONG before the Twilight Saga hit the shelves. The first one came out in 2001 but I haven't been reading them that long. Started them a few months before Twilight came into my life. I love both book series, but this one is easier for me to personally relate to!

Sookie is a totally back country girl from a small town in Lousiana. I adore her passion for life and just trying to let each day pass - until friends start dying and the vampires come out of the dark - and Bill comes into the bar. Her life changes forever.

It's not that these books are written so eloquently or anything - just the world that Charlaine Harris creates in today's modern society - I just love it. The vampires, werewolves, were-tigers, were-panthers, faeries, witches and shifters! It's an amazing world with some very fascinating characters. If you haven't given it a chance - please do! :) You won't be sorry!