Harper Connelly and Lily Bard Series by Charlaine Harris

I'm going to be frank.  I read a blur of Charlaine Harris eBooks, moving immediately from one to the next, and most of them on my stay in Europe.  I don't have many impressions of individual books.  But I'll give overall impressions and comments of the series (so far as I've read them).

Author: Charlaine Harris [Website][Facebook][IMDb]

Obtained: All the eBooks were library copies.  But I do own the hard copies for the Harper Connelly series.

Series: Harper Connelly, Bks 1-4

Grave Sight
Grave Surprise
An Ice Cold Grave
Grave Secret

I have mixed feelings about the characters.

Harper tends to hold herself back with the reader as much as the other characters in the book.  And when she wasn't distant, as the narrator, she was graphic (more so than I appreciated, though I'm sure others wouldn't mind).

Tolliver was okay, I guess.  He had jealousy issues, but then with Harper's combination of obliviousness mixed with her wishy-washy commitment (there were all these comments about how she found Manfred so tempting), I guess I can't entirely blame him.

I did like Manfred, which is good because he has his own new series (trilogy) - Midnight, Texas - starting with Midnight Crossroad.

Series: Lily Bard, Bks 1-2

Shakespeare's Landlord
Shakespeare's Champion

I've heard GREAT THINGS about this series.  So I was kinda surprised about Lily.  She's possibly even more withdrawn than Harper.  This is perhaps more understandable considering her background - brutal rape, etc.  But it does make it harder to connect with the character.  I was also thrown by the weight-lifter thing, although I get it, again considering her background.  But because of this background she makes choices I don't understand.

Like in the very beginning of Shakespeare's Landlord, Lily witnesses a body being disposed, and she tampers with evidence (!!!) because it could point to her.  Maybe that sounds common sense to you, but it caught me off guard.  I guess maybe because I'm used to amateur sleuth types immediately reporting the bodies they find.  (Because while I wouldn't call these books cozy, Lily does play the amateur sleuth role.)

Anyway, I will continue to see how the series progresses with Shakespeare's Christmas.