Dead Until Dark

by Charlaine Harris

Sookie Stackhouse - a mind-reading Southern waitress - has been waiting to meet a vampire since they "came out of the coffin" four years earlier and became a legal part of society. So when Bill Compton comes into the bar where she works, her life changes significantly.

The first in the Sookie Stackhouse series, and the basis for the HBO series "True Blood", it was really only a matter of time until I read this. I liked it well enough, but it was a bit more romance novelly than I had expected. Sookie has a solid cast of supporting characters around her as well, to keep things interesting - her brother Jason, boss Sam, fellow waitress Arlene, and vampire Eric. I have never seen the HBO show, since I don't have HBO, but I hear great things about it. Maybe I'll rent it.

I expect that I'll read at least a few more in this series. They are on a waiting list at the library, so that makes it a little slower to get through. And I can wait, because I didn't really have the "Oh my gosh, I have to read the rest of these!" desire that one can get with other series books. But I think they'll grow on me.