Review: Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K. Hamilton

I don't date vampires.  I kill them.

My name is Anita Blake.  Vampires call me the Executioner.  What I call them isn't repeatable.

Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs.  I know better.  I've seen their victims.  I carry the scars ...

But now a serial killer is murdering vampires - and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer ...








Anita Blake Series:
Guilty Pleasures
The Laughing Corpse
Circus of the Damned
The Lunatic Cafe
Bloody Bones
The Killing Dance
Burnt Offerings
Blue Moon
Obsidian Butterfly
Narcissus in Chains
Cerulean Sins
Incubus Dreams
Micah
Danse Macabre
The Harlequin
Blood Noir
Sin Trade
Flirt
Bullet
Hit List

Visit Laurell K. Hamilton's website for more information

Review:
I have to admit I was wary about starting the Anita Blake series, it's intimidating starting a series that is already 20 books long!  Especially when I've seen so many people say that the later books in the series don't live up to the earlier ones, I've lost count of the number of friends I have who have given up on the books.  In fact, the only reason I own this one is because a friend gave me the first 14 books because they refuse to read any further, not really a glowing recommendation.  Having said that a lot of people have told me how fantastic the earlier books are and I've been curious to try them for myself for a while now.  I'm not sure if it was because my expectations were too high or if it was that I subconsciously don't want to like the series but I didn't feel that Guilty Pleasures lived up to the hype.

There were a lot of things I liked about the book, it was nice to read about old school scary vampires for a change - you don't seem to see as many of those in more recent urban fantasy stories.  I also liked Anita, she is quite kick ass but there is also a vulnerability to her that makes her seem more real.  She cares a lot about her friends and will put herself in harms way to protect them but she does that in spite of her fears rather than because she is fearless.  I'm curious to find out more about Jean-Claude and the connection between him and Anita but I don't know what to make of him at the moment and I'm not sure if I'll grow to love or hate him.

My main problem was with the world building, well not exactly with the world building because the author had included a lot of interesting ideas - around the fact that vampires are living in the open and humans are aware of them - that I enjoyed reading about.  The trouble was it felt like I wasn't reading the first book in a series, there were loads of times when I had to re-read pages just to try and figure out if I'd missed something but even then I was still left with questions.  I wanted to know more about Anita's animator abilities and why she raised people from the dead and I would have liked to find out more about her past history with vampires and why she hates them so much.

Although I didn't think Guilty Pleasures was the strongest start to an urban fantasy series I am curious to see where the story will take me next.  I'm hoping the next book will answer some of my questions and am looking forward to spending more time in the world Laurell K. Hamilton has created.

Source: Given by a friend

Other Reviews:
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