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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
I loved this series, but the last installment was a real let down. While it resolves the mystery of Harper's missing sister, it's rushed and comes too easy. There really needed to be another book between this one and An Ice Cold Grave. That way there could have been more time to set up the conclusion.
Really well done mystery. Worst part is it's the last one. Shoot. I never saw the ending coming.
I listened to this tale. It was engaging and entertaining. I was not surprised by the ending, but there were enough potential murder suspects to keep me from guessing through most of the book. I liked the rhythm and style of this author so will probably take a look at the Sookie Stackhouse series now too.
Forgot I had this review uncompleted in drafts for a week, so while my intense frenetic fury has died down, you still get to experience some of it because I took notes, though they taper off by the end.
This was another buddy read with my friend Summer, and while I had a lot of fun discussing (and yes, perhaps playfully dissing) each book with her (though I feel bad I fell behind for the second half of this one, so we couldn't trade wild theories before the end!), overall, the series itself was kind of a dud to me. I mean, I truly wish I could give this book a well thought out and detailed review like she did because she covers all the bases and makes so many good civil points about its strengths and failures and why it just didn't click. But me, I'm petty, and my review would (and will) consist of mostly me yelling, "Why, Charlaine, why??" at so many of her writing choices throughout until my throat gets sore and my typing fingers go numb because the real mystery here is how this got to the publishing stage at all.
So, let's get started shall we?
First off: WHY, CHARLAINE, WHY?????? And I think most people can guess what plot point this is mainly referring to. Harper and Tolliver. Harper and Tolliver being step siblings, Harper and Tolliver being lovers. Now, I've tried and tried and tried again to get over this fact, they're not blood related and their parents only married when they were already in their late teen years, if they had left it at that, if they had tried to brush it off and move on, maybe, just maybe, I could make some level of peace with it, God knows I've complained about this aspect enough in the past three books, but the fact that within the narrative itself, they keep bringing it up and making it even weirder makes it so, so much worse, because they themselves keep pointing out how weird it is and making a big deal about it. Not to mention, HARPER KEEPS REFERRING TO TOLLIVER AS HER BROTHER FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. Oh my God, STOP, stop saying he's your f--king brother, Harper, what is wrong with you?? If it's so ingrained in you it really feels weird to not call him your brother or think of him as your brother, maybe don't f--king date or have sex with him, maybe that is your brother because you shouldn't have to keep reassuring YOURSELVES you're not related, what the Hell, man. Honestly, what the Hell. You could make a drinking game out of the amount of times they still refer to each other as siblings... you know, if you wanted to get alcohol poisoning before you're even midway through. I really should have kept a running tally. So, again, why, Charlaine, why? We may have discussed this detail more than the actual mystery because she just kept painting big red arrows next to it the whole time, it actively took away from my focus and enjoyment of the entire thing.
Second off: Need I say it again? Why, Charlaine, why?? Not only does Miss Harris keep having Harper and Tolliver refer to each other as siblings, she even has them do it right before and after they have sex, and they have a lot of sex, which again is already uncomfortable and weird because of the step-sibling thing, but also even if they weren't step-siblings, half the time the scenes just feel so weirdly out of place/unnecessary/tacked on and abrupt regardless, and it's not even good sex. Now, I don't personally enjoy reading sex scenes at all, so I'm a little biased, but whether you like that sort of thing or not it doesn't matter because Charlaine Harris describes these scenes in the strangest, most awkward ways, it's a lose-lose situation for everyone. The only thing I can say for this book is at least she used slightly more normal terms than the last one, but still, she's obsessed with these bizarre descriptors and terminology and I’m so sorry, but they feel clinically dispassionate and forced and I can't help but cringe at some of the wording.
Guess what my third point is? If you guessed: Why, Charlaine, why? You'd be correct. The why in this case referring to why does she write all her characters like they're a million years old and on the brink of death only for you to find out in the next few sentences they're only in their 30s or 40s or something? She has such a strange concept of people's ages I've noticed in a few of her books now, having no characters be more than 60 something, making the characters out to be so much older than they actually are and acting like being anything above 30 is already one foot into the grave, it's just odd and grating.
Next several stops on the “why, Charlaine” train include: why does she repeat so much information, we get it, Harper was struck by lightning, we get it their home life was bad, we get it they like to read and do nothing in their motels forever, we get it Tolliver is soooo hot (and btw, no he isn’t, nothing about him is shown to be hot), like why why why does she keep rehashing facts and events we’ve heard a thousand times, why does no one in this series have a brain, why do their internal monologues make no damn sense, why did she feel the need to give Tolliver a moustache??, and why did she write Harper to be one of the dumbest, most unpleasant protagonists to ever disgrace the pages of a book? The concept of her character has so much potential, her powers, different aspects of them we never got to explore, her backstory, everything, but no, we don’t get to see any of that potential put to use, we just get to see her whine, jump to ridiculous conclusions, make asinine decisions and observations, and refer to Tolliver as her brother. No, I will not get over that.
All this rambling though and I haven’t even gotten to the actual mystery. That’s a tough one to do, I mean, it was fun tossing around possibilities, not like it was overly predictable or anything? I’m mostly just mad my initial theories about the endgame with Cameron and the big conspiracy were all mostly incorrect, but that’s also mostly because the actual endgame made no sense and felt messy, rushed, overly convenient and just all over the place. Not to mention, I think it was a cheap move introducing so much pertinent info right at the very end out of the blue in a bizarre montage-esque sequence that retconned the previous information we’ve been working with for the whole series. Such a weak, unfair and yet pointless move. One thing I can say in its favour is I guess it was semi surprising? But I don’t think this end was actually planned from the start, or if it was, God help me understand why because what it seems like to me is this series wasn’t the biggest hit for her audience and her editors were so put off by the pseudo-incest vibes, they were just like okay, Charlaine, wrap it up already, just wrap it up, please, we don’t care how and then just threw it out onto the market without a second glance. Because judging by the amount of typos, stilted dialogue and extraneous paragraphs of nonsensical thought processes and events in this book, I highly doubt it ever made it to any kind of editing stage before being published at all. This reads so much like a first draft it’s unreal.
The one (1) singular plus I will give this book is Manfred. I enjoyed seeing Manfred again, I think he’s an interesting character, and much more likeable than either Tolliver or Harper. Having read Midnight first, Manfred is what brought us to this series in the first place, but his scenes are far and in between and not enough to save the travesty of Harper Connelly, and even then, it seems Charlaine changes his demeanour and traits at will, making him feel inconsistent with both past and future characterization. I’m just... I don’t know how the difference in quality of these two series is so immense, she didn’t write them all that far apart, but I actually enjoyed Midnight for the most part, aside from some bizarre and rushed parts of the ending and a few other small things, but overall I think she handled writing the small town and the characters well. Even the Sookie books, which are older works of hers that I can honestly say I’m not a personal fan of, were written with more care and skill, but here, oh she phoned it in, she phoned it in so hard.
Yes, maybe I'm being a bit harsh, and I probably have more I want to complain about, or point out or harp on, but I will spare you as I don’t want to devote more time to this review because my memory is fading and I have complained quite enough, I have reached my complaint quota for the week. So in conclusion, while it had an interesting premise, and some aspects of its mysteries did hold my attention, this was not a great series overall, it was repetitive to a ridiculous degree, lackluster, underwhelming and frustrating, but it was an enjoyable buddy read because it was a short series that we could both complain about as one. After all, what are friends for if not dunking on bad writing choices together?
This was another buddy read with my friend Summer, and while I had a lot of fun discussing (and yes, perhaps playfully dissing) each book with her (though I feel bad I fell behind for the second half of this one, so we couldn't trade wild theories before the end!), overall, the series itself was kind of a dud to me. I mean, I truly wish I could give this book a well thought out and detailed review like she did because she covers all the bases and makes so many good civil points about its strengths and failures and why it just didn't click. But me, I'm petty, and my review would (and will) consist of mostly me yelling, "Why, Charlaine, why??" at so many of her writing choices throughout until my throat gets sore and my typing fingers go numb because the real mystery here is how this got to the publishing stage at all.
So, let's get started shall we?
First off: WHY, CHARLAINE, WHY?????? And I think most people can guess what plot point this is mainly referring to. Harper and Tolliver. Harper and Tolliver being step siblings, Harper and Tolliver being lovers. Now, I've tried and tried and tried again to get over this fact, they're not blood related and their parents only married when they were already in their late teen years, if they had left it at that, if they had tried to brush it off and move on, maybe, just maybe, I could make some level of peace with it, God knows I've complained about this aspect enough in the past three books, but the fact that within the narrative itself, they keep bringing it up and making it even weirder makes it so, so much worse, because they themselves keep pointing out how weird it is and making a big deal about it. Not to mention, HARPER KEEPS REFERRING TO TOLLIVER AS HER BROTHER FOR THE ENTIRE BOOK. Oh my God, STOP, stop saying he's your f--king brother, Harper, what is wrong with you?? If it's so ingrained in you it really feels weird to not call him your brother or think of him as your brother, maybe don't f--king date or have sex with him, maybe that is your brother because you shouldn't have to keep reassuring YOURSELVES you're not related, what the Hell, man. Honestly, what the Hell. You could make a drinking game out of the amount of times they still refer to each other as siblings... you know, if you wanted to get alcohol poisoning before you're even midway through. I really should have kept a running tally. So, again, why, Charlaine, why? We may have discussed this detail more than the actual mystery because she just kept painting big red arrows next to it the whole time, it actively took away from my focus and enjoyment of the entire thing.
Second off: Need I say it again? Why, Charlaine, why?? Not only does Miss Harris keep having Harper and Tolliver refer to each other as siblings, she even has them do it right before and after they have sex, and they have a lot of sex, which again is already uncomfortable and weird because of the step-sibling thing, but also even if they weren't step-siblings, half the time the scenes just feel so weirdly out of place/unnecessary/tacked on and abrupt regardless, and it's not even good sex. Now, I don't personally enjoy reading sex scenes at all, so I'm a little biased, but whether you like that sort of thing or not it doesn't matter because Charlaine Harris describes these scenes in the strangest, most awkward ways, it's a lose-lose situation for everyone. The only thing I can say for this book is at least she used slightly more normal terms than the last one, but still, she's obsessed with these bizarre descriptors and terminology and I’m so sorry, but they feel clinically dispassionate and forced and I can't help but cringe at some of the wording.
Guess what my third point is? If you guessed: Why, Charlaine, why? You'd be correct. The why in this case referring to why does she write all her characters like they're a million years old and on the brink of death only for you to find out in the next few sentences they're only in their 30s or 40s or something? She has such a strange concept of people's ages I've noticed in a few of her books now, having no characters be more than 60 something, making the characters out to be so much older than they actually are and acting like being anything above 30 is already one foot into the grave, it's just odd and grating.
Next several stops on the “why, Charlaine” train include: why does she repeat so much information, we get it, Harper was struck by lightning, we get it their home life was bad, we get it they like to read and do nothing in their motels forever, we get it Tolliver is soooo hot (and btw, no he isn’t, nothing about him is shown to be hot), like why why why does she keep rehashing facts and events we’ve heard a thousand times, why does no one in this series have a brain, why do their internal monologues make no damn sense, why did she feel the need to give Tolliver a moustache??, and why did she write Harper to be one of the dumbest, most unpleasant protagonists to ever disgrace the pages of a book? The concept of her character has so much potential, her powers, different aspects of them we never got to explore, her backstory, everything, but no, we don’t get to see any of that potential put to use, we just get to see her whine, jump to ridiculous conclusions, make asinine decisions and observations, and refer to Tolliver as her brother. No, I will not get over that.
All this rambling though and I haven’t even gotten to the actual mystery. That’s a tough one to do, I mean, it was fun tossing around possibilities, not like it was overly predictable or anything? I’m mostly just mad my initial theories about the endgame with Cameron and the big conspiracy were all mostly incorrect, but that’s also mostly because the actual endgame made no sense and felt messy, rushed, overly convenient and just all over the place. Not to mention, I think it was a cheap move introducing so much pertinent info right at the very end out of the blue in a bizarre montage-esque sequence that retconned the previous information we’ve been working with for the whole series. Such a weak, unfair and yet pointless move. One thing I can say in its favour is I guess it was semi surprising? But I don’t think this end was actually planned from the start, or if it was, God help me understand why because what it seems like to me is this series wasn’t the biggest hit for her audience and her editors were so put off by the pseudo-incest vibes, they were just like okay, Charlaine, wrap it up already, just wrap it up, please, we don’t care how and then just threw it out onto the market without a second glance. Because judging by the amount of typos, stilted dialogue and extraneous paragraphs of nonsensical thought processes and events in this book, I highly doubt it ever made it to any kind of editing stage before being published at all. This reads so much like a first draft it’s unreal.
The one (1) singular plus I will give this book is Manfred. I enjoyed seeing Manfred again, I think he’s an interesting character, and much more likeable than either Tolliver or Harper. Having read Midnight first, Manfred is what brought us to this series in the first place, but his scenes are far and in between and not enough to save the travesty of Harper Connelly, and even then, it seems Charlaine changes his demeanour and traits at will, making him feel inconsistent with both past and future characterization. I’m just... I don’t know how the difference in quality of these two series is so immense, she didn’t write them all that far apart, but I actually enjoyed Midnight for the most part, aside from some bizarre and rushed parts of the ending and a few other small things, but overall I think she handled writing the small town and the characters well. Even the Sookie books, which are older works of hers that I can honestly say I’m not a personal fan of, were written with more care and skill, but here, oh she phoned it in, she phoned it in so hard.
Yes, maybe I'm being a bit harsh, and I probably have more I want to complain about, or point out or harp on, but I will spare you as I don’t want to devote more time to this review because my memory is fading and I have complained quite enough, I have reached my complaint quota for the week. So in conclusion, while it had an interesting premise, and some aspects of its mysteries did hold my attention, this was not a great series overall, it was repetitive to a ridiculous degree, lackluster, underwhelming and frustrating, but it was an enjoyable buddy read because it was a short series that we could both complain about as one. After all, what are friends for if not dunking on bad writing choices together?
I enjoyed this series, it wasn't as funny as Sookie Stackhouse of course, but a solid series in its own right.
I think there are a couple of reasons that I didn't enjoy this book as much as I might have otherwise. So first off, things I did like.
The first thing is Harper's ability. I thought her talent was pretty cool, though Harper may disagree with me, and the way she got it sounded strange but I think it's a good way to get her talent and I found it totally plausible since it didn't throw me out of the story. The mystery, at least in this one, was good, and complicated so I had sort of figured things out, but not entirely.
And so now for the things I didn't like, and some of these are just personal preference, like the names. The way that nearly everyone had some sort of unusual, you don't hear that everyday, name. It isn't a major gripe but it annoyed me, I just have this weird way about names.
I listened to this one on audio book so this one is more about the voice actor. I didn't think she fit the character of Harper well, and I didn't care for her voice acting, another personal preference here so take it with a grain of salt.
This one is also the LAST book in the series and it was my fault for not looking carefully. In my (weak) defense it was an audio book and I didn't see the series number listed anywhere. I will probably at least try to read the other ones, since I've heard that they are better than this one.
So, what we've learned here is...
Not to read books out of order, especially if it is the last in a series.
The first thing is Harper's ability. I thought her talent was pretty cool, though Harper may disagree with me, and the way she got it sounded strange but I think it's a good way to get her talent and I found it totally plausible since it didn't throw me out of the story. The mystery, at least in this one, was good, and complicated so I had sort of figured things out, but not entirely.
And so now for the things I didn't like, and some of these are just personal preference, like the names. The way that nearly everyone had some sort of unusual, you don't hear that everyday, name. It isn't a major gripe but it annoyed me, I just have this weird way about names.
I listened to this one on audio book so this one is more about the voice actor. I didn't think she fit the character of Harper well, and I didn't care for her voice acting, another personal preference here so take it with a grain of salt.
This one is also the LAST book in the series and it was my fault for not looking carefully. In my (weak) defense it was an audio book and I didn't see the series number listed anywhere. I will probably at least try to read the other ones, since I've heard that they are better than this one.
So, what we've learned here is...
Not to read books out of order, especially if it is the last in a series.
Love this series with Harper Connelly but understand this will be her last book.
Update: I have followed this author for years, reading the Aurora Teagarden mysteries until I tired of them, followed by the Lily Bard series, which was ended by the author. I was excited when she started the Harper Connelly series and enjoyed the first three and was disappointed when I heard this would be her last, but after reading it, decided it's best that she put Harper out to pasture.
Harper travels around the country finding dead people and helping to solve the mystery of how they died and who did it. She travels with her stepbrother who helps run the business and takes care of her as seeing such trauma can have its down side. I have found these creepy and compelling yet this last one was a little too "icky" even for me (and that's saying a lot!). I hate to say anymore except the relationship between the stepbrother and Harper has gotten increasingly stranger. I thought their behavior was a little over the top and didn't quite fit the earlier drawn personality of Harper. The mystery was also pretty benign.
So, my recommendation is try the first book and if you like it, by all means continue the series; just be forewarned that the last book might be best left unread or skimmed.
Update: I have followed this author for years, reading the Aurora Teagarden mysteries until I tired of them, followed by the Lily Bard series, which was ended by the author. I was excited when she started the Harper Connelly series and enjoyed the first three and was disappointed when I heard this would be her last, but after reading it, decided it's best that she put Harper out to pasture.
Harper travels around the country finding dead people and helping to solve the mystery of how they died and who did it. She travels with her stepbrother who helps run the business and takes care of her as seeing such trauma can have its down side. I have found these creepy and compelling yet this last one was a little too "icky" even for me (and that's saying a lot!). I hate to say anymore except the relationship between the stepbrother and Harper has gotten increasingly stranger. I thought their behavior was a little over the top and didn't quite fit the earlier drawn personality of Harper. The mystery was also pretty benign.
So, my recommendation is try the first book and if you like it, by all means continue the series; just be forewarned that the last book might be best left unread or skimmed.
The mystery of what happened to Harper's sister Cameron is finally solved in Grave Secret! The last book in the Harper Connelly series has Harper and Tolliver helping out a wealthy family near there hometown. Harper uses her talents to help them find out the reason behind the death of one of their loved ones. She then she stumbles upon a family secret, which makes her and the people around her a target. Even though it's sad the series is over Charlaine Harris wraps up everything nicely. The person responsible for Cameron's disappearance was unexpected as well as the reason behind it.