Ok, so I won't completely rip it apart like some other fans, but that doesn't mean it was a great read. We all know she's no Shakespeare, so I won't even get into the technical part of the writing (but seriously, some of her similes and analogies made me want to gag).
We start with a sort of intriguing prologue with Amelia's father and a devil. Whatever. Bland. Then we get an other supposedly intriguing part with 2 strange men, and you get the feeling that we should know them. I guessed one and the other wasn't important enough for me to even remember he existed (and how thin were his reasons for revenge? Seriously?). And then Sookie comes on the page and does absolutely nothing of significance for the majority of the book. Then oops - Arlene happens. Then Sookie's mundane life. Then Eric. Then more of Sookie being boring as all hell. Even her rescue at the end was lackluster.
But what really gets me about this book is the abrupt changes in characters and by that I mean Eric. I don't know who this whiny, childish, petty, "I'm not Viking enough to take care of myself and fix my own issues" person was, but it was not the Eric Northman we'd read about for the first part of the series. And then such crappy attempts to sort of redeem him. Ugh! But, I guess that had to be convenient to shove Sam down our throats, and even Sookie sounded more resigned to her fate than enthusiastic about it. I knew it was coming, simply b/c Sookie never wanted to be changed and process of elimination left him. But, man what an unsatisfying ending. And the love scene made me shudder. Felt dirty and not in a good way.
So, I guess I did rip it apart a bit. I'm just glad I waited for the library ebook and didn't waste my limited cash on this.