Rating: 
Summary: Faith renewed
Review: I won't go so far as to say I think this is one of the best in the series, but I will say that it is much better than the last two offerings and that it has renewed my faith in the series itself.If this installment had been like NiC, I would've walked away from the series and quit wasting my time and money. I'm glad to say that after reading Cerulean Sins, I'll be coming back for more. Yay! This makes my fan heart happy. While this title does have flaws, the main criteria by which I judge "fun" books was met and that is--does it hold my interest? At the end of each chapter am I anxious to read on? The answer? A resounding YES. True, the plot got a bit thin into the meat of the book, and there's still a lot of sex with a lot of folks, but it was believable to me and handled in a way that made it acceptable. And the minimal amount of Micah exposure certainly helps this book. I don't mind sex. I'm not a prude. But it has to be handled tastefully and it has to be believable. Micah was not in the least bit believable. For disheartened fans of the series, I would recommend this book. I think that, in spite of its flaws, this is a great read and offers hope for the future of the series.
Rating: 
Summary: a good buy
Review: I've waited for this book to come out for two years and wasn't let down. It made me squeal, get angry, and of course laugh. If you want to learn a lot more about Jean-Claude and Asher, don't skip this one. You shouldn't skip any. You may find Anita frustrating through some of it but keep your faith in your hero. Cerulean Sins is worth whatever price you pay for it, and the time you spend to read it.
Rating:
Summary: New beginnings...
Review: First of all, this book will not appeal to everyone. Explicit sex and increasing involvement with the 'monsters' may turn off fans who loved the original kick-ass style of Anita Blake. However, I believe that this book shows a major improvement over the past couple of installments. Anita's directionless and complicated personal life becomes even more complicated but at last has some rules that she can understand. Richard the reluctant werewolf finally seems to be coming to grips with the reality of his own existance. Most important of all, we see that the humans may be just as monstrous as the 'monsters', which anyone reading a newspaper probably already knows.
Rating: 
Summary: Unforunate Direction
Review: This was a wonderful series, until the last 2 books. I'm still trying to figure out why its all gone so horribly wrong so quickly. The 11th book in this series starts out promisingly, with Anita in a graveyard raising a zombie. She even seems to have regained some of her trademark quips. And some of the other plots that are introduced along the way seem very promising. The werewolf serial killer, the assasins following Anita and especially the emissary of the vampire Belle Morte. As we found out earlier in the books, Jean-Claude and Asher used to "belong" to Belle, and we've been led to believe that she's very powerful.
But all these potentially great stories seem to get crushed under the weight of Anita and her sex life. Or should I say the ardeur. One of the most offensive and blatant plot devices to come along in any series. Lets just call it what it is boys and girls, an excuse for the author to get Anita naked and in bed with a cast of characters. A male author using this type of device would be blasted to the moon. In this book, Anita adds another 2 men to her stable. With each intimate addition to her life, her relationships take on a more shallow and unconvincing tone. I miss the intimacy of her individual relationships with Jean-Claude and Richard. They were real and touching and convincing. Anita with Asher or Jason is not as convincing. And definitely NOT with Micah. When all is said and done, Anita emerges victorious again under extremely dubious circumstances that make her appear very callous. The book insults us by suggesting otherwise. And Belle Morte is sent packing by Anita and her male studpuppies. And once again, Anita's "dating" status is changed. I didn't realize that Anita dated anymore, I thought she just had sex with different men. How I long for the older books and the romantic scenes between Anita and Richard, or even Jean-Claude. I like the substance of the early books over the gloss of the later books. Now, they seem to be about how much LKH can throw in, violence, sex, unexplained monster powers. But everything is just slick and passionless. The series feels tired.
Rating: 
Summary: luke warm at best
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers the sex scenes didn't bother me. I also didn't mind the psycho analyzing that went on through out the whole book. It was a chance to see the characters evolving (altho' there might have been a way to do it that wasn't so boring, I got a little tired of the same wish washy dialogue). The most glaring mistake was the lack of a real plot. It did seem like that the international terrorists were just thrown in there b/c the big, bad vampires weren't really enough to keep the reader engaged. Big surprise, but neither were the terrorists. It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me to even have had them in there. The resolution with the vampires was just a little too easy. I would have to agree with other readers that there isn't a whole lot of danger for Anita Blake and her loved ones. I almost hate to say it, but it might be time to kill off a few characters (secondary or otherwise). It's hard to feel any suspense or dread when you aren't really afraid for the characters. I definitely wouldn't skip this book since so much happens in the relationships between the characters, however I would advise you not to get your hopes up. Cerulean Sins wasn't that bad but it wasn't that good either. Personally, I think it's a toss up between which one was worse: CS or NIC...altho' at least CS I got to see developments between the characters that I'd been waiting for. IMHO, any LKH is better than none, but this isn't the best.
Rating:
Summary: And time moves on......
Review: I have read all of Hamilton's books as soon as I could get my hands and them, and loved every one of them. So it was somewhat of a disappointment that after only eleven books Hamilton wrote one that wasn't as good as the ones that came before it (scarasm). Normally when you open one of her Anita Blake books, the "monster" that is terrorizing people is the focus, and each book could be a stand alone story. Anita, the police, and 'friendly' pernaturals (vampires, faries, etc.) all interact with this being the biggest worry of almost everyone. Instead, for this book Hamilton focused more on the charcters themselves and the "monster" only actually comes into the story enough to do some bodyguard work at the begining and to get shot at the end. This book seems more to be a transtition book between the past and what is to come. The charcters are getting older (Jason, Zane), some are dealing with their problems sucessfully, others (like Richard and Dolph Storr) are letting their personal problems devour them. Real people change over time, so has Anita and the rest of her friends. So the focus of this story is how everyone is changing and settling in to their less than normal live. Anita is learning how to handle the Audor (a kind of curse that forces Anita to feed off of people, not blood like vampires but sexual energy and lust), Storr is not handling the fact that his son may become a vampire in the near future, Asher is getting over his psychlogical scars, Jason is becomeing an adult, Richard is becomeing sucideal.... The list goes on. And that was just the main plotlines. There was alot of set-up happeing in the backgroud. Someone set some very dangerous men to draft Anita into zombie making for them, Storr may not be the head of St Louis Pernatural police division in the next book, people may think that Anita was pregnant, and Bele Mortum (a very powerful member of the vampire world government) is going to try to become THE head vampire in the world... "May you live in interesting times" is an eastern curse, but for Anita and her friends, I hope it is not any other way!
Rating:
Summary: Quit Complaining!!!
Review: This book was wonderful. It gets on my nerves that everyone tries to tell Ms. Hamilton where to go with her own imagination. She is the author and you can't tell her what to write. Having got that off my chest, Anita faces the same moral delimas that we face and make compromises and decisions based on love. Anita would never be happy sitting at home knitting a sweater for Richard. She is living life day to day, not knowing if she is going to live or die and making choices based on that mentality.
Rating: 
Summary: Enough already...
Review: Enough with the increasinlgy pornographic sex (and how many times can she use ardeur in a passage anyway?). Enough with the ridiculous accumulation of superpowers. And, gawd, enough with the flowing, nearly feminine locks of all non-human males. I've read all of the Anita Blake, and while I once was very entertained with the feisty Blake who used wit and luck to survive, I'm now puzzled by the character that Hamilton is creating. I just can't relate to the ridiculous developments. And if I wanted to read about wild sex, I would just buy a Cartwright bodice ripper instead.
Rating:
Summary: Grounding A Series
Review: I have read many runaway book series. They often become stale and predictable. This is not one of them. LKH chose this book to develop progressive characters. That is not an easy thing to do, because some readers don't like change.
The stage is now set for multidimensional people for future Anita Blake mysteries. I waited impatiently for the release of this book. I thought to myself, "She is taking her time with this book, so it's gotta be a good one!" I was right! LKH took her time to write a very good book.. I didn't mind the fact that it was short because it's so fulfilling. The action is minimal. Anita doesn't do a lot of killing in this book. And frankly I didn't miss it. The mystery is still the best. The sex is even better because it involves serious emotional growth. No meaningless or romantic sex here. This book has many positive messages. You have to see past the sex in order to receive it.
An unwelcome visit from a two thousand year old vampire uncovers painful memories For Jean-Claude and Asher. The result forces Anita and her changeling charges, to deal with serious emotional baggage of their own, while trying to placate the vengeful Belle. Politics prevents Anita from just shooting Belle. Richard and his werewolves are no help. So, they try to hold off Belle's murderous intentions with subtle psychoanalysis. It's kinda funny.
This book made me grateful for my mother and my best friends. We all live very different lives but we are there for each other. Anita is young and essentially alone with no girlfriend like or grandmotherish person around for mature guidance. She doesn't have a confidant outside of her on-the-job personal life. There is no 1-800 hotline to call for moral support, when you have to save a friends life by adding him to your list of bed partners. This is my favorite book of the series. I can now wait patiently for the next one, because I know it will be a solid addition to this one.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best, but not terrible.
Review: I think the reason people don't like this book as much as some of the others is because it seems to be a stepping-stone book -- something even bigger is going to happen in the next novel, something involving the Council. That's why this one seems to drop off so quickly. THAT SAID... The pacing was good. The sex was good, if a little weird in places. Some lines were overused ("tan version of the Mummy's hand"). The Big Bad Non-Vampire Enemy was too glossed-over and that angle ended too quickly. On the other hand, the development of many of the minor characters was appreciated, and if you like Jason, you'll ADORE many parts of this book. There were some scenes with Asher that were well-written. The ending reminds me a bit of the denoument of Harry Potter 4 (Goblet of Fire). But no one complained about that. Read it if you like Anita. But if you've never read Laurell K. Hamilton before, start with _Lunatic Cafe_.
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