Dead Ever After

That's right folks, it's the end of an era. 
DEAD EVER AFTER, the 13th and last book in the Southern Vampire Mysteries is out and the story has drawn to a close. It's had it's ups and downs and lots of wtf moments, but I, like many of you, fell in love with the main character, Sookie Stackhouse, and enjoyed following her narration throughout this series. 

For those of you not familiar with these books, I'll fill you in on what you've been missing. WARNING: there are some spoilers for previous books in the series. 
This is one of those genre spanning series: there is mystery, fantasy, humor and some romance in every book. We are introduced through first person narrative to Sookie Stackhouse, a beautiful blonde waitress native to a small town called Bon Temps in Louisiana. We are also introduced to her "disability" as she calls it: she's a telepath. She can hear the thoughts of others. Well, other humans anyway. Because vampires just came out of the proverbial closet to the world and when she meets one in the bar where she works, she realizes that their minds are blank to her. 
As shocked as the world is that vampires are real, Sookie soon finds out first hand that there are plenty of other things going bump in the night. Her good friend and boss is a shifter, a chick she works with is a Wiccan, she befriends a pack of werewolves, some evil witches try to kill her friend, and Sookie soon finds out that she is the grandchild of a faerie. That's a lot to deal with for someone is is already shunned because of her gift. 

Throughout the series, we watch Sookie grow from a naive girl to a mature woman. We see her first real relationship blossom and witness her heartbreak at it's close. Not to mention she goes from being horrified by finding a dead body to "Eh, should we hide it or call the cops?" As predictable as the murders were at first, the plot soon becomes more complex and interesting and we never know who could die next.

Of all the boyfriends and would-bes that come and go for her, I think the relationship with the were-tiger had me the most confused. He was great and sweet but the long distance thing wasn't working for them. And her excuse for leaving him was totally lame. I just didn't get it. And I wish she had actually had a thing with Alcide, the were-wolf. He was so hot and really into her but he did have a lot of baggage. 

As far as the last book, I will say that I'm pretty satisfied with the ending. It was all wrapped up pretty well with no loose ends that I could see. Once again we delved into her mind as she suffered and triumphed and her POV is quite refreshing for me. But for the first time, we actually had a few chapters focus on the point of view of the men trying to frame her for murder. It kept me in suspense because we weren't sure who was really behind it all until the very end.

DEAD EVER AFTER was a great read for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you are into any of the genre mentioned above, I think you'll enjoy it too. Hell, even my husband reads them and he isn't into "girlie romance crap". If you haven't read the series, start with DEAD UNTIL DARK and prepare yourself for some supernatural fun.