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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

REVIEW: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Title: Guilty Pleasures 
(Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #1)
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Format: ebook, 285 pages
Genre: paranormal fiction
Source: library
Published: 2002 (first published 1993) by Penguin Group USA/Jove
Buy From:Amazon

From Book: “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… “
“In a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States, Anita Blake is an “animator” – a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives. But Anita is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she’s often employed to investigate cases that are far too much for conventional police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters of her hometown of St Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself – the source of her unusual strength and power.”

I went into this book not knowing what to expect, I saw it was about vampires and thought I would give it a try. I was introduced new creatures that I have never read about such as, zombies, wererats (can I say yuk?!) and ghouls.

Jean Claude, a master vampire (who also owns Guilty Pleasures, a vampire strip club) has recommended Anita to Nikolaos, the city's most powerful vampire, to help find out who is committing the murders. After Anita rejects their first request, she finds herself blackmailed into helping them. One turn after another Anita runs into someone trying to kill her. The action kept coming and you never knew what the master vampire would do next. Although Anita is brave and faces her fears, I felt she appeared weak at times I wondered how is she able to kill a vampire. Another time she runs straight into trouble without anything to protect herself, and I had to ask what are you thinking?! I suppose by seeing these things it shows she's human.

While reading the book, I was a little confused as to why the powerful vampires needed a human's help and are not able to do the job themselves. The only reason I could come up with besides Anita being tougher and dealing with "other" creatures, is she could be their eyes during daylight hours. There is something "special" about Anita, but I'm not sure how it helps?

My biggest disappointment with the book is the lack of romance! I am thinking that since this is the first book in the series, it is more of a setup for future relationships. At first there were flirtations between Jean Claude and Anita so I thought maybe something would become of it later. Jean Claude was my favorite character, I wanted to see what would happen between him and Anita. I kept turning the pages, hoping to see more of him. When I started seeing less of Jean Claude I just wanted Anita to show an interest in someone, at one point I was even thinking Edward, another vampire slayer, would do!

Overall, due to the lack of romance I ended up just liking the book. But I am interested enough in Jean Claude and Anita to continue on to the next book.
So I give this book 3 stars!









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