Spotlight: The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories by Charlaine Harris + print book giveaway

The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

by Charlaine Harris

November 21, 2017
ACE Hardcover
$24.99 / 384 pages
For the first time together in one volume, here is the complete short story collection starring Louisiana’s favorite telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. New fans can fill in the gaps in their Sookie lore while old friends can revisit some of their favorite moments and characters. From investigating the murder of a local fairy to learning that her cousin was a vampire, from remodeling her best friend’s house to attending a wedding with her shapeshifting boss, Sam, Sookie navigates the perils and pitfalls of the paranormal world.

Belly up to the bar at Bon Temps’s favorite watering hole and hear stories that will make you wish Sookie never left, including...
“Fairy Dust”
“One Word Answer”
“Dracula Night”
“Lucky”
“Gift Wrap”
“Two Blondes”
“If I Had a Hammer”
“Small-Town Wedding”
“Playing Possum”
“In the Blue Hereafter”

This definitive collection is the perfect binge read for people who like their stories with bite!

About the Author:

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Charlaine Harris is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight, Texas, fantasy/mystery series and the Aurora Teagarden, Harper Connelly, and Lily Bard mystery series. Her books have inspired HBO’s True Blood, NBC’s Midnight, Texas, and the Aurora Teagarden movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. She has lived in the South her entire life.

GIVEAWAY

A print copy of The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Midnight, Texas...my thoughts on episode one (spoiler-free)

Midnight, Texas

Mondays at 10/9cNetwork: NBC
Executive producers: Monica Owusu-Breen, David Janollari, Niels Arden Oplev, Mark Hentemann
Genres: Drama, Supernatural

Based on Charlaine Harris' book series by the same name, "Midnight, Texas" follows the lives of the inhabitants of a small town where the concept of normal is relative. A haven for vampires, witches, psychics, hit men and others with extraordinary backgrounds, Midnight gives outsiders a place to belong. The town members form a strong and unlikely family as they work together to fend off the pressures of unruly biker gangs, questioning police officers and shades of their own dangerous pasts.

Series cast summary:

François Arnaud ... Manfred Bernardo

Dylan Bruce ... Bobo Winthrop 

Parisa Fitz-Henley ... Fiji Cavanaugh

Arielle Kebbel ... Olivia

Jason Lewis ... Joe Strong

Peter Mensah ... Lemuel Bridger

Sarah Ramos ... Creek

Yul Vazquez ... Rev. Emilio Sheehan

Bernardo Saracino ... Chuy Strong

Joanne Camp ... Xylda

Joe Smith ... Mr. Snuggly

I'm gonna have to give this one some more episodes before I can decide how I feel about it. Having read the books works against the TV show. I need time to let go of my preconceived ideas and embrace this new version. My biggest problem is, with the exception of a few, that the characters look nothing like they do in the books. I have nothing against the TV show versions, I just can't reconcile the changes yet. Especially with the lead character Manfred. In the book, he's a skinny, young, bleached haired guy with lots of piercings. Readers met him in Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly Mystery Series. The one change I do like is the new look of Lem...he's one sexy vampire now!

Another problem is the information dump. It took two books for the reader, and Manfred, to discover the supernatural side of the residents of Midnight. They are a very private and protective bunch. But in the TV version, it is all revealed in episode one. Book one opens with Aubrey's death, and that holds true for the show. Of course, I know who did it, but I am curious to see how this version of the story will progress.

I was surprised the writers brought up the big bad evil under the town. In the books, the characters didn't know why they'd been drawn to Midnight until book three when they started putting things together.

I'm gonna have to give the show a few more episodes before I decide if I will continue watching. I'm torn between wanting the writers to stay as true to the story as possible and wanting them to change things up enough that fans of the books will have some surprises.

So, what did you guys think? I'm curious what people who haven't read the books think of Midnight, Texas.

Second Look Book Review: Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3) by Charlaine Harris

Midnight, Texas TV series is set to premier April 30, 2017 on NBC

http://www.nbc.com/midnight-texas?nbc=1

Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3)
by Charlaine Harris

May 3rd 2016 by Ace

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels—“the Mark Twain of things that live under your bed”*—comes a new novel of Midnight, Texas, the town where some secrets will never see the light of day...

At Midnight’s local pawnshop, weapons are flying off the shelves—only to be used in sudden and dramatic suicides right at the main crossroads in town. 

Who better to figure out why blood is being spilled than the vampire Lemuel, who, while translating mysterious texts, discovers what makes Midnight the town it is. There’s a reason why witches and werewolves, killers and psychics, have been drawn to this place. 

And now they must come together to stop the bloodshed in the heart of Midnight. For if all hell breaks loose—which just might happen—it will put the secretive town on the map, where no one wants it to be...

It seems that people are coming to Midnight, Texas, and killing themselves right at the main crossroads of this small town. Something is going on, with the first suicide happening in October, and Lemuel, the vampire who works at night at the local pawnshop, Midnight Pawn, owned by Bobo Winthrop, is reading and translating ancient texts to find out clues. As more and more he delves into the book, he begins to realized something terrible is driving these people, most who have done some sort of harm or not a good friend of the local witch, Fiji Cavanaugh. That t might even be the reason that supernatural beings like him and tiger shapeshifters, witches, killers and psychics come to this town. 

Bestselling author Charlaine Harris who brought the Sookie Stackhouse series I loved a lot, has me addicted to this trilogy with this last book. I really wish this town was real, so I could take a trip and visit it and its unusual inhabitants along with the mundane ones living there too. Edgy at times and down to earth at others, Night Shift captures the reader’s imagination with a paranormal mystery hook, line and sinker.

Review: Midnight Crossroad & Day Shift (Midnight, Texas #1 &#2)
Review: Night Shift (Midnight, Texas #3)

I give Night Shift 5 sheep.

SharonS

About the Author:
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Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area. Though her early works consisted largely of poems about ghosts and teenage angst, she began writing plays when she attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. She switched to novels a few years later, and achieved publication in 1981 with Sweet and Deadly.

Personally, Harris has been married for many years. She mother of three wonderful children and the grandmother of two. She lives in central Texas, and when she is not writing her own books, she reads omnivorously. Her house is full of rescue dogs.

Recap: NolaStoryCon 2016 + giveaway

NolaStoryCon was a new reader convention put together by authors (and friends)—Jeaniene Frost, Melissa Marr, Ilona Andrews, Kelley Armstrong and Jennifer L. Armentrout in New Orleans, Sept. 30 to Oct. 1, 2016. It was a three day event with lot of chances to mingle with over 30 authors, including special guest author Charlaine Harris signings, diner party and excursions in the city. Katie and I bought tickets for the Saturday events.

Special guest author

Charlaine Harris

Katie and I meet once a year at a convention and this year we picked NolaStoryCon. We only attended the Saturday events, but you could have bought tickets for Friday and Sunday too.

We sat through three panels where authors talked and answered audience questions. Lot of laughs were had.

 

Saturday afternoon was the big signing. Ticket holders got in first and we managed to talk with each author, get stuff signed and fangirl when required. The signing was then opened up to the public and from what I understand there were a lot of them. 1400 was the figure I heard, but I'm not sure.

 

 

 

Saturday night was the dinner and games. After filling up on cake there was a costume contest and then some fun games were played like Truth or Dare for some authors. At the end of the night they did a drawing for all the table center pieces which were decorated shoes! Katie and I both won a shoe (pictured below). We got one signed by Jeaniene Frost and the other by Kresley Cole.

The other days we spent touring New Orleans...yes, we went to Bourbon Street at night with some other bloggers *cough* Jackie "Literary Escapism *cough*. I had my first Hurricane...those things are deceptively potent. We also did a night tour of the famous female killers of New Orleans. 

Lunch at Pat O'Brien's. The Sheep meets Literary Escapism

 

So many pretty houses. Even the one used in American Horror Story as well as Anne Rice's house.

 

Our hotel was awesome. We stayed at the Prytania Park Hotel in the Garden district. We were just a trolley ride away from all the action. Plus there was Voodoo BBQ across the street.

Some of the sites

 

Went into my first casino (it was Baaarts first time as well) We lost money, duh!

Beads hung in most of the trees along St. Charles St.

 

Time to go home...

GIVEAWAY

We are giving away the shoe center pieces we won along with swag (some signed).

US only

Disclaimer: These shoes have been through some stuff...mainly my suitcase on a plane. Then they will be shipped to you via USPS. So, when they get to you I hope they will be in good condition...but you might need some glue.

PRIZE PACK #1 - Jeaniene Frost show

PRIZE PACK #2- Kresley Cole shoe

NolaStoryCon giveaway