Deadly Ever After-- It wasn't that bad!

I made a point of reading Deadly Ever After, the last book in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.  I've been waiting anxiously for this release since about last summer, when I managed to devour the rest of the series in about a month.  I'll admit, I was a bad girl and even read some of the rumblings on Amazon and the facebook world about what may have happened, or what did happen.  Since I had to finish Jane before I could start Charlaine, it seemed like the rest of the world got to finish the book before me.  I was positively gobsmacked by the level of hate that I saw spewed at both Ms. Harris and the series. 

Now, let me preface this by saying I'm firmly on Team Eric.  Maybe it has to do with Alexander Skarsgard playing him on True Blood, or maybe it's because I have a weird fascination with all things Viking.  Either way, my heart hurt at the end of Deadlocked when he just up and left.  What the heck was that all about!  So for months now, I've been hoping/praying/daydreaming of Eric coming back and giving this passionate fight to keep Sookie...and he didn't.  It felt kind of like he shrugged his shoulders and said, "oh well, he can have her," and gave up.  Threw in the towel, didn't put any effort into salvaging 4 books' worth of relationship (or more like 12 if you include the back-and-forth banter from book 1!), and just cut his losses.  It felt a little "un-Eric-like" to tuck tail and ride west to Oklahoma like that, but it's not my story to write.

Even still, I didn't think the book was all that bad.  Was I bummed that it didn't go the way I envisioned?  Maybe a little.  But I still had a bit of, "oh, well isn't that interesting, I didn't see that coming...." which, honestly, I like.  I don't always want to read a book where I get what I predict.  Twists and turns are nice!  It may not have had the shock value that other books in the series had given me, but if Ms. Harris is happy with the final product, then that's what matters.  It's her baby, after all. Just read it and enjoy the journey!