I see the pictures now, LJ. Thanks so much. I'm not sure why they weren't coming through before. She is petite, isn't she. I'm sure it would have been a lot of fun to have met her in person. From her writing, I'm sure she's a pip.

I post on Charlaine Harris' board and she pops in and responds to things and she is very sweet and funny. I hope to meet her in person some day and everyone I know who has talks about how kind and entertaining she it.

Audiobooklover, it was great to meet CH. So far I have met Herself, Cassandra Claire (City of Bones series), and now CH. I always feel like an awestruck groupie. All three have been very gracious and welcoming to their readers.

One reader asked CH what she thought about Twilight and Stephanie Meyer. She responded that she does think about Twilight. She congratulated SM for being so successful as a woman writer--she no longer has to work for the rest of her life.

The first chapter of Deadlocked is available here: http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/04/a-sne ... eadlocked/ if anyone is interested in reading it. The second chapter has been available at Charlaine Harris' website for a while now too (so I actually read them in reverse order).

Just a hint on contents: Sookie and girlfriends at Hooligan's for Ladies Night.

Sigh.... I loved the first 6-9 books and then got completely bored. I think it is difficult to keep a story line going for so long without a plan. I think the story got away from her. The first books were big fun!

The first books were entertaining in the best sense of the word! I immensely enjoyed Sookie's internal dialogue and her relationship with Pam was always good for a laugh. I was also quite enamored with Bill for the first several books and fought very hard against the Eric attraction. Of course I was eventually won over by the big Viking and truly enjoyed the apparent melting of his cold heart / their budding relationship.

Yet I couldn't get comfortable with the story after Dead and Gone. I agree that it was inevitable for Sookie to become a bit hardened after going through everything she has - that her involvement with the various supes would affect her to a point where she no longer resembled the entertainingly innocent woman who first met Bill - but she also lost a bit of the spunk that I enjoyed. I also bothers me how, even after being with Eric for so long, she still would be surprised by his ruthlessness / violent tendencies / high handedness. It's never a good idea to go into a relationship thinking you can change someone and...well...he's a VAMPIRE! The vampirest vampire of the Area! How can his actions continue to inspire shock?

I will, however, grudgingly read the rest of the series simply because I can't NOT see how she wraps it up.

I completely agree. But the story got too silly for even me! I don't think Harris ever intended the story to go this far. Feels like she needed to keep writting because of contracts. This seems to happen a lot to successful writters. . Feels like she needs to make it up as she goes along, okay except that much of what I liked about the early books is gone. Game of Thrones is another good example. I did not make it past the last book out in hard back (I can't remember what the name was).

I know what you mean - the tone has been different in the last couple of books because events dictated that it needed to be. And, I did miss some of Sookie's humor. Since I post regularly at CH's site and she posts there and responds to questions and comments and such, I will say that I know she's had some aspects of the story planned out from early on, though certainly not everything. And, I definitely plan to read the last couple of books to know what happens with Sookie and friends. I still enjoy the series, even if the recent books haven't - due to important plot points - been quite as much light-hearted fun.

In any case, this is a quote from the author of the blog where the first chapter was posted that might be of interest since I believe it is relevant to this discussion, so FWIW:

Thank you ABL - that is quite encouraging!

Thanks for the info, ABL. Let's hope the blogger is right. Either way I will read the book as soon as it is released.

You are all very welcome. And, I'm already on the request list at my library and plan to read it ASAP.

Deadlocked is waiting for me at the library. I will let you know what I think of it as soon as I have finished reading it.

Well, I finished reading DL the other night and was a bit disappointed with it. Not much happened and the bit that did was not up to par with Harris' usual storylines. I won't say more until others have had a chance to read it.

I read Deadlocked this past week (actually read it all the day I got it!), and I too was a bit disappointed. I'm not sure if we can discuss it here, but after waiting for a year, I wished more had happened. And I'm not too happy with where the series is probably going, based on how she ended the book.

I read Deadlocked right after it came out. I was glad to see Sookie being back to herself and not as passive as she's been over the past few books. I also think a reasonable amount of stuff happened with wrapping up the fae storyline and Jannalynn and the pack issues.

Plus, I've thought since the first book that Sookie and Sam would end up together and run the bar together. With her becoming a partner and then saving Sam at the end, I think that's moved along well with my predicted ending. (Not that it's completely guaranteed, even now, but that's my strong impression.) And, I think that's a really good thing because she and Sam have had such a good relationship and that spark of interest that they've never followed up on.

That said, I think I enjoyed the earlier books more than the past few, including this one. I would like to listen to this one, though, which I haven't done yet. I've listened to most of the series and sometimes things come across differently when reading vs. listening, so I might enjoy it a bit more in that format.