Murder of a Sleeping Beauty (Denise Swanson)

Summary:
Skye Denison the school counselor was just trying to get a kid to come out of his shell, when their session gets interrupted. Another dead body has been found. This time it's the school's star of the play. Skye has to try to find the killer before the principal goes nuts over the bad press. Skye gets an in-depth look at the teen pageant circuit as well as a glimpse inside the Senior Class in crowd. Meanwhile, the kid whose session was interrupted tries to help...

Thoughts:
Not a bad one. Skye is a likable enough character, and she doesn't push too many of my "duh, what are you doing??" buttons, so that's always a step in the right direction. Swanson brings the funny more than other authors, which I appreciate. It's a good mindless read for those who just need a break from the world.

Book 27 of 50

Pages: 263
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure, why not.

Band Room Bash (Candice Speare)

Summary:
Second in a series I've not read before. Trish Cunningham is a mother of four (if I remember correctly), who's pregnant again. She arrives at the local high school for a meeting about promoting the school play, and finds one of the teachers involved murdered in the band room. Oh, and her stepson is a prime suspect. She's determined to find out who the murderer is and fast, before her stepson is charged.

Thoughts:
I ordered this on a whim from someone on Paperback Swap because of the title, and my band nerd history. It had little to nothing to do with band people, though. Sadness. But on to the book itself... Honestly, this author doesn't bring anything really new to the murder mystery novel party. The main character is boring, and pretty stupid, because she puts herself into danger while being very pregnant. The police chief basically hates her, and doesn't want her getting her nose into anything, which makes absolute sense, but she keeps going anyway. Everyone expects her to solve the murder, even though she has literally only solved one murder before. But of course, after you've done it once, it's not hard at all. Ugh. I didn't like anything in particular about the book, and more often than not, I was rolling my eyes at the idiocy of the main character. No, thank you. I won't be going back to read the first book, nor will I be continuing on with the series. Skip this one.

Book 26 of 30

Pages: 249
Genre: Mystery
Grade: D
Would I Recommend?: Eh. I won't be getting more from this series, I don't think.

Club Dead (Charlaine Harris)

Summary:
The next book in the True Blood series. Bill gets kidnapped, and Sookie has to help by going to Mississippi to hunt him down. She spends time with Alcide, a werewolf with a good heart. And when Sookie finds out that Bill's been hanging around with the vampire that he used to be completely enamored of for a great many years, she gets angry and hurt. Who can blame her when she takes second looks at both Alcide, and Bill's boss, Eric.

Thoughts:
It's good. Honestly, though, it's not really my favorite series. I liked the show, and the books are good, but something about them isn't quite doing it for me anymore. I probably will keep up with them, to be honest, because I'm really bad at giving up midstream. I really liked how this one ended up. It felt like the end brought Sookie to a much more independent place in her life, and I liked that. I really hope to see Alcide again, because I loved his character. And I hope when we do see him again, Sookie's in a place to welcome him into her life a little more. Apparently, I'm more fond of werewolves than vampires when it's down to one or the other.

Book 25 of 30

Pages: 292
Genre: Mystery, vampires, romance
Grade: B-
Would I Recommend?: Sure, if you're a vampire mystery type.

Owls Well that Ends Well (Donna Andrews)

Summary:
Meg Langslow is at it again. As usual, she finds a dead body, this time in an old trunk someone is trying to sell at the huge yard sale at her house. In previous books, Meg and her boyfriend, Michael, bought themselves a house full of crap, and in this book, they're getting rid of the crap they don't want in a giant yard sale. Meg's family all brought their own crap over to sell too, so the yard sale takes up most of Meg's back yard, and draws the entire town out to see what they have to offer. The biggest ass of the bunch, an antiques buyer and seller, gets on everyone's last nerves, and winds up dead. Of course, Meg gets in on the investigation and once again winds up in trouble.

Thoughts:
It's another testament to the crazies with this book. You know the old saying, "write what you know?" Well, if that's what Ms. Andrews goes by, it's clear that she has all kinds of ridiculous relatives and friends in her life. After each installment of the Meg Langslow series, you don't think there could be more ludicrous circumstances, but then you crack the next cover and though you can't fathom it, but it's happened again. And yet, with Meg's nutty family, you actually believe it.

Book 24 of 30

Pages: 352
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Would I Recommend?: Sure. The series is fun. I've passed the books along already, and everyone that's had them thinks they're fun.

Info Post!

I've gotten very behind on posting here, and I apologize! I'm going to start being far more regular. My plan for right now is to start posting once a week, this way it'll be easier to know when things will be showing up here on the blog. With Blogger's new set-up, too, it's making it far easier to set up regular postings. I'll be posting on Sundays at noon from now on, unless I get so back-logged that I decide to change it to be more frequent. If anyone has suggestions for what they'd like to see more often, or if they have book suggestions, please feel free to comment and let me know! Thanks! Keep reading!!