Rating: 
Summary: Great series
Review: This is a cute little story, albeit one with an edge. I adored it, and thought the love scenes were among the sweetest and sexiest that I have ever read. It grabbed my attention because while the premise is not necessarily an original one, the way it's written is fresh and different. Sookie is a blond waitress who lives in rural Louisiana, is embarrassed about being able to read minds, and falls in love with a vampire named Bill. Bill is trying to live as a normal person, and even goes so far as to give a talk about being a soldier in the Civil War to Sookie's grandmother's chapter of the Descendants of the Glorious Dead. (I think that's what it was called - don't have my copy handy.) Many others have provided summaries of the plot, so I won't go further, except to say I truly enjoyed this story.OK, a lot of people compare the Sookie Stackhouse series to the Anita Blake series. Yes, it is similar, and I suppose that people who like Anita Blake may like Sookie Stackhouse too. But Anita is violent, soulless, repetitive (please no more descriptions of the same old guns and clothes), filled with typos (don't Laurell Hamilton's editors ever check for misspellings, confusing "lie" and "laid" with "lay", etc?), and stubborn in a bad way (back and forth arguments between Anita and whoever she's currently fighting with can go on for pages until the other party finally gives up in exhaustion). It's also ultimately silly as the books are simply an excuse for the author to write about her fantasies of lying (not "laying") in a puppy pile of naked men with great abs and waist-length hair. In comparison, Sookie is sweet, good-natured and actually true to her ideals--someone you can actually like as a person.
Rating:
Summary: An enthralling supernatural romance
Review: Powerful telepath Sookie Stackhouse lives in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Most local residents consider the beautiful twenty-five year old a bit slow, but Sookie knows that she must keep her mental shields in place to avoid inadvertently reading minds. Sookie has no social life, as she detests the idea of listening to her lover's inner thoughts. When Bill the vampire enters the restaurant where Sookie works, she becomes ecstatic because she cannot hear his thoughts. With vampires recently gaining legal status, Sookie hopes to finally have a bit of a love life. The two outcasts hit it off, but someone is killing the females of the town with Bill and Sookie's brother Jason being the only suspects. Sookie knows that the perpetrator has made her the next target. Charlaine Harris, author of two wonderful mystery series, joins the ranks of the urban fantasy authors (Hamilton and Huff) writing exhilarating modern day novels. DEAD UNTIL DARK is serio-comic who-done-it with supernatural overtones to spice the tale and keep mystery, horror, and fantasy readers elated with the plot and cast. Ms. Harris' fan base should multiply with what is the beginning of a Southern paranormal mystery series. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Glad I Didn't Pay Full Price
Review: I had little hope for this book after reading 50 pages and still not getting lost in the story. Charlaine Harris has a good idea, but she does very little with it. I got the feeling that after she wrote x number of pages she gave up and just ended the story. Unfortunately, I read her third book (Club Dead) and it's ending was more abrupt than Dead Until Dark. I wouldn't recommend any of the Sookie books to anyone who truly enjoys reading. There are much better vampire stories out there. Read one of those instead. If you just can't resist reading this series go to the library and save your money for something else.
Rating: 
Summary: Sookie meets her ideal man, sort of....
Review: What's a southern woman with telepathic abilities to do? It's hard to have some romance when your date is thinking random thoughts about everything but romance. But things begin to change for Sookie Stackhouse when a real live (more or less) vampire walks into her bar, and wonder of wonders, she can't read a single thought from him. He's a local boy, and returning to his roots now that vampires have legal status. Knowing her customers, she gets suspicious when a particularly unsavory couple walk out with Bill the vampire. She follows and ends up rescuing him. He's not exactly thankful for being rescued, but Sookie figures it's as good a way to meet him as any. As Sookie and Bill get closer together, plots thicken as several co-workers of Sookie are murdered. Sookie has to get involved in solving the murders for her own peace of mind, because the clues are pointing to the possibility that Bill, now the vampire boyfriend, is the killer. This is the first book of a new series. But with some new twists. It's set in the South, with all those prejudices and attitudes. There's Bill and the vampire culture to be explored. There are mysteries that need to be solved. They have the feeling of a cozy mystery, but with more violence and action, more of a bite, one might say. The best thing about the book (and its successors) are the characters. They all feel real, with real feelings and weaknesses, and act true to their characteristics. And there's some nice sidebar touches, like when the Descendents of the Glorious Dead ask Bill to talk to them about his experiences in the Civil War. I'll look forward to more adventures of Sookie and Bill.
Rating:
Summary: Unique and Fun
Review: Although several different people (as well as Amazon.com itself) recommended this book to me, I resisted reading it. It has enough surface similarities to the Anita Blake books (the main character has a unusual psychic gift, solves murders, and is romantically torn between a vampire and a werewolf), that I felt it was probably just a cheap knock-off and not worth my time. Boy, was I wrong! Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake are as different as night and day, and "Dead After Dark" was original, entertaining, and a delightful read. Sookie is nowhere near as tough as Anita (nor does she wish to be), and as a consequence the books have an entirely different flavor. Instead of the hard-boiled, noir-ish tone of the Anita Blake books, "Dead After Dark" is pure Southern down-home-i-ness. Sookie has grit, determination, humor, and intelligence that she hides behind a mask of shy Southern femininity, but which she cannot hide from the reader -- not with the first-person narration the author uses, anyway. This book was told with a wit, charm, and style that I found irresistable. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Until dark review
Review: I love vampires and mysterys.While looking for a book I came upon this one. It was perfect! Sookie stackhouse is a telepathic barmade from Loisianna.Im not going to give a summury of the book since others have covered that pretty well but if you like mysterys or vampires or shapeshifters Id tottally reccomend this book, no matter how old you are! Ive read # 1-3 so many times in the last 2 weeks that they are alredy falling apart.
Rating:
Summary: More "Love at First Bite" than Anne Rice
Review: What this book has going for it is great gobs of Southern charm in the guise of its heroine Sookie Stackhouse, a small town Louisiana cocktail waitress who has this unfortunate gift of being able to read minds. Then she meets Bill, and can't read a thing he's thinking,which is a delight in her eyes.Her inability to read him is tied to the fact that he's a vampire, which in Sookies world is as common as any other race, creed, or national origin. They are referred to as "fangs" versus "humans", and it's not long before she's head over heels in love with him. The problem starts when bodies begin to pile up around town, and Sookie begins to fear for her life.
Sookie is a disarming and utterly charming character, and for me is what makes the book unique.Bill seems an interesting guy, but there's not much to him besides his lust/love for Sookie, but I'm imagining more will be revealed in subsequent books.Overall I found the tone of the book hard to classify; Is it a romance novel with an underworld twist, or a mystery novel with a romantic undercurrent? Either, both, I don't know. Whatever it is, it's amusing and worth reading providing you're not expecting Anne Rice.
Rating:
Summary: Fun with vampires
Review: Charlaine Harris borrows liberally from fellow writer Laurel K. Hamilton in her girl-meets-vampire novel. However, Harris is certainly more comical than Hamilton (at times to the point of spoofing vampire fiction) as well as less interested in the macabre. The very silly author starts off on the right foot by dubbing her blood lusting hero "The Vampire Bill." Not Ambrose. Not Vladimir. Bill. Then later she one-ups herself by introducing "The Vampire Bubba" and a were-collie. Again, her bizarre love triangle (vampire-human woman-lycanthrope) is lifted from Hamilton's work. The twist here is that Charlaine Harris' heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, is psychic while Hamilton's protagonist can merely raise the dead. The author sets herself a tough task by setting her book in tiny Bon Temps, Louisiana, a town she seems to be depopulated very rapidly. If she is going to continue the series, a busload of new characters will need to move into town or the action will have to move elsewhere. There are at least a dozen murders in this book (counting four vampires and one pet cat), but they are largely "off-camera" so the content is generally not too violent or gruesome. Still, conservative parents might want to screen this book first before letting their pre-teens read it since it is fairly explicit in parts. All-in-all, Sookie is a pretty likable heroine and the book turns out to be a fun, quick-paced read for those who enjoy humorous paranormal mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Avid Reader & Reviewer
Review: Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris is our introduction to Sookie Stackhouse, the Vampire Bill and the colorful town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie, a very blonde, buxom, barmaid is not your average girl in Bon Temps. She has the ability to read other's minds. This ability is not an asset when working in a bar. Image if you could 'hear' someone's thoughts, worries, dreams, their most intimate feelings. How is a girl supposed to find a boyfriend in the backwater of Louisiana when she is acutely aware of all his thoughts? Sookie has found a solution - the Vampire Bill. Vampires where 'outed' some years ago after the invention of artificial blood. Sookie is unable to read the minds of vampires and finds great comfort in the arms of Bill. Sookie begins her adventure with a chance encounter with the Vampire Bill and the 'Rat' couple, some local trailer park trash. Things quickly escalate as Sookie faces a series of murders that - surprise, surprise - appear to have been committed by a vampire. Dead Until Dark is a hilarious adventure from start to finish. From Sam Merlot, the bartender with secrets of his own, to Jason, Sookie's brother and all around stud-muffin with a fancy pick-up truck, all the characters are colorful and entertaining. While Dead Until Dark is not dark, heavy, horror, it is entertaining and engaging. Many have compared the Southern Vampire series to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. While both series focus on human/vampire relationship, the similarities are few. Sookie lacks the predatory aspects of Anita Blake. Sookie is also very naïve, while no one would ever consider this of Anita Blake. Anita is very angst driven. In contrast, Sookie is just a nice, hard working girl who happens to have some gifts or disabilities depending on your point of view. Dead Until Dark does share the mystery elements Laurell K. Hamilton focused on in the early Anita Blake novels. Charlaine Harris is the other of three more Sookie novels; Living Dead in Dallas, Club Dead, and Dead to the World, to be published May, 2004. She is also the author of two popular mystery series; the Aurora Tegarden series and the Lily Bard Shakespeare series.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but to short!!!!!!!
Review: Charlaine Harris is my new favortie author! Sookie Stackhouse waitress and so much more is a great character and the bad boy of all time Eric....yum..yum. Not to confuse new readers, Bill is the vampire Sookie finds herself in love with and he is sweet and all that but Eric, well there is just something about his character that you cannot resist. If you like L.K.H (Anita Blake) I think you will enjoy these stories, they are light and fun but the need to be longer! Enjoy
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