Month: March 2022

4 Unfinished Series So Good You Won’t Mind The Wait

Published on by Taylor DilgerLeave a comment

I know what you’re thinking, why not wait until all the books are out? Well, my counter is: where’s the fun in that? Don’t you want that feeling of anticipation when the day of your favorite series’ next book finally comes? You head to the bookstore and see it front and center in a towering display of joy and satisfaction. You purchase it because one of the thrills of being a bookworm is, in fact, purchasing more books than you have room for. Then you go home and spend the next couple of hours reading the book you’ve been waiting for all your life. Here are four unfinished series with sequels coming soon that have the potential to become that book.

American Royals—Katharine McGee. I did not expect to love this as much as I did and now it’s one of my favorite books. I finished the first one in a couple of hours and headed straight back to buy the second. I thought this was a duology and almost cried when I found out there was going to be a third one. I need more of this story! The third book, Rivals, is expected May 31st. A short wait for such a high reward. (Preorder here.)

The Inheritance Games—Jennifer Lynn Barnes. Puzzles. Romance. Danger. I bought this on a whim without seeing if it was a completed series or not. It wasn’t, unfortunately, and now I find myself in the position of having to wait until August 30th to find out what happens next in The Final Gambit. So many twists and turns. So many questions left unanswered. (Preorder here.)

Once Upon a Broken Heart—Stephanie Garber. I thought this was a standalone spinoff to the completed series Caraval. It turns out it just continues the story of Jacks, the Prince of Hearts, and a new character Evangeline Fox. It’s full of fantasy and romance. You will want to read all of the books by Stephanie Garber. The expected publication is September 13th so there’s plenty of time to read Caraval and Once Upon a Broken Heart. (Preorder here.)

Gilded—Marissa Meyer. Perhaps the longest wait on the list, but it’s Marissa Meyer. I would wait an eternity for one of her novellas. Cursed is expected November 8th and I will be waiting outside the bookstore for this one. Gilded is a haunting retelling of Rumplestiltskin. Follow Serilda and her magical stories as she discovers an ancient curse.

Book Review

Published on by Sharon EnckLeave a comment

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

Publisher: Quirk Books
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 424
Format: Paperback
Buy Local
My Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary

Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires has a title that doesn’t leave much to the imagination. It is what it says it is! Set in the 1980s and 1990s Patricia—doctor’s wife, mother to two teenagers, and caregiver to her mother-in-law—is bored to tears with her country-club and pearls lifestyle. Her book club, which should be somewhat of an escape, is just more of the same…rich women posturing by reading pretentious books that they only skim through at best. 

But things get kicked up a notch when some of the ladies defect, and begin their own true crime gathering. Immersed in the world of serial killers, Patricia feels like she may have found a little excitement. That is until a stranger moves into town, some kids go missing, and Patricia and her Southern book club sleuths find themselves facing something a lot more sinister than Dahmer or Bundy. 

Thoughts

I wanted to love this, but ended up just liking it. The title grabbed me right away, and immediately I was thinking Blanche Dubois or any of the Sugarbaker ladies from Designing Women (look it up) or Steel Magnolias with a stake in one hand, and a Mint Julep in the other ready to “y’all” the bloodsucker back to hell where he belonged.

No such luck. While the premise is fabulous, and there were some chuckle-aloud moments, I wanted more camp. I was hoping for more comedy with my horror—but it was less comedy, more drama, and mystery. Hendrix spends some time on Patricia’s feelings of isolation and abandonment when the book club isn’t really feeling up to the detective work she is so eager to engage in. I have to wonder if that was his commentary on how women who may be a little longer in the tooth (get it?) seem to get cast aside if they don’t fit a certain mold, or want just a little more than what they have been given. From their initial defection, I got a little female empowerment at times from this crew of Van Helsings.

Hendrix does turn a few vampire legends upside down (I won’t spoil them here) but they aren’t anything I rebelled against. No one glittered or procreated. Thank goodness. In fact, I rather enjoyed the method in which you have to destroy this particular vampire’s kind. Some reviewers of the book complained about the level of gore (high), but that didn’t bother me in the slightest. Rats eating flesh, people eating flesh. Isn’t that what vampire novels are supposed to include? 

There are a couple elements that Hendrix slays (pun intended) beautifully. He has the art of suspense down. Even though it’s been done numerous times, there is a particular scene where Patricia is in the vampire’s house, and there’s that feeling of will-she-get-caught-or-won’t-she that is well-handled and anxiety inducing. The other element that really worked for me is Hendrix’s atmosphere-building in this novel. You can just feel the Charleston humidity rising up from the pages, and see the Spanish moss dripping from those thick trunked trees. Ah…I could use that Mint Julep right about now. 

If you like a good amount of gore and a few laughs mixed in with a heaping helping of drama, you’ll like this novel. For me, it was enough to generate some interest in Grady Hendrix’s other work, so stay tuned.