"Fairy Dust"Taking place right after Dead to the World, Sookie is hired to discover who is the kiler of Claudette, the triplet of Claudine and Claude (all fairies). The story is short and to the point, and the only thing it adds to the Sookie storyline is the introduction of Claude, who makes later appearances in the novels. I wouldn't consider it an essential read."Dracula Night"This short story takes place after "Fairy Dust" and before Dead as a Doornail. Eric, who is celebrating the day of Dracula's birth, is hoping that Vlad the Impaler will pay him a visit at Fangtasia. Sookie, the only human invited to the shindig, predictably lands in a spot of trouble. Eric's pretty cute in this one, but this, too, isn't essential to the main storyline."One Word Answer"Sookie's long-lost cousin, Hadley, is dead and has left her everything she owned. But there's more to Hadley than Sookie knows; Hadley, in fact, had become a vampire and a favorite of the Queen of Louisiana before her demise. Sookie has to discover for herself just how Hadley met her end. This story takes place before "Definitely Dead," and I would recommend reading it before starting that book. You can catch what's going on in "Definitely Dead" without this short story, but it makes things much easier to understand if you read this one first."Lucky"This story takes place after All Together Dead. Amelia and Sookie discover that one of the local insurance agents (the one who insured Sookie; this character was introduced a few books ago) is using too many spells to protect his business. The result is that all of the other insurance agents in the area are very unlucky and their businesses are failing. Although a nice little aside story, this doesn't really add anything to the essential storyline."Gift Wrap"After From Dead to Worse, Sookie finds herself alone on Christmas Eve. But she's not alone for long - she finds an injured Were in the woods, and she takes him back to her house, which later involves a one-night stand. Her great-grandfather then comes to spend Christmas with her. Everything looks rather heart-warming until the last few paragraphs, which have a creepy feel to them (at least, in my opinion). Once again, I don't think this story is an essential read. "Fairy Dust": I wasn't really into this one. Mainly because it didn't feel right time-line wise. Sookie gets 50k at the end of book 4 and somehow says she needs to take the fairy job because she needs money. Ummm.... then in book 5, she's great with the money because she hasn't spent her share. Hmm... other than that, the ending to the short story went to fast that I had to re-read how Sookie figured out who the killer was. rawr."Dracula Night": I really liked this one a lot. For a short story I thought it was pretty cool. Light and fluffy and such a funny ending that I laughed out loud. Go Eric."One Word Answer": I loved this one! Go Sookie with your made Sherlock Holmes skills in tricking Waldo and insulting the Queen Vampire. It was great. I was even able to put up with Bill, even though I am not sure I like him as a character yet.
