This has proven an even more interesting read than I expected, thanks to passages like this one about William of Normandy awaiting favorable sailing conditions:

It was then that William, confronted by the powerlessness of man and the perversity of nature, fell back upon his faith; and at his asking the body of St. Valéry, who had founded the abbey there in the seventh century, was carried in its shrine, with the abbot and monks in procession, and placed on a carpet spread upon the ground and exposed to the general view of the army. The great host, kneeling in ranks above the shrine, prayed for a favourable wind; offerings of money, to be used in beautifying the shrine, accompanied the prayers, and coins were showered down in such numbers that the saint's casket was soon covered.

     On the next day (Wednesday the 27th) the weather cleared; and glancing at the vane on the abbey tower, William saw that the breath of God, at the intercession of St. Valéry, had shifted to the south.

It's a passage I would expect to find in a work written in the twelfth century rather than the twentieth. It's not atypical of the book, either, as Compton sees God's disfavor with Harold as the basis for his defeat. It's little wonder that modern-day historians steer clear of this book.

It's not often that I crack open a book and almost immediately take issue with it, but then it's not often that I come across passages like this one about Edward the Confessor:

It was more than the passing of a king for which the people waited. For by popular agreement Edward was already a saint, one possessing not only the gift of holiness but also the healing touch. His was the faith that surmounted political and social barriers, so that the warmth of his charity and concern for general welfare were things experienced by the people, like radiated warmth. Men felt that they had, as it were, a stake in his sanctity, which is something that the vast impersonality of our secular time and country will scarcely understand.

While one of the reasons why I undertook my English monarchs reading project was to give me the context to detect bullshit like this, even if this was the first book I had ever read about the era I would have been able to pick up that last sentence for the utter nonsense that it is. Piers Compton had an interesting background as a Catholic extremist (in the 1980s he wrote a book arguing that Vatican II was proof that the freemasons had infiltrated the Church), and I was wondering if some of his more interesting views would pop up in this book. In that respect he didn't keep me in suspense for long.

Moonlight Serenade - M.J. Compton

Moonlight Serenade by M.J. Compton is a fantastic shifter romance.  Ms. Compton has delivered a book that is well-written and loaded with outstanding characters.  Delilah is a journalist with a missing brother.  She's determined to find him.  Tokarz is an alpha wolf shifter working undercover for the FBI.  Delilah and Tokarz's story is packed with drama, humor, action, suspense and sizzle.  I enjoyed reading Moonlight Serenade and look forward to reading more from M.J. Compton in the future.  Moonlight Serenade is book 1 of the Toke Lobo & The Pack Series but can be read as a standalone.  This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

As expected, the book follows Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress from Bon Temps through another set of adventures filled with tension, mystery and a healthy dose of supernatural. After the mishaps from the previous books, the romance gets pushed on the back burner. Vampire Bill seems less interested in Sookie and spends most of his time in secrecy, writing something on his computer, then disappears.

“The sweetest part of being a couple is sharing your life with someone else.

But my life, evidently, had not been good enough to share.”

To make matter worse, a man shows up at the bar she works and tries to kill Sookie. The plot thickens when she finds out that Bill was kidnapped by the Mississippi vampires and it’s all related to his mysterious computer files.

Another of my favorite quotes happens when Eric stops by to inform Sookie that Bill was kidnapped and sneaks into her bed while she sleeps:

“My eyes flew open, and I pushed back against rock-hard shoulders. I let out a little squeak of horror.

“It’s me,” said a familiar voice.

“Eric, what are you doing here?”

“Snuggling.”

The only predictable action in this book is that Sookie goes to Jackson, Mississippi to investigate. After reading the first two books, I wouldn’t have expected it to go any other way. Of course, she’s going put herself at risk trying to save her first love, despite learning he was planning to leave her for an old flame. Her adventures in Jackson take her to Club Dead, a nightclub where vampires and shapeshifters hang out together. To top it off, it’s a full moon, so violence ensues!

The story is well plotted with unexpected twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat while reading. Sookie is in great form and only seems to grow stronger as a character while going through these supernatural adventures.

Although her romance with Bill cools off, the story introduces Alcide Herveaux, a new supporting character that might become a love interest later on. The way he’s portraited in the book, Alcide seems like a good candidate to replace Bill. He’s easy on the eyes, a good man and a werewolf. But in order to be likable, he has to be flawed and he is. He’s doing daytime jobs for vampires to pay his father’s debt and has a psychotic ex-girlfriend. How could you not root for him?! In this book, we find more about the shapeshifters and the werewolves, mostly due to Alcide who fills in a lot of the blanks in Sookie’s knowledge of the supernatural world. Unlike vampires, the rest of the supes have not revealed themselves to humanity. The weres and the shifters are well organized and have their own structured society.

Above mystery and adventure, Mrs. Harris adds humor to all her books. How could you read this with a straight face:

“They found the corpse in the closet of Alcide’s apartment, and they hatched a plan to hide his remains.” Eric sounded like that had been kind of cute of us.

“My Sookie hid a corpse?”

“I don’t think you can be too sure about that possessive pronoun.”

“Where did you learn that term, Northman?”

“I took ‘English as a Second Language’ at a community college in the seventies.”

At times, the characters say unexpected thinks that shock you. And by characters, I mean Eric, the powerful vampire who likes to get a reaction from Sookie any way he can:

“I have always been very fond of you.” He’d always wanted to have sex with me. “Plus, I want to fuck you.”

The book doesn’t rely on obscenities and crude language to shock the reader. Perhaps that’s why when it happens, it’s unforgettable and sure to make you blush. 

Although I recommend you read the series in order, the book can be read as a stand-alone. The author explains her universe at the beginning of the book and there are several references throughout the book that get explained for those who skipped the first book. Basically, once a Japanese group created synthetic blood, vampires all over the world “came out of the coffin” and joined mainstream society. This kind of explanation and other references happen in other books from this series too. To be honest, I found this a bit annoying. I say this from the perspective of someone who read the books in order and finds the same things explained over and over again and keep thinking ‘Yeah, I knew this already. Why do you keep telling me this in every book?! If you said it once, it’s enough!’. But I get why she did that and since it’s just a couple of sentences I didn’t find it off-putting.

Just like the first book, this is a fast-paced and action-packed mystery-adventure novel with a complicated romantic relationship that hints at a love triangle later on. The action takes place in a universe where supernatural beings live among us and often wreak havoc in the human world. The characters are generally well written in such a manner that even the bad guys have you rooting for them every now and then. I loved this book as much as I did the first one.

This second book follows the adventures of telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse of Bon Temps, Louisiana, as she is ”borrowed” by Dallas vampires to use her telepathic skills to help find a missing nest member. Vampire Bill accompanies her to Dallas to keep her safe which he fails to accomplish. Similar to the first book, there is a murder mystery subplot that needs solving. As expected after the first book, the action is unpredictable and rolls like a rollercoaster while the end result is exhilarating.

Sookie is a fun, relatable character. Although a bit naive at times, she’s portrayed like a strong, down to earth person despite all hell breaking loose around her. I find her very like-able with her quirks, self-deprecating humor and great appreciation of the absurd.

This time, Sookie is attacked by a maenad to sent a message to Eric Northman and wounded badly. When she is in pain while a healer is tending to the wound, Eric does his best to distract her.

“By the way, I haven’t heard an ‘I’m sorry’ from you yet.” My sense of grievance had overwhelmed my sense of self-preservation.
I am sorry that the maenad picked on you.”
I glared at him. “Not enough,” I said. I was trying hard to hang on to this conversation.
Angelic Sookie, vision of love and beauty, I am prostrate that the wicked evil maenad violated your smooth and voluptuous body, in an attempt to deliver a message to me.”
That’s more like it.”

Humor is present throughout the story, mostly in dialogue form between Sookie and Eric. One of my favorite quote from the book takes place right after Eric throws himself on top of Sookie to protect her from bullets during an attack:

“Glass shattered, vampires roared, humans screamed. The noise battered at me, just as the tidal wave of scores of brains at high gear washed over me. When it began to taper off, I looked up into Eric’s eyes. Incredibly, he was excited. He smiled at me.

Eric: “I knew I’d get on top of you somehow,” he said.

Sookie: “Are you trying to make me mad so I’ll forget how scared I am?”

Eric: “No, I’m just opportunistic.”

I wiggled, trying to get out from under him, and he said, “Oh, do that again. It felt great.”

If you like reading a compelling mix of mystery, fantasy, and complicated romance drizzled with snarky comments, then you’re in for a treat!

I love how Mrs. Harris manages to make mayhem, bloodshed and bizarre situations entertaining.