Thursday 2 February 2012

Review: HARPER CONNELLY series

Review:
At first I would have said that this series is a YA. However, by Book 3, I would not recommend it to anyone under 18. This series then has become an adult urban fantasy.

The pace cannot really practically be rated because a listener can only listen as fast as the reader reads. So the pace is rated "not applicable".

I already liked this author's work despite Sookie Stackhouse's being too stupid to live (TSTL). But this author has such a wonderful story telling ability and her world building is so vivid that I got addicted to the Sookie Stackhouse series despite the TSTL. Charlaine Harris displayed the same wonderful story telling ability and world building in this series, so of course I am addicted again. On top of that, with this series Charlaine Harris has shown a marked improvement in her writing style. Harper Connelly, the main protagonist, for one is not as TSTL as Sookie Stackhouse. Which is a major plus for me!! It means that this series is not as annoying as the Sookie Stackhouse is. Additionally, the plot has also developed a more coherent structure. Although the plot in some books were just slightly a bit "holey"... Still the books were good reads... And addictive.


Empirical Evaluation:
Story telling quality = 5
Character development = 4.5
The stories themselves = 4
Endings = 3.5
World building = 5
Cover arts = 2
Pace = N/A
Narrator = 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cherries


Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Format: audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy
The "New York Times" bestselling author of "Dead as a Doornail" introduces a new supernatural mystery series featuring Harper Connelly, a woman who has what one might call a strange job: she finds dead people.

Source: Info in the About Grave Sight was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58077.Grave_Sight on 02/02/2012.

Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Format: audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy
Charlaine Harris is already a star and a New York Times bestseller with her vampire mysteries starring Sookie Stackhouse and her Lily Bard mysteries. This second installment to her new supernatural mystery series might just be her biggest hit yet. Grave Sight's Harper Connelly is back, and her ability to find the dead and see their last moments is in higher demand than ever...

A college class gets more than it bargained for when Harper gives a demonstration of her uncanny talent. Instead of just finding one body in an old grave, she finds two: the original occupant and a recently deceased girl whom Harper had tried, and failed, to find two years previously. To dispel suspicions about her own innocence, Harper and her stepbrother Tolliver undertake their own hunt to find the killer-only to find yet another body in the same grave.

Source: Info in the About Grave Surprise was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140078.Grave_Surprise on 02/02/2012.

An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Format: audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy

About An Ice Cold Grave:
Hired to find a boy gene missing in Doraville, North Carolina, Harper Connelly and her brother Tolliver head there-only to discover that the boy was only one of several who had disappeared over the previous five years. All of them teenagers. All unlikely runaways. All calling for Harper. Harper soon finds them-eight victims, buried in the half-frozen ground, all come to an unspeakable end. Afterwards, what she most wants to do is collect her fee and get out of town ahead of the media storm that's soon to descend. But when she's attacked and prevented from leaving, she reluctantly becomes a part of the investigation as she learns more than she cares to about the dark mysteries and long-hidden secrets of Doraville-knowledge that makes her the next person likely to rest in an ice-cold grave.

Source: Info in the About An Ice Cold Grave was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/140097.An_Ice_Cold_Grave on 02/02/2012.

Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Format: audiobook
Genre: urban fantasy

About Grave Secret:
New in the series from New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

Lightning-struck sleuth Harper Connelly and her stepbrother Tolliver take a break from looking for the dead to visit the two little girls they both think of as sisters. But, as always happens when they travel to Texas, memories of their horrible childhood resurface.

To make matters worse, Tolliver learns from his older brother that their father is out of jail and trying to reestablish contact with other family members. Tolliver wants no part of the man- but he may not have a choice in the matter.

Soon, family secrets ensnare them both, as Harper finally discovers what happened to her missing sister, Cameron, so many years before.

And what she finds out will change her world forever.

Source: Info in the About Grave Secret was taken from GoodReads at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6344832-grave-secret on 02/02/2012.