Feature and Follow #87

I haven't done this meme in a long time, so I thought I'd give it a whirl!

Today's question is:

Q: Have you ever looked at book’s cover and thought, This is going to horrible? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

You know, gorgeous covers stick in my mind, but bad ones tend to fade in my memory.  A recent book I read who's cover I wasn't impressed by was Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris.  I was a little wary of reading this book because although I've read her Sookie Stackhouse series, I didn't know if I wanted to read about another series of books with a Sookie like heroine.  And the cover didn't really erase my doubts.

Although I do have a physical copy of this book, I ended up listening to it on audio, which is a great equalizer when it comes to book covers.  You can't hear a bad cover on audio!  And I ended up really liking Grave Sight, which features the very un-Sookie like Harper Connelly.  It felt more like a real mystery and less like a paranormal soap opera- not that I'm against paranormal soap operas, I am Team Eric after all.

Anyway, I get the whole picture frame tie in, but the colors are pastel-ish, and the title of the book is way to sloppy and hard to see with that horrible pink wallpaper behind it.  I just don't dig it.  I think maybe all the beautiful YA covers of the last few years have turned me into a cover snob.  I hope not!  Because there are plenty of pretty books that contain horrible stories inside.  But that, my friends, is a Feature and Follow topic for another day.

So, what's your Ugly Duckling cover/Beautiful Swan story pick?

And if you follow me, be sure to let me know so I can return the favor!

And please feel free to sign up for my Signed Giveaway of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  There's still plenty of time left, and you can give my blogger friends some follow love too!

Grave Sight Review

Grave Sight 
by Charlaine Harris
From Goodreads:

 Harper Connelly has what you might call a strange job: she finds dead people. She can sense the final location of a person who's passed, and share their very last moment. The way Harper sees it, she's providing a service to the dead while bringing some closure to the living-but she's used to most people treating her like a blood-sucking leech. Traveling with her step-brother Tolliver as manager and sometime-bodyguard, she's become an expert at getting in, getting paid, and getting out fast. Because for the living it's always urgent-even if the dead can wait forever.

My Thoughts:  You know how you can read two different books by an author and be surprised that they came from the same mind?  I've read all the Sookie Stackhouse books, and just assumed Grave Sight would be similar, but it's not.  Harper Connelly is a much different character than Sookie.  She seems wise beyond her years and is, for the most part, very careful.

Harper has an edge that comes from living a rough childhood, and after getting struck by lightning, she can now find the dead.  She has an interesting relationship with her step-brother Tolliver.  I went in thinking that it'd be a Flowers in the Attic kind of relationship, but so far there's no hint of it.  Which was a bit disappointed, but she did have a worthy romantic hook up in this first book. 

I really liked the mystery and the way that Harper and Tolliver were drawn into the lies of a small town.  I figured some of the plot out early on, but it didn't take away from the tension and drama of some of the confrontations. 

I listened to Grave Sight on audio (downloaded from Audible) and it was a fairly good listen.  The narrator lends a maturity to Harper's story, although she sounds older than Harper is described as being.  She had a nice, soothing voice.  I will definitely be continuing this series! I'm looking forward to continuing the story, and seeing what's up with her brother Tolliver and the rest of her family (hopefully we learn Cameron's fate as some point).


Grave Sight gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The cover gets a Midnight Book Cover Rating of:

Not really my favorite cover, but you can't always have both a good story and a good cover.

Dead Reckoning Review

Dead Reckoning 
by Charlaine Harris
From Goodreads:

With her knack for being in trouble's way, Sookie witnesses the firebombing of Merlotte's, the bar where she works. Since Sam Merlotte is now known to be two-natured, suspicion falls immediately on the anti-shifters in the area. Sookie suspects otherwise, but her attention is divided when she realizes that her lover Eric Northman and his "child" Pam are plotting to kill the vampire who is now their master. Gradually, Sookie is drawn into the plot-which is much more complicated than she knows...

My Thoughts: Is it weird that I slightly dread the newest Sookie books because I'm afraid that Harris is going to reunite Bill and Sookie?  Because I am an Eric fan, in both the books and the tv show (unlike Mr. Alan Ball who has a serious crush on Bill (Stephen Moyer) and can't understand why most women prefer Eric *rollingmyeyes*).  There's a lot going on in this novel, Sookie's fairy family are living with her, someone's fire bombing Sam's bar, Pam and Eric are fighting, a naked Alcide and of course, Bill the vampire.  Although I will continue reading this series, I'm just not having as much fun as I used to.  And while I was happy to see Amelia back, I was pissed about why she was back and what Sookie did behind Eric's back.  I just don't get her at times.  And that's true for book Sookie and doubly true for tv show Sookie.  Sometimes I just want to slap her, just a little, hard enough to leave a red mark but no real, lasting bruise.  And seriously, the whole nakedness with Bill was très annoying and completely ridiculous, and this is the opinion of someone that actually enjoyed Grease 2 so obviously my standards are pretty low.  Oh, and Hunter and a Pelt sibling were thrown in the mix too.  Like I said, a lot going on, with all the characters being a bit annoying (Eric in the beginning, Sookie towards the end, and Bill just because of his continued existence in the books.  My kingdom for a wooden stake!).  Even Sam was a jerk (yes, he's kind of one on the show, but in the books he's pretty lovable, except obviously to Sookie which is ridiculous because he'd actually be able to give her all the crap that she's always whining about).  So, I'll read the next book, and any after that.  But when it comes to re-reading I have a feeling that only book number 4 is going to get well-worn. 

Dead Reckoning gets a Midnight Book Rating of:

The extra half is for Pam.  Love her, wouldn't mind if she got her own series spin off- book or show!

Where The Wild Things Are... They're on my iPod

Last night I was tired.  My niece Sam was spending the night, so I was trying to stay up late but just couldn't do it as I had stayed up with her until 4am the previous evening.  Hubs had already gone to bed, but the thought of not being able to read a few chapters of a book had me bummed.  So I logged on to iTunes to see about some audio books.  Because the movie version of Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is coming out soon, iTunes was advertising the audiobook for less than a dollar.  So I bought it.

I wasn't expecting much from the audio version, since the pictures are what makes up half the entertainment of the story, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The narrator did a great job of reading the story, and there was just enough background music to compliment but not overwhelm the narration.  They also have several Shel Silverstein books on iTunes, but you can buy the poems individually and I was thinking of all the awesome playlists I could make my future children. 

I also downloaded the first book of Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly series, Grave Sight.  I'm glad I checked on Amazon though and read the comments on the iTunes pages first because they have the first book labeled as the third book and vice versa.  I would have been pretty mad had I spent the money only to find myself with the third book- I hate reading series out of order.  I didn't get to it last night, but the hubs and I are heading down to Kill Devil Hills, NC for our 7th anniversary on Monday, so I'm taking Grave Sight and few other books to read on our mini vacation.