I vant to suck your blood....

Not really, but it fits the books I'm posting about.

Thanks to an inability to sleep, I finished two books last night. Thanks to vampire characters in both books, I’m surprised I didn’t dream of blood suckers once I finally fell asleep.

The skeleton detective returns in the second book of Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant series: Playing with Fire. This series is written for tweens and teens.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie are doing their best to save the world – and stay alive. Under the tutelage of Skulduggery, twelve-year-old Valkyrie – known by her family as Stephanie – is learning the tricks of the trade and developing her magic skills. When Baron Vengeous – a baddie from The War – wants to resurrect the Faceless ones, he must complete a few tasks first…such as finding and awakening the nasty Grotesquery. He enlists some other bad guys - including Dusk (a vampire) and his new "friends". Skulduggery and Valkyrie, along with some familiar faces, must do what they can to stop the Baron’s evil plans.

I enjoyed this book as much as I did the first one, and hope that the next one is published soon! I love the humor and wit of the characters. This goes on my recommended series list.

In case I didn’t share it before, here is the link to the series website: http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com


The other book I finished last night was also book #2 in a series, though this one is written for adults. The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton is the second of many Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books. It starts off shortly after when the first book ends.

Anita is having one hell of a week. A monster is brutally slaughtering families. She’s ticked off the most powerful voodoo priestess in the US. A multimillionaire wants her to raise a 200-year-old zombie and won’t take no for an answer. Oh, and the new (vampire) Master of the City wants her to be his human servant – and also won’t take no for an answer. And to top it all off, a zombie attack in her home ruined some of her collection of stuffed penguins.

Can Anita survive the week, and help to solve the brutal murders?

I’ve already put the next book on hold, and should have it by the weekend. I am enjoying this series! While some of the descriptions are a bit too graphic for my personal tastes, the author does a great job of putting you there. Anita’s quirky sense of humor appeals to me. Plus, I like reading stories where the vampires don’t sparkle in the daylight.


Speaking of this series, I also looked through the graphic novel version of the first book (Guilty Pleasures). I didn’t read it cover to cover, mostly because I had just finished the book about 12 hours before the graphic novel came in. Even with a semi-through viewing…I’ll just stick to the regular version of the novels. The graphic version just doesn’t appeal to me.