Day Shift by Charlaine Harris

Title: Day Shift

Author: Charlaine Harris
Genre: Paranormal / Fantasy
Publisher: Gollancz
Publication Date: 5th May 2015
ISBN: 9780575092891
Stand Alone/Series: Midnight Texas#2
Pages: 320 pages
First Lines: It isn't the rumbling of the trucks that seizes Manfred Bernardo's attention; it is the silence that falls when their ignitions die.

Contains Possible Spoilers if you haven't read Midnight!

Synopsis: 
There is no such thing as bad publicity, except in Midnight, Texas, where the residents like to keep to themselves. Even in a town full of secretive people, Olivia Charity is an enigma. She lives with the vampire Lemuel, but no one knows what she does; they only know that she’s beautiful and dangerous.

Psychic Manfred Bernardo finds out just how dangerous when he goes on a working weekend to Dallas and sees Olivia there with a couple who are both found dead the next day. To make matters worse, one of Manfred’s regular—and very wealthy—clients dies during a reading.

Manfred returns from Dallas embroiled in scandal and hounded by the press. He turns to Olivia for help; somehow he knows that the mysterious Olivia can get things back to normal. As normal as things get in Midnight…

My Thoughts:
Day Shift is the second book in Charlaine Harris' new series Midnight, Texas.  I thoroughly enjoyed Charlaine's Sookie Stackhouse series and the Midnight series does not disappoint!

 The series begins with Manfred Bernardo a psychic, moving to Midnight, Texas.  There he finds and unusual close-nit group of residents with their own closet of secrets.

I found Day Shift jumped into the action a little quicker than Midnight, and it certainly hooked me from the first chapter.  An unusual event occurs in Midnight and it has the residents on edge.  A mysterious company has resurrected the boarded up hotel and it is bringing traffic to Midnight.  Not something that they want at all.

Another mysterious guest appears roughly the same time as the opening of the hotel and takes up temporary residence in the Rev's chapel.  What really gets the story going, is when he is out on a working weekend to Dallas and a long standing client of his dies.  Which sets the dominoes falling.

I really enjoyed the secrecy of each character.  I won't give up any secrets there but there were a few surprises amongst the group and I am curious to see where  Charlaine takes this in the third book.

Manfred as usual is the favourite for me but in these novels Charlaine has given multiple viewpoints told in third person omniscient, which could get confusing if you read too fast.  There were a couple of times I had to reread a paragraph to pick up who was telling this particular part of the story.

I loved how Charlaine makes reference to characters from her other books in this series, including one character that I know of that shows up in the Sookie Stackhouse novels.  If you know those books you have a fair idea of this particular person's skills and background.  Another nice tie in I think!

All in all I love Charlaine Harris' writing style and her stories! I'm definitely going to look into the other series she has created for my next lot of reading material.  I just can't wait for Night Shift to be published.

Book received from:  Bought this one!!

In My Mailbox (163)

In My Mailbox is a weekly post created by The Story Siren.

For Review:

Troll Mountain by Matthew Reilly
Shardss of Hope by Nalini Singh (Psy-Changeling #14)

Bought:

 Day Shift by Charlaine Harris (Midnight, Texas #2)

What did you get in your IMM?
 

Mind Games by Teri Terry

Title: Mind Games 

Author: Teri Terry
Genre: Young Adult / Sci Fi
Publisher: Orchard Books
Publication Date: 5th March 2015
ISBN: 9781408334256
Stand Alone/Series: Stand Alone
Pages: 448 pages
First Lines: A school shouldn't be quiet.  I slip down the stairs, Hex a shadow behind me, matching my exaggerated careful, slow steps

Synopsis:  
Luna is a no-hoper with a secret: in a world of illusion, she can see what is real. But can she see the truth before it is too late?

Luna has always been able to exist in virtual and real worlds at the same time, a secret she is warned to keep. She hides her ability by being a Refuser: excluded by choice from the virtual spheres others inhabit. But when she is singled out for testing, she can’t hide any longer.

The safest thing to do would be to fail, to go back to a dead-end life, no future. But Luna is starting to hope for something better, and hope is a dangerous thing...

My Thoughts:
This took me a little while to get through this book as a few personal things popped up and ate away at reading time.

I have to admit, I was a tad bit confused at the beginning of Mind Games with the incident and the shoe.  I couldn't work out to begin with why Luna had left it until a bit further along when it became more clear.  I'm not sure whether I was just feeling a bit slow when I read it or what it was.

I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline and the characters.  Luna was definitely an enjoyable character and I liked that she tried her best to stick to her guns when it came to being a refuser.

I liked Hex and Gecko but were a little sus on both of these characters.  I didn't really warm up to them until towards the end, and I took to one more so than the other, for obvious reasons.

I also really enjoyed the little surprise gem when reading through and one of the worlds at Pare Co linked up to Slated, another of Teri's books that I really enjoyed as well.

For me there were some really good twists that i did NOT see coming at all and when they were revealed I was shocked!!  One or two I had anticipated but certainly not where the book ended up going.  Thumbs up for that!!

I'm looking forward to reading some more of Teri's work, as I like the world building and the characters!

Book received from:  Hatchette UK

Happy Mothers Day

Wishing all the Mum's out there a memorable and Happy Mothers Day!!