Harris is a breezy writer that keeps you engaged. Unfortunately, I thought this entry was a little predictable. She spends a great amount of time on each character's story, setting up the series I would suppose (this is book #2). I listened to the audio book, which probably added to my irritation. The reader was toooooo slow and her voices were grating. If you looking for light, go for it; otherwise, read one of Harris' other series and maybe come back to this one if it turns out to be something. ( )

The Characters that Ms Harris creates are quite interesting. I really got hooked into them, particularly because I wanted an urban paranormal story that was NOT all tied up with juvenile seeming romance, or overly dramatic adult romance.
I'm not sure though, that I'd call it a Mystery, because it's pretty transparent. In fact, I might have to call it Young Adult, because the reasoning is so simple... several times i started to fall out of the story, yelling "come on, you people can't be this stupid". but then they'd sort of stumble through to the reason they shouldn't.
Overall, I still have to leave it as pretty decent ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/09/2023125-day-shift-charlaine-harris.html ( )

Welcome to Midnight, Texas, a town with many boarded-up windows and few full-time inhabitants, located at the crossing of Witch Light Road and Davy Road. It’s a pretty standard died-up western town. Stop at the one traffic light, and everything looks normal. Stay awhile, and learn the truth… Fun books -- I like that the world isn’t ending, it’s not anything major, it’s just a small town of like ten people who all have secrets and some drama that arises coincidentally, not because there are GRAND PLOTS omg. It’s a nice break once in a while. ( )

Day Shift
4 Stars

Series note: If you are new to Harris's works, I do not recommend starting with this series. There are several crossover characters from Lily Bard, Harper Connelly, Sookie Stackhouse, and even one from Aurora Teagarden. The backstories for the characters in these series add another layer of enjoyment to the books.

The tiny town of Midnight, Texas with its single stoplight and reticent residents gets an unwelcome influx of attention when Manfred Bernardo, the local medium, is involved in the suspicious death of one of his clients. Matters are only compounded with the reopening of the local hotel and the arrival of a mysterious boy who is anything but normal.

Harris writing style is particularly engaging. She has a knack for captivating the reader and making seemingly mundane characters and situations interesting and intriguing. In this installment, readers learn more about the enigmatic Olivia Charity and there are revelations regarding other characters as well as hints at developments to come - I do wish Bobo and Fiji would get a move on with their romance though.

The mystery is the weakest element in the book. To begin with, it is never clear why the reader should care about the victim aside from the inconvenience her death creates for Mandred and the other inhabitants of Midnight. Moreover, the resolution is very anti-climactic with an obvious culprit and motive.

In sum, an entertaining read and I look forward to the final installment. ( )

I'll give this a four, even though it might not deserve it on a scale of all the books ever written. It is, however, worthy of four out of five within it's genre (at least in my book) so there you go. I enjoy Harris' characters and the atmosphere of her books (maybe barring the Aurora Teagarden books), and the books are infinitely entertaining. I also like the mismash of the random characters from the previous series. ( )

I liked this one even more than the first -- partly, I think, because I had an idea what to expect, partly because I really like how Harris is peeling back the layers on the mysteries in town. Highly enjoyable. ( )

Really enjoying this series from Charlaine Harris. And I LOVE finding the ties to her other series! So much fun. ( )

Midnight is having some change, the old hotel is being renovated and Manfred is present when one of his clients dies. In the same hotel that two other people die unexpectedly. The investigation of the murder for Manfred is orchestrated to keep journalists away from the town and while doing the investigation they find new friends and discover some things about some of the other people resident in the town. And people discover who matter to them.
It's an interesting slice of life story with some crossover to the Stookie Stackhouse stories. Now I'm curious about the final book in the series. This one kept me reading well past my bedtime. ( )

We learn more about the strange community living in Midnight in this book, with Manfred especially facing threats from outside which endangers them all, including the peculiar reopening of an old hotel. This is a fun fantasy, and while I enjoyed much of Harris’s work, I think I like this series most of all. Although it’s not the fastest pace, this makes for comfortable reading with characters interesting enough to capture attention. They all have strengths (some supernatural), and yet very human weaknesses. We particularly learn more about Olivia’s past, the Rev’s nature, and Joe and Chuy in this one. There’s one more book, which is a relief considering my to-be-read mountain. Yet another part of me is sorry there’s only one more to go. Not every plot point is perfect, but the characters carry this through. ( )

Fun book, easy to read with no major thinking needed. This second book in the series combines the supernatural with another mystery, and the only unresolved piece is the hotel. ( )

Just good, clean fun. I love the characters in this book. Don't read it expecting a masterpiece (I always struggle a bit with Charlaine Harris's writing style and find the dialogue clunky at times). It's a quick, engrossing, fun book. I liked the first in this trilogy enough to read the second, and am now looking forward to the third installment. ( )

Enjoyable 2nd installment of this new series. I look forward to the next book! ( )

Good, but not great

Once the plot got moving everything falls into place. Early in the book, however, there is a lot of wandering and some bad editing. Three consecutive sentences all starting with the same word can be used to good effect when you are trying to emphasize something. This was NOT the case.

Several tie-ins to the Sookie Stackhouse series. This book focused mainly on Manfred and Olivia, although Olivia remains a bit of a mystery.

For true fans...like you weren't going to buy it? Who are we kidding? But I would not recommend this as a sample of Ms Harris' work.

Perhaps it is the multiple viewpoints that makes the early part seem to drag. ( )

Good, but not great

Once the plot got moving everything falls into place. Early in the book, however, there is a lot of wandering and some bad editing. Three consecutive sentences all starting with the same word can be used to good effect when you are trying to emphasize something. This was NOT the case.

Several tie-ins to the Sookie Stackhouse series. This book focused mainly on Manfred and Olivia, although Olivia remains a bit of a mystery.

For true fans...like you weren't going to buy it? Who are we kidding? But I would not recommend this as a sample of Ms Harris' work.

Perhaps it is the multiple viewpoints that makes the early part seem to drag. ( )

This is a really fun read. It's a "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead" sort of a thing. If you are a C. Harris fan (not the TV show but her various series) you will love this book. Bobo and Manfred and Arthur all sitting at a dinner table! Oh my! The Lily Bard books and the Grave Sight books are some of my favorites, and I liked the Aurora Teagarden books too, so to have side characters from them show up in a new series is such a pleasure! Manfred and Bobo are favorites of mine, and I love that they are neighbors in this new series. What fun!

The book itself is the second in a series about a tiny town called Midnight, Texas, and it is interesting in itself. I'm not sure if the books would be as amazing if I were new to Harris' work. If you haven't read anything but her Sookie books (which I admit I never did finish to the end of the series) you might want to check out some of her other works.

I hope there will be more about Midnight - it seems to me that there is a lot more to say about that town. ( )

"Day Shift" continues the story of the small Texas town of Midnight, that started with "Midnight Crossroad"

Charlaine Harris uses Midnight as a place to collect characters from her earlier books, mix them with other enigmatic inhabitants with supernatural skills and or unusual gifts and get them involved with events that range from the slightly strange to the fundamentally weird.

If you have an afternoon to spare and you're in the mood for a gentle supernatural mystery, seasoned with quiet humour and mostly nice people trying to be mostly good, you'll enjoy this book.

If you're looking for fast-paced excitement, hair-raising thrills, and maybe some eroticised blood spilling, move on to a different book.

This is an afternoon television kind of Urban Fantasy. Think "Warehouse 13" with even less going on. It's a soap, stocked with characters looking for a plot.

Of course, it's a Charlaine Harris soap, so it's well written and the characters hold the attention but really, nothing much happens here. Midnight is a kind of Urban Fantasy Lake Wobegone. It invites you to come sit awhile and catch up with your favourite characters in an environment that is odd but somehow benign.

I enjoyed "Day Shift" (I have no idea why it's called that) enough to finish it but not enough to be waiting eagerly for the next one. If there is a next one, I may wander through it but I won't be expecting much by way of excitement except one or two small surprises. ( )

A very interesting series, with many supernatural creatures, living together in a small town. They all help each other out, when needed. The way Harris writes this series is so.....secretive and closed-mouthed, for lack of a better word. We finally got to "see" what a couple more of the residents really are, in this second book. There was just enough action to keep me interested, the people are likable, and the storylines just plausible enough. I will keep reading this series as they come out, at my local library. ( )

I will always love and respect Ms. Harris for her ability to churn out these quick burn books. I can go through a book of hers in no time, and they catch my attention right away. I will say that I appreciated her additions of familiar faces from her other series, and I really like and care about the inhabitants of Midnight. One thing I am having a small difficulty with is that the characters will sometimes share an idea that isn't readily apparent to me, it may be to other readers, but I am occasionally left in the dark. All in all a strong second book to the midnight series!

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The second book in the Midnight, Texas series, Day Shift by Charlaine Harris picks up the thread started in Midnight Crossroad of normal humans doing bad things. It was so refreshing to see in Crossroad how you could have a community full of paranormal folks, and your mind starts to think about all of the magical ways and reasons a person was murdered, only to discover it was a mundane crime by mundane folks all along. Day Shift continues the trend and does it well, but leaves readers ready for something more.

The title alone should give readers a clue as to what they can expect — day walkers only in this tale, mostly. Lemuel is away researching the books he just picked up from Bobo at the end of Crossroad, leaving Olivia alone to work and deal with her murderous urges and bouts of rage. Here, readers get to learn some of her back story, the reason she moved to middle-of-nowhere Midnight, Texas, and just what her impressive array of skills include. There’s also Manfred, whom we see stretching his psychic skill a bit more. AND SURPRISE SPECIAL GUESTS WHO I WISH WOULD BECOME SERIES REGULARS. I won’t spoil who they are, but they were both in the Southern Vampire series so……

Plot is very basic. The mystery isn’t that hard or surprising to solve. You’re ready for it to be a mundane mystery, so the “twist” doesn’t really have an effect. That pretty much knocks off a star and a half for me. It isn’t dull, it just doesn’t feel like it’s a step up from Midnight Crossroad, more like a sidestep Harris uses to worldbuild.

Day Shift by Charlaine Harris feels more like a filler type novel that works to help set up characters and backgrounds for the next few books in the series. Still, it’s fun, quick, and easy to get through. Hopefully, the third in the series, Night Shift, can build some momentum and actually get the series going. Characters are great, premise great, but after book 2, I’m ready to dig into town mysteries and meatier stories. ( )

The second book in this series follows a few months after the previous one but the upside is the events in the previous book really don’t impact this one so if a reader picks this book up they will not be that lost. There is more overlap with minor characters from her other series in this book but they feel like they are passing through and not staying for the series. It does anchor this book firmly into that universe though.
One of the two story mysteries really doesn’t get solved and I wonder if it will come to the forefront in the next book. The other mystery is fairly straightforward but does need to be solved in order to clear Manfred’s name. I enjoyed this one as much as the previous book and I can’t wait to see what happens in the not so sleepy town of Midnight.


Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley
( )

A solid middle entry to Harris' trilogy about a supernatural town in Texas where most of the residents aren't entirely human. In this entry, Manfred, the town's newest resident and online psychic has to call on the residents of Midnight to help him clear his name after a client dies mysteriously and her son accuses him of stealing her jewels. Meanwhile, the Rev takes in a strange new child while vampire Lemuel is away for most of the book looking for a translator for the ancient books discovered in the previous volume.

One of the things I like best about this series (so far) has been the leisurely way Harris allows the characters to reveal themselves to each other and to the reader. While it can occasionally feel frustrating, I mostly like that there's no rush to get to 'answers.' However, this focus on the characters can sometimes lead to a plot that feels somewhat disjointed. Especially in this volume, the main 'mystery' gets solved in a really rushed way that didn't feel of a piece with the rest of the book. I'm still looking forward to the third volume, but more to spend time with these characters than to find out what happens. ( )

Dayshift starts off by not only introducing several characters at once which by the time that they may actually appear in the book the reader has no idea whom they are; it also describes a town in go much detail the reader gets lost in all of the words and it distracts from the story. The mere storyline of the book is confusing as it starts with the mysterious reopening of a hotel, to a death, and a then intertwines a constantly growing boy; all of which leaves the whole hotel thing up in the air with no questions answered. Overall, Day Shift is an okay book. ( )

When a client dies during a personal consultation with Manfred, her son accuses him of having robbed her of her jewellery. The denizens of Midnight rally round to help Manfred clear his name while also coping with the very strange boy left in the Rev's care and the mysterious re-opening of the town's hotel.

Some questions from [Midnight Crossing] get answered, but other questions are raised in this fun series which is excellent for switching off the brain ( )

I enjoyed this much more than the first Midnight Texas book. Loved how "Barry" was brought in, nice touch. ( )