This is the 3rd day of Read-a-thon and one of Day 3's mini-challange is by Basically Amazing. I've got to recommend 2 books, 1 of my favourite and another that I've read during the Read-a-thon. So here goes...

Recommendation 1 - Favourite Book

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

"Prophecy of the Sisters" is the debut book of a series by Michelle Zink. It's a story of two recently orphaned twins, Lia and Alice Milthorpe, in their journey as they unravel their individual roles in an ancient prophecy that has plagued their family for generations. From childbirth their part in the prophecy had been set; the twins are in opposing ends, one evil, one good. It's a race for each individual to end the curse, however, who will prevail? The evil or the good? Firstly they must find out which twin represents which.

This is a very original paranormal, horror, young adult book. I'm yet to see a similar storyline. This is one of my favourite books for it's originality, substance and impact. The characters and plot are complex which helps with the overall mystery. There were so many unexpected twists and turns which just had you turning the page. I had this completed in mere hours and couldn't wait to read the 2nd book in the series. This book is well written and had the right amount of background history, character growth and plot progression for the reader to never get bored and keep them glued to the book.

Recommendation 2 - From the Read-a-thon

Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris

Dead until Dark is the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. I personally rarely find first books in a series gratifying, the story never seems to climax until the second book or at the very least the end of the first. However, this book is really different in many ways. For starters in the current world filled with so many vampire books Harris has stood out where her story has vampires revealed to humans, living amongst humans but as a minority and living on synthetic bottled blood.

Sookie Stackhouse is a barmaid and a telepath in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps. Vampire Bill is the new vampire in town and also her newly acquired lover, who, due to him being a vampire she cannot read his mind, what she has been waiting for her whole life...a man she can be with, without hearing his thoughts.

However, since Vampire Bill's arrival to Bon Temps women are dying! The things in common between these women? They all work in low-paying jobs, they all associate with vampires and they've also been intimately involved with Sookie's brother and town playboy, Jason. Sookie is now forced to use her "gift" to find the identity of the true killer before the town decides to stake her Bill, arrest her brother or even worse, the killer finds her first!

The book is fast-paced, an easy read, a page-turner with an unexpected ending, which a great mystery book must have. It has paranormal elements, horror, love story, action and even a sprinkling of comedy for good measure. Harris has great imagination and her series is certainly set apart from all the other vampiric-stories. If you must choose to read only one vampire series I'd be recommending this.