Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Against my better judgement, I went ahead and bought and read this book. I wish I hadn't. After the last three books I should have known to expect more of the same, but at least more of the same would have been readable. Instead, DEA goes against everything from the other books. Charlaine Harris completely changes her characters, having them do a complete 180 to what all the other books have been. I admit, I'm an Eric lover. But, I'm realistic as well. I don't expect every book to go exactly the way I want it to go - if that were the case, I might as well just write the book myself. When I pick up a book, especially a series that I am willing to invest 13 books worth of time and money into, I expect to be taken on a journey that once concluded, leaves me wishing for more but at least knowing that all the loose ends are tied up nicely and everyone lives happily ever after in some way. Instead, this book completely goes against everything we the readers have been lead to through the progression of the story. Eric, who for 9 books was a complete bad a** who allowed no one to dictate rules but instead would fight tooth (fang) and nail to maintain his independence of himself, suddenly becomes a lost puppy, rolling over and allowing his stomach rubbed by anyone who commands it. This is the same Eric who defied the Queen even though he knew it would cost his life by telling Sookie about Bill's betrayal. The same Eric who again defied the Queen and her first (Andre) by blood binding himself to Sookie to protect her and who schemed the "marriage" in order for the same. The same Eric who deceived the King of Mississipi, entering his kingdom under false pretenses and a false name in order to keep Sookie safe. Suddenly, that Eric is gone, left with a sappy limp version of himself who is willing to do whatever he is told. The Marriage idea between Freya and Eric made no sense anyway after the series pretty much told us marriages for Kings and Queens were only a formality to strengthen the kingdom and reiterated over and over that sex between vampires for long periods of time were frowned upon in the vampire community.. What did Freya gain? What did Felipe gain by letting Eric go? Would Felipe honestly let both Eric AND Sookie go, knowing what assets he had with them? PLEASE!!! Mrs Harris, I honestly think your readers understand your characters better than you do. The only thing this storyline accomplished was a sloppy way for you to tie your story into the conclusion you originally envisioned. The problem with this is, the original vision was thought out at book 1.. 9 other books (I'm not counting books 11, 12 and 13) unfortunately did not support this conclusion and the last few were so poorly written that the original conclusion Mrs Harris envisioned just did not work without alot of continuity errors, drastically changing the characters personalities, and just generally forcing things down the readers throats that weren't supported in the past. Mrs Harris has stated before she did not understand why readers felt so strong about Eric. But up until the last thee books, Eric seemed to be the only character who was true with himself and Sookie. He was the knight on the white horse, always there to protect her. I think the last few books were meant to make the readers start to dislike the character. Instead, it made the reader only dislike Mrs Harris for creating a character we enjoyed for so long only to change the character without warning and for no reason other than pave the way to her original (but highly unbelievable) ending. And it wasn't just Eric.. Other things in this book highly irked me.. One major one was the "sex scene" between Sam and Sookie. SERIOUSLY??? This read like it was written by a 12 year old boy trying to fit as many dirty words into a subject that he had no clue about but wanted to impress his friends. After somewhat well written sex scenes with Bill, Eric, and Quinn, this one read so sloppy. This was her way of trying to make us accept Sam as Sookie's HEA?? Another thing was about Amelia.. In the past, how many times had Sookie relied on Amelia's magical abilities to help figure out something important in the book. How many books did we hear how grateful Sookie was for the wards Amelia had placed on her home, wards that had protected her more than once? Yet, this book, time and time again, Sookie is thinking about Amelia's incompetence. When Amelia and Bob offer to once again ward the house, Sookie goes on and on about how Amelia's abilities are subpar. Should I mention that Amelia being pregnant but not knowing without Sookie telling her was in the realms of stupidity?? The girl's having morning sickness, feels bloated and hasn't had a menstral cycle, but didn't have a clue she was pregnant.. Then, there's Amelia's father and his driver, who never before showed any animosity towards Sookie in past books. But suddenly, both want to kill Sookie with no reason that makes any sense. Johan wanting to kill Sookie made even less sense to be honest. (We're led to believe that he's upset because Sookie didn't rescue him and the Queen in Rhodes but instead chose to save Eric). I should also mention, this book is 3/4 of pointless fillers.. Quinn makes an appearance but really doesn't add anything to the story.. There's more writing about what Sookie cooks at meals, washing dishes and making her beds then there is character development. I think Sookie puts moisturizer on more than she actually has conversations with people. This book lacks any true substance which is one of the reasons I feel alot of people are so disappointed. This book sucks - pure and simple.. I think Mrs Harris lost her passion for these characters 4 books back but was contracted to write them and so she just threw together crap, published it and collected the paycheck.. But no matter how pretty of a bow you put on it, you can't polish a turd.. And the ending to this series is indeed that, a steaming pile of crap.