glitterbomb47's review against another edition
1.0
Wow. This book was lame. No new story, just five stories already published in other short story collections. Two-page illustrations in front of each story and really big font to make you feel like you actually read a book instead of a glorified Sookie Stackhouse brochure.
I'd only read one of the stories before, unfortunately for me it was apparently the best of the bunch. "Gift Wrap" was plain awful. "Fairy Dust" is unimpressive (ooh, Sookie's so clever and uses her extreme cleverness to solve crime!) "Lucky" trots out the uneducated idea of Limited Good and pretends like it's legitimate. Bo-ring.
This book is a shameless attempt to milk money out of fans of the Stackhouse series. Good thing I got it from the library. Take that Ace Books suckas!
Alternatively, may I suggest you get your fix by reading Many Bloody Returns, which includes the only good story from this collection, and also introduced me to the fun fiction of Jim Butcher & Rachel Caine.
I'd only read one of the stories before, unfortunately for me it was apparently the best of the bunch. "Gift Wrap" was plain awful. "Fairy Dust" is unimpressive (ooh, Sookie's so clever and uses her extreme cleverness to solve crime!) "Lucky" trots out the uneducated idea of Limited Good and pretends like it's legitimate. Bo-ring.
This book is a shameless attempt to milk money out of fans of the Stackhouse series. Good thing I got it from the library. Take that Ace Books suckas!
Alternatively, may I suggest you get your fix by reading Many Bloody Returns, which includes the only good story from this collection, and also introduced me to the fun fiction of Jim Butcher & Rachel Caine.
bibliotequeish's review against another edition
4.0
This series... I mean its not the best, but I can't stop.
As a fan of the show I flew through this series.
The very definition of a guilty pleasure.
As a fan of the show I flew through this series.
The very definition of a guilty pleasure.
kandicez's review against another edition
4.0
2021 - Still a great collection, made more so since I read this after something I truly did not enjoy to clear my literary palate. Thank you Harris for being so reliably entertaining!
2010 -
Fairy Dust
This story is about Claude and Claudine. I never knew they were actually 2 of a set of triplets. That's one of the joys of short stories slipped between novels in a series. You get little glimpses and facts that just aren't necessary to canon, but are sure fun to read. My favorite line in the story is at the end when Claudine says "Fair is only part of Fairy as letters of the alphabet." It sounds so menacing, and since I picture Claudine as Liv Tyler in my head, I can just see her saying it.
Dracula Night
Sookie is invited to Fangtasia for a birthday party in honor of Dracula. Yes, Dracula. THE Dracula. It's something Eric does every year with the anticipation of being graced with the presence of a true star in the Vampire world. I love when we get little snapshots of Eric being "human". It's been 1000 years, so when he still shows some spark of life, it's pretty thrilling. His excitement in this story was adorable, and even when his hopes were dashed at the end, he perks up with thoughts of "maybe next year". Sookie shows us, once again, that she is a pretty smart, Southern cookie, and not just a psychic barmaid.
One Word Answer
In this story, Sookie learns of the death of her cousin Hadley and meets Mr. Cataliades and the Queen of Louisiana. Bubba makes an appearance which is always welcome and brings a smile to my face. Bill rushes to the aid of "his" Sookie, and just like the last story, Sookie shows us just how smart she really is.
Lucky
This is my least favorite. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. I mean that's obvious since I love Sookie, the vamps, weres, shifters, and witches, right? But believing one person can use up all the luck in the vicinity? That seems a little silly to even me.
Gift Wrap
Sookie is alone on Christmas Eve. Poor thing. This was a fun story that could have fit anywhere in the series. I don't see anything that pertains to any other stories, other than a few events Sookie references. All I can say is, only Niall, a 1000+ year old, fairy great-grandfather would think of a no strings attached evening of physical pleasure as the perfect Christmas gift. He was right;)
2010 -
Fairy Dust
This story is about Claude and Claudine. I never knew they were actually 2 of a set of triplets. That's one of the joys of short stories slipped between novels in a series. You get little glimpses and facts that just aren't necessary to canon, but are sure fun to read. My favorite line in the story is at the end when Claudine says "Fair is only part of Fairy as letters of the alphabet." It sounds so menacing, and since I picture Claudine as Liv Tyler in my head, I can just see her saying it.
Dracula Night
Sookie is invited to Fangtasia for a birthday party in honor of Dracula. Yes, Dracula. THE Dracula. It's something Eric does every year with the anticipation of being graced with the presence of a true star in the Vampire world. I love when we get little snapshots of Eric being "human". It's been 1000 years, so when he still shows some spark of life, it's pretty thrilling. His excitement in this story was adorable, and even when his hopes were dashed at the end, he perks up with thoughts of "maybe next year". Sookie shows us, once again, that she is a pretty smart, Southern cookie, and not just a psychic barmaid.
One Word Answer
In this story, Sookie learns of the death of her cousin Hadley and meets Mr. Cataliades and the Queen of Louisiana. Bubba makes an appearance which is always welcome and brings a smile to my face. Bill rushes to the aid of "his" Sookie, and just like the last story, Sookie shows us just how smart she really is.
Lucky
This is my least favorite. I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. I mean that's obvious since I love Sookie, the vamps, weres, shifters, and witches, right? But believing one person can use up all the luck in the vicinity? That seems a little silly to even me.
Gift Wrap
Sookie is alone on Christmas Eve. Poor thing. This was a fun story that could have fit anywhere in the series. I don't see anything that pertains to any other stories, other than a few events Sookie references. All I can say is, only Niall, a 1000+ year old, fairy great-grandfather would think of a no strings attached evening of physical pleasure as the perfect Christmas gift. He was right;)
offbalance80's review against another edition
3.0
A nice collection of short stories that take place in the Sookie Stackhouse universe, and a short read. It's a nice snack to tide a fan over until the release of Charlaine Harris's next full-length Sookie adventure.
trudecal's review against another edition
4.0
It was a nice little snack to have between new books, but no real meat to it. :)
cmer10s's review against another edition
4.0
I'm a Sookie lover. Book Sookie. Not True Blood Sookie.
This book was great since it had all the little back stories that were missing from the book series.
This is a must read for the Sookie Stackhouse series reader.
This book was great since it had all the little back stories that were missing from the book series.
This is a must read for the Sookie Stackhouse series reader.
nonabgo's review against another edition
2.0
This collection of short stories is not part of the main story line, so it doesn't impact in any way the understanding of the series. I picked it up at random, although to be honest it's not worth the money. These booklets have only one purpose, in my view - to make some more money for the author, but they don't really bring any value to the reader.
It's a book to be read in one sitting (despite its 200 pages, the font is quite large so it goes through fast) by a fireplace on a winter's night (especially given the last story, which is Christmassy). It's light and unpretentious, fun at times, but completely unmemorable.
Fairy Dust is sort of a detective story, with Sookie being asked to listen in to some humans to find out who killed Claudette, one of the fairy triplets. She deducts the murderer out of thin air, the author does not let us in to the through process. The events take place after [b:Dead to the World|140077|Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, #4)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468561630l/140077._SY75_.jpg|1808005].
Dracula Night is just pointless and weird and gives us a side of Eric that cancels his entire tough guy persona. The "Dracula" guy is a parody. Once more, Sookie unveils a mystery without the author explaining how (especially since she cannot hear vampires' thoughts). The events take place before [b:Dead as a Doornail|170210|Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468562419l/170210._SY75_.jpg|1053933].
One Word Answer is about Sookie being told about the death of her cousin Hadley. She discovers the killed - again, from thin air. The events take place after [b:Dead as a Doornail|170210|Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468562419l/170210._SY75_.jpg|1053933] and we are told it's the first encounter Sookie has with Mr Cataliades. The best thing about this story is the appearance of Bubba.
Lucky is another mystery solved by Sookie, this time together with Amelia. I found this the most entertaining of all the stories, probably because Sookie and Amelia actually put in some effort to uncover the enigma. There's also some magic involved, which makes things more entertaining. The events take place after [b:All Together Dead|140075|All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #7)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417964062l/140075._SY75_.jpg|3159810].
Gift Wrap is creepy. It would have been a nice god Samaritan story, with Sookie saving the life of a werewolf abandoned in her woods, and it just turns into a whole different level of weirdness. It would have been a nice story if not for the ending. The events take place before [b:Dead and Gone|5161066|Dead and Gone (Sookie Stackhouse, #9)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388186195l/5161066._SY75_.jpg|5228078].
To conclude, not an essential book when it comes to the Sookie Stackhouse story and had I known that, I would have not spent money on it.
It's a book to be read in one sitting (despite its 200 pages, the font is quite large so it goes through fast) by a fireplace on a winter's night (especially given the last story, which is Christmassy). It's light and unpretentious, fun at times, but completely unmemorable.
Fairy Dust is sort of a detective story, with Sookie being asked to listen in to some humans to find out who killed Claudette, one of the fairy triplets. She deducts the murderer out of thin air, the author does not let us in to the through process. The events take place after [b:Dead to the World|140077|Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, #4)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468561630l/140077._SY75_.jpg|1808005].
Dracula Night is just pointless and weird and gives us a side of Eric that cancels his entire tough guy persona. The "Dracula" guy is a parody. Once more, Sookie unveils a mystery without the author explaining how (especially since she cannot hear vampires' thoughts). The events take place before [b:Dead as a Doornail|170210|Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468562419l/170210._SY75_.jpg|1053933].
One Word Answer is about Sookie being told about the death of her cousin Hadley. She discovers the killed - again, from thin air. The events take place after [b:Dead as a Doornail|170210|Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse #5)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1468562419l/170210._SY75_.jpg|1053933] and we are told it's the first encounter Sookie has with Mr Cataliades. The best thing about this story is the appearance of Bubba.
Lucky is another mystery solved by Sookie, this time together with Amelia. I found this the most entertaining of all the stories, probably because Sookie and Amelia actually put in some effort to uncover the enigma. There's also some magic involved, which makes things more entertaining. The events take place after [b:All Together Dead|140075|All Together Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #7)|Charlaine Harris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1417964062l/140075._SY75_.jpg|3159810].
Gift Wrap is creepy. It would have been a nice god Samaritan story, with Sookie saving the life of a werewolf abandoned in her woods, and it just turns into a whole different level of weirdness. It would have been a nice story if not for the ending.
Spoiler
Having your great-grandfather gift you a sex encounter is just... I have no words.To conclude, not an essential book when it comes to the Sookie Stackhouse story and had I known that, I would have not spent money on it.