AURORA TEARGARDEN; BOOKS 2, 7 & 8.

Not one, not two but three books in the Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris, today I'm bringing you books 2, 7 and 8 all bought at a charity shop.

BACK COVER BLURBS ... As is generally the case with my multiple reviews the synopsis can be found by clicking on the book title. 

FIRST SENTENCES ... Apologies that I shan't be including a First Sentence as, with three reviews, I feel the post long enough.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS ... As above.

SOURCE ... Charity shops buys.

READ FOR A CHALLENGE? ... Yes.

• Books 10, 11 and 12 read for the Mount TBR challenge which sees my target of 12 books reached. I may however extend the challenge by aiming for the next level of 24 read off my TBR mountain.

MY THOUGHTS ... OK, so perhaps this was one of those series really best begun at the beginning (whilst they can be read as stand alone novels there is a very definite timeline, the amount of explanations/cross references to past events, varying from book to book). I won't deny that I may well have got more out of them IF I'd started with the first book in the series and worked my way through them.

Initially I had thought A Bone To Pick an OK read; disappointing when compared to the author's True Blood series (but then I've struggled to find ANY of Charlaine Harris' novels that live up to her Sookie Stackhouse books) but OK, however ...

What I was soon to discover was a novel lacking in plot with a heroine (Aurora aka Roe) who didn't so much investigate things as have things happen to her; the book concentrating more on her love life (or lack of it) than it did on her determination to find out whodunit, my optimism (to say nothing of my interest in the book) soon plummeted.

Not much better than the previous book. Last Scene Alive, with its paper thin plot; its murder that only occurred half way or so through the book, the author instead choosing to concentrate on the protagonist, once again proved disappointing. 

The multiple possible killers and red herrings, the lame romance, doing little to improve things; the plot inconsistencies, quite frankly, laughable; Roe's internal mutterings monologues, ...... aggghhhh! 

So, I still found myself having to suspend disbelief, there are still all those glaring inconsistencies (and not just from book to book but within the same book) and the mystery, well, it still isn't exactly much of a mystery BUT in Poppy Done To Death at least there's slightly less of Roe ... hurrah!

Seriously, characters I don't find likeable (and believe you me I didn't find Roe at all likeable) I can cope with. After all the author must be doing something right when a character gets under your skin in the way in which Roe did mine, right? 

Hmm! Not if the problem isn't so much an un-likable character as it is a badly written one who doesn't so much develop over the course of the series as, well, deviates - not something I can easily explain without any spoilers, my apologies.

Ah well! I guess my search for a Charlaine Harris series that is as good as her True Blood series (or at least the early books; the later ones weren't so good) continues.