Rating: 
Summary: Best of the last couple!
Review: This was a pleasure to devour (bought it this morning, finished it this afternoon). Unlike the last book, Narcissus in Chains, this one is about Vamp politics, not shifter politics. Unlike Burnt Offerings, it wasn't edited with a weedwacker. Rather, it is smaller (400 pgs hardcover -- substantial but not mammoth) and much *tighter* on the plotlines. This one moves forward with the Vampire Council/Belle Morte plotline, and does so very nicely. Also, a lot of attention is paid to Asher and Dolph and Jason, as well as Anita herself. There was a lot less of the "Anita gets a new power this chapter" stuff that has been in the last couple, though a few new things pop up. Lots of good developments on the Asher/Richard/JC/Anita front, and some insightful therapy for Anita from, of all people, Jason. This is the best of the recent books, as LKH seems to be blending very nicely with her editor in this outing. And the introduction of Belle Morte & the new baddie -- sweet. The Dolph plotline is *very* interesting for how little screen time Dolph gets. This is easily my favorite entry since Bloody Bones which is my very favorite. But I am a bit biased as I am all-over tired of the Richard/shapeshifter angst. On the otherhand, Richard is very loatheable in this book, so I was happy there too!
Rating:
Summary: Anita gest down and dirty...and down right mean!!!
Review: I greatly enjoyed this story!! Ms. Hamilton has done a wonderful job on this book!! I picked this book up after work, got home and read it non-stop and finished in under 5 hours!! I'm sure you'll love it!!! Why I liked this book... Vampire politics is always interesting to say the least, add into the mix a murder mystery, a good dose of unease all around as the full moon is coming (when isn't it?). A load of erotic tensions, a menage a trois and new critters. Well thats just part of what makes this book the latest and greatest of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series!!! Jean-Claude and Anita must find a way to save Asher from Belle Morte, who is out for revenge upon Jean-Claude and Asher. Anita finds out that she does actually love her vampires even though she tries not to. A hitman wants to hire Anita to do a annimation, and Dolph needs a vacation bad before he goes over the line! And Anita learns that she still can be afraid of the dark when the Mother of all Vampires lets Anita know that she really isn't sleeping, just waiting for something "interesting" to come along, and that she finds Anita fascinating. The world of Anita Blade is a dangerous, exciting and twisted one. It is the very fact that this "Anitaverse" is lightyears distant from our own, yet right around the corner at the same time, is what makes the Anita Blade series such a wonderful read!This book was definately worth the reading time!!
Rating: 
Summary: Where's Larry and Ronnie and Animators Inc and Louie and...
Review: I am a HUGE fan of the Anita Blake series. NIC was starting to break from the usual excellence of the line, Cerulean Sins is even further off the mark. The book was still well written which is why I gave it 4 stars, but I miss the elements that made the first 7 in the series excellent. There isn't much in this book about Anita's 'work,' only a few gratuitous mentions of her side-kick Larry, and NOTHING about Ronnie. There is a lot of sex though. While some sex is fine (since ALL the main guy characters are hotties) but time after time gets old. Please, have Anita controlling the ardeur by the next book and fill the pages with a true story, not just sex. If the next book doesn't veer back on track it may be my last.
Rating:
Summary: Hamilton continues to Succeed!
Review: I have been a fan of Hamilton's work since her first book. Her series has grown and changed; it has gotten progressively finer. Writing this I consider it an oxymoron, bearing in mind, her first book was one of the best I've ever read. With her newest book, she has continued the tradition. Anita Blake is a tough, savvy, character. Her most recent role as guardian in the story is a role I enjoyed immensely. While some people might be disappointed because the newest book has continued in the vein of the last few books I believe that Hamilton has just begun to plumb the depths of this winning streak. Of any author I have ever read Hamilton is the most capable of bring the characters and the very story to life. The story is so life like we can almost see the blood fly.
Rating:
Summary: Another entertaining installment in the Anita Blake universe
Review: Cerulean Sins features the further development of Anita's relationship with the vampires Asher and Jean-Claude when the head bloodsucker of their line sends her representative to St. Louis. Anita finally has some measure of control over the ardeur, which again plays a fairly major role in the movement of the plot, and she and her guys (pretty much all of them) interact in various ways (violently, sexually, emotionally, and otherwise), which has always been interesting. A secondary subplot features a gruesome werewolf serial killer, an international terrorist, and an assassin who all want Anita to raise a certain someone for them. I find that the mystery sections and the sex/romance/paranormal relationship segments have become less and less integrated as the series has come along. They can pretty much be read as separate but unequal stories. However, if you like paranormal romance, this is definitely a series to read, as it is much more interesting and imaginative than a lot of others out there. And as always, it's entertaining and a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-Paced and Interesting
Review: Cerulean Sins finds Anita Blake back at work as an animator. She's also been given federal marshal status, so she's back on the job. For those who found Anita's last outing to be too constrained, this is really good news. The plot of an Anita Blake book always seems better when Anita is balancing work with the more supernatural aspects of her life. Mussette, one of Belle Morte's lieutenants, has arrived unexpectedly for a visit with the Master of the City. Before long, Anita and her preternatural friends are up to their eyelids in vampire politics. At the same time, Anita has to come to grips with her feelings for Asher, a new string of brutal murders, a coworker who is losing his grip, the problem of the local Ulfric, the definition of sex, and a group of assassins in the city. Quite a bit to juggle in one book, but Hamilton succeeds well. The weirdness just never stops when you're Anita Blake. I found this to be a much better, more involving book than Narcissus in Chains, and would have rated it at four and a half stars if it were possible.
Rating: 
Summary: not her best work
Review: I'm a big Anita fan and the latest work is not up to Laurell K. Hamiltion's usual standards. The story itself is VERY weak; the plot jumps from seb-plot to sub-plot. It doesn't feel like there even is a main story; it's all just an excuse to throw Anita into strange sexual encounters.
Rating:
Summary: Different Kind of Anita Book
Review: After reading all the negative views I won't rehash the plot. But I will say people fell in love with the prudish Episcopalian Anita Blake who was almost 2 dimensional and flat. And people, remember, always remember how young Anita Blake is. Through the series she's been growing and so to read this one first would be a jumbled shock to the system. Read them in order and you'll see how she grows. Admitedly Dolph's anger and Richard's depression are, well sad and useless to me. I've always hated Richard the gorgeous but wimpy boy scout who can eat your face. I wish he'd just slink off. This one is as good, if not better than NIC, way better than and I mean way than OB. But if you liked the first eight you might find this one disappointing. It's very long and poorly edited but the ideas are gorgeous and it's a good escape. I've been a fan since GP and I'll read to the end. PS
to REALLY understand not only character development, but Laurell's development as a writer, read Guilty Pleasures through Obsidian Butterfly. Notice in OB how Laurell AND Anita have gotten sick of the whole scene. Then read the first two Merry gentry novels, then go back to Narcissus in Chains and read on. It flows seamlessly and you'll get Anita Blake a lot more.
Rating: 
Summary: Actively Nauseous
Review: Having begun with Guilty Pleasures and read with constant enjoyment up through the first hundred pages of "Narcissus in Chains", I feel tricked and cheated. I had hoped with the last book that Hamilton would steer the series back on course, and that hope was hideously thwarted. Both "Narcissus in Chains" and "Cerulean Sins" are colossal disappointments for anyone who read for mystery, crime drama--or anything, really, other than sex. Almost all of the major relationships in these books have been destroyed or relegated to the back burner, and anyone who disagrees with Anita gets pages full of badmouthing. It's tiresome, tedious, poorly plotted, and not much more than an endless and emotionless sexathon. The edge Anita's tangled love life gave the books is gone. The promise of the TRI--the metaphysical and emotional entanglement between Anita, Richard the Ulfric, and the vampire, Jean-Claude--has been destroyed by Anita's unceasing selfishness and incredible demands. I adored Richard, and Micah, Anita's "soulmate" as introduced in "Narcissus in Chains", is a one dimensional, contrived, gutless wonder, and an absolutely pitiful substitute for the vastly fulfilling Richard and Anita dynamic. He is much more of a Stepford Wife than any kind of believable partner, with only one endowment to recommend him. Fans that look to "Cerulean Sins" for resolution of Richard and Anita's dilemma will be sorely, and bitterly, disappointed. Richard gets little page space, and most of that is spent with Anita's internal wondering of "how long it would be before she hated him." Less time than it takes for the devoted to begin to hate you, Anita. There are no good aspects of this book. The mystery is underhand, poorly developed, and is more an afterthought than any active device of the plot. It is resolved in a slipshod manner that is to me indicative of Hamilton's poor opinion of her readers. The plot devices are contrived, the vampire villainess less than believable. It is remarkable that a villainess can consume so much page space and still manage to accomplish so little. Most importantly, as far as being relevatory of Anita's abrupt personality transplant, is the destruction of her relationships with all of the human, or humanish, characters in these books. It is only the characters that embrace Anita no matter what that win Anita's and the author's stamp of approval; Dolph, Ronnie, and Richard in particular have been treated abominably. Dolph was throughout the series a rock, and his breakdown is poorly planned and poorly executed. Anita speaks repeatedly of getting rid of Ronnie, her long-time "best girlfriend," apparently for the dastardly crime of daring to question Anita's lifestyle choices. The characters have been reduced, almost in toto, to poor caricatures of what they once were. It makes for bland and occasionally offensive reading. With "Narcissus in Chains", I was looking for the book I had somehow missed between pages 100-101. With "Cerulean Sins", I'm looking for the other half of the book that was somehow swallowed up by meaningless automaton sex. The ardeur, which might have had interesting possibilities, is merely a device for Anita to sleep with almost all the main and secondary characters...and the ones Anita managed not to sleep with this time are assured of getting their turn in the next book. I am disgusted with the way the promise of the TRI has been sold out, and disgusted with the author for such sloppy writing. If she can't write two series well, don't try. The readers are getting shortchanged on both ends of the spectrum. The only way I would consider continuing with this increasingly Anita-worshipping cult of a series is if Anita were to get over her fiance in college, Richard was restored to the man we fell in love with back in "Circus of the Damned", Micah were killed, and the ardeur was relegated to the background it deserved: another need, and not one that we need to hear every detail about fulfilling. I have no problem with sex and violence, but only when they serve the plot. Largely due to the sex, there is, in "Cerulean Sins", not much plot to speak of.
Rating:
Summary: I hope it does not get any worse then this
Review: Well I have all the books for this series and all I can think of is how far the series has sunk.
From the start the series was excellant with a great storyline but the last 3 books have been for the most part trashy sex novels.
While this novel was a bit better then the last two I will NOT be buying the next book in this series until I read it from the library as my money is limited and I cannot and will not waste it on a bad book or a series that has become bad.
To the author I say this. Get back to writing the story and bring back the mystery but please stop using the sex as filler.
If you are having problems getting to the x number of words you are supposed to have for the novel then take a break and delay it for a year or two. I would rather have a novel of the past quality I know you can do rather then a roll of toilet paper that most of the last 3 books for the series have been.
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