Title: Deadlocked Author:  Charlaine Harris Series: Sookie Stackhouse #12 Cover Art: Lisa Desimini Genre: Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Publisher Reviewed by: Abigail Reading level: Ages 18 and up Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Ace (May 1, 2012) ISBN-10: 1937007448 ISBN-13: 978-1937007447   Sexual Content: References to sex, references to rape Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now & put this author on your watch list.

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I don’t know about you guys, but my newsfeed has been filled with ever more entertaining items being added to Pinterest.  This week has reached a new high, as Abigail created a board for All Things Urban Fantasy.  If you’re ever in the mood for new cover art before Cover Art Coverage hits newstands, feel free to stop by our Pinterest and browse.  Global covers will appear there, too, be sure to check it out!

I sometimes have a hard time objectively evaluating cover reveals for beloved series (how can you untangle the adrenaline of a new book coming out from the cover itself?).  This week I didn’t give many thumbs down, but my affection for the Sookie Stackhouse series as a whole couldn’t overcome the unfortunate scene depicted on book #12.  To balance that disappointment, however,there was a rare “bare chest with floating animal” cover that actually got a thumbs up. Enjoy!

Book Description:

From New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris and Nalini Singh and national bestselling authors Ilona Andrews and Meljean Brook, tales of man's worst friend...

In these hound-eat-hound worlds, anything goes... and everything bites.
Follow paranormal bodyguards Clovache and Batanya into Lucifer's realm, where they encounter his fearsome four-legged pets, in Charlaine Harris's The Britlingens Go to Hell. Seek out a traitor in the midst of a guild of non- lethal vampire trackers, one that intends to eradicate the entire species of bloodsuckers, in Nalini Singh's Angels' Judgment. Find out why the giant three-headed dog that guards the gates of Hades has left the underworld for the real world-and whose scent he's following-in Ilona Andrews's Magic Mourns. Embark on a perilous search for the kidnapped niece of a powerful vampire alongside her blind- and damn sexy-companion and a hellhound in Meljean Brook's Blind Spot.
These four novellas by today's hottest paranormal authors will have hellhound lovers everywhere howling.

*Note* I’ll be reviewing each story in this anthology in separate posts.

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“The Britlingens Go To Hell” by Charlaine Harris.

Review:
“The Britlingens Go To Hell” by Charlaine Harris. This story is a bit hard to classify. The story involves two female members of an elite Britlingens guard (who appeared briefly as bodyguards in All Together Dead, Sookie Stackhouse book 7) for hire who accept a contract with a thief on a recovery mission to Hell. The setting is a planet in a futuristic alternate dimension. Translation: hovercrafts and time travel portals.

There are a couple historical cameos that pop up inexplicably in an attempt at comic relief; attempt being the operative word there. And Lucifer himself as the villain is more interested in sadomasochism then anything else. The obligatory hellhounds serve as prison guard dogs.

If I hadn't read Charlaine Harris before, this story would probably have kept me from seeking out her other books. This just feels like she phoned it in. The writing is not good, the characters underdeveloped (even for a novella), and the world convoluted and poorly explained. Since I know that Charlaine Harris is a good author, I'm going to dismiss this effort as a fluke.  

Sexual Content: references to sadomasochism and male rape. Anatomical sexual incompatibilities. 

My Rating (out of 5):

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; X edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425229599
• ISBN-13: 978-0425229590
• Cover art: Don Sipley

Disagree with my review?  Email me your review for this or any other book I reviewed and I might use it for 2nd Opinion Review

Book Description: Today's hottest urban fantasy authors come together in this delicious brew that crackles and boils over with tales of powerful witches and dark magic! In Charlaine Harris' 'Bacon,' a beautiful vampire joins forces with a witch from an ancient line to find out who killed her beloved husband. In 'Seeing Eye' by Patricia Briggs, a blind witch helps sexy werewolf Tom Franklin find his missing brother - and helps him in more ways than either of them ever suspected. And in Jim Butcher's 'Last Call,' wizard Harry Dresden takes on the darkest of dark powers - the ones who dare to mess with this favorite beer. For anyone who's ever wondered what lies beyond the limits of reality, who's imagined the secret spaces where witches wield fearsome magic, come and drink deep. Let yourself fall under the spell of this bewitching collection! 

Review:
Bacon takes place in the same Sookie Stackhouse world from the Southern Vampire series but minus Sookie.  If you read Harris’ story Tacky in the anthology My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding then these characters will already be familiar to you. If your planning on reading both, start with Tacky and STOP READING THIS REVIEW because it will spoil aspects of that story. In Bacon, newly widowed vampire Dahlia seeks out the aid of a witch descendent of Circe to get revenge on the werewolf pack that killed her were husband.  So far, this is my least favorite story in this anthology: It’s predictable, feels small because it fails to take advantage of the Sookieverse, and lacks even one likable character.  At only 32 pages, it went on way too long.

Sexual Content:  None

*Bacon is part of Strange Brew: An anthology of stories edited by P N Elrod.  I will be reviewing the other stories in this anthology in separate posts.

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Product Description:

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312383363
• ISBN-13: 978-0312383367

                            
          TV              vs               Books     
     

     

            True Blood TV series     vs   The Southern Vampire Series         

                                          by Charlaine Harris  

                    

                  The Vampire Diaries TV series  vs    The Vampire Diaries                                    

                                            by L. J. Smith   

  
                    

            The Dresden Files TV series  vs   The Dresden Files Series                       
                                             by Jim Butcher    

                 
            Blood Ties TV series        vs        The Blood Series                     
                                               by Tanya Huff   

My new poll question made me wonder, should we ever judge a book by its TV series?  With the debut last week of The Vampire Diaries based on the series by L.J. Smith, and the continued success of True Blood based on the series by Charlaine Harris, this is the perfect time to ask this question.

I have read at least the first book in each of these series and, with the exception of True Blood (wayyyyyyyy too much profanity for me, I couldn't finish the show), seen the first episode of each show.  I have to say definitely not.    The TV series are in each case only loosely based on the books they claim.  The Vampire Diaries is the most recent example.  The book was a catty and trite look into the life of a teenage girl who sets out to compete with another popular girl for the attention of the new hottie in school.  The second half of the book is a flashback to how the aforementioned hottie and his brother got vamped way back when.  Since I clearly thought so little of the book, why did I bother to watch the show?  Because I thought the previews looked much more Twilight than the books.  And so far, the previews proved accurate.  The TV show, while still for a teen audience, is much more thoughtful and will, I suspect appeal to adults as well.

Please chime in with your opinion and take the poll and leave a comment with your thoughts (please let me know if I overlooked a book-to-TV adaptation).