Sookie Stackhouse Series Book 4 - Dead To The World

Firstly I'd just like to say that yes, I will be reviewing every book in this ever-lengthening series, because there is a difference between them. As usual there are spoilers in this if you haven't yet read the book, so be warned.

For those of you who have read book 4, I'm going to assume you've joined Team Eric, just like I have. For the first three books I could see that although Bill was her first love, the author became quickly bored with the idea of monogamy, as I have previously stated. It was also apparent that Eric was being prepared as his successor, though she did have a few other options.
In this book Eric loses his memory, and Sookie finds him running through the woods near her house. She takes him in and looks after him, while the vamps that work for Eric try to find a way to restore his memory. Sookie, who is already incredibly attracted to Eric, falls for him even more after he loses his memory, and becomes a sweet version of himself. It's completely understandable. The thing with this scenario is that Bill is out of the country for basically the entire book, so she is free to be with Eric without actually having to see Bill. This seemed a little too convenient to me, in fact, the ever increasing lack of Bill in the last two books has seemed a little convenient. Give him a chance! Obviously since Eric is a lot older than Bill he has a lot more going for him in the... experience department, so what with that and his self-confidence he is pretty irresistible. Whereas Bill... well, what makes him better than Eric in any way? Maybe it's the fact that he isn't always sure of himself, and he's not perfect. Regardless, he is slowly being pushed out of the picture, and I can't really see him returning.

Sookie Stackhouse Series Book 3 - Club Dead

Warning: Spoiler Alert.

Attention all fans. I have finally figured out what was bothering me about this series, and it was so obvious that I should probably slap myself in the forehead and mutter something about my lack of intelligence recently. I'm not a published author, as I have previously stated, but I believe as a writer, and an avid reader, my opinion is valid.
This series constantly jumps between past and present tense, and that frustrates me more than most other foibles. Yes, sometimes words like 'this' and 'now' can be used in the context of the past tense, but not too much, and not in the same sentence. Here's an example:

"Eric had gotten me situated on the bed, which was so high, I might need a stepstool to get down." (Club Dead, page 169) The issue here is that most of the sentence is in past tense, until it gets to "might need" instead of "might have needed". A small distinction, yes, but when it's on every page, in almost every sentence, it's a bit too noticeable.

Now to the book. It's quite apparent that the author got bored of monogamy quickly. Sookie has kissed basically every good-looking guy she knows (vampire, shape-shifter, werewolf, human), or at the very least, had impure thoughts about them, and considered acting on them. The first few books have only taken place within a year or so, by the way. So Bill will become the bad guy, like he basically was in this book, and plenty of other options will become available to Sookie (like Alcide and Eric). I understand that it's exciting to go for the unfamiliar, and Eric's raw sexual appeal is definitely a bonus in this situation, but come on, she got bored with Bill by book 2, so he didn't really get a chance to be anything other than someone who used Sookie, and tried to leave her for someone else. What can I say, I just wanted Bill to be the one for her, but clearly the author doesn't.
Pictures courtesy of Photobucket and Twistedplot

True Blood - Bill VS Eric

So, I know everyone seems to be Team Eric right now, and I can understand why. He's mysterious, charming, and oozes self-confidence. I might sound quite old-fashioned, but every time someone starts a 'good' relationship with someone else in a book, that's who I feel like they should stay with, as long as it doesn't become an abusive relationship of course (or if they're not in love etc etc). So I'm still Team Bill. The way he says "Suh-kie" is pretty irresistible, and he's got this dark intensity that I'm always drawn to in tv series' (that's why quite a few times I've liked the 'bad' guy, like Sark in Alias, or Sawyer in Lost). Albeit I'm only up to book 3, and season 2 hasn't started in Australia yet (plus it will be on pay tv, which I don't have), so I don't have much to go on, so we'll see if I'm still saying this in another month's time. After all, there's also something about Eric...