Rating: 
Summary: Anita Blake series is Shway (excellent)
Review: Great story, great characters, fast moving. You should have an open mind to read these books. They may be too explicit for some readers. I read the first book and then bought and read the entire series in a month.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Another good story by LKH. I loved Anita and her contuining story about her struggle with humainty in the Anitaverse. It's good to see that LKH is brave to write original sex scenes and brave enough to allow a woman to have a sex life.
Rating: 
Summary: Book 11
Review: This book is pushing the series in a new direction. Anita's powers are further developing and she doesn't know how to handle it. The arduer is a way to gain power remember, not just a way to add a bunch of sex into the mix. If the arduer hadn't been added a certain very old vampire wouldn't have a way to control Anita. (Anita doesn't like feeling powerless and if the she hadn't gained the arduer she could have easily fought Belle in book 10.) This book feels like a prelude to something much bigger that will happen in the next. Anita's personal life is becoming extremely complicated because of the power she seems to be gaining. She is developing a mix of powers that she shouldn't be able to receive. I don't think you will be disappointed if you read into what is going on in the story. I thought this book was fine, but I think it is building up to a battle royale in the next book. Something much bigger and badder than before is what Anita will be up against soon. It doesn't have a lot of explosive situations like in the previous books. I think the only thing that I didn't like was the story seemed to be over too quickly. All I can say is something big is brewing and if you don't read the book you'll miss out.
Rating:
Summary: too short for satisfaction
Review: I agree with the other readers who felt that this book seemed rushed. It starts out with propulsion and then when we should be gearing up for the climax...it sort of just fizzles and sputters through some simple wrap ups that are just too well, simple.
In her previous books, Anita has a definite mystery to solve, as well as moral dilemas to muddle through and sexual appetites to satisfy, hers and others. But she is always strong for those she cares for and is always able to move in that space of emptiness to get the job done. In this book, she has sort of a mystery, major sexual appetites, and almost non-stop moral dilemas which come out in lots and lots of crying and hair-pulling worrying about jeapordizing other people's safety. I personally enjoyed the extra character development of her feelings, but wished she would stop crying and go karate kick someone because she was making me depressed. The "mystery" isn't a primary point, her feelings are, and so it gets "solved" in a rather perfunctory "I have a deadline" kind of way. The plot can't really be described more than: Musette shows up early and bad things happen, and oh, some women are being raped and brutally slaughtered, and oh, Dolph is in a very bad mood. Beyond that, I would ruin it for you. But I will say I like Richard less and less and this book is no exception.
This book just has a sort of unfinished feel, but I give it four stars because it brings in interesting new characters and situations and opens doors, the better for everybodys favorite Executioner to shoot through. I recommend this for the serious Anita Blake fan, but suggest newbies start with Guilty Pleasures. Make no mistake, this has not dettered me from this series at all and I eagerly await Number 12 (which I hear is slated for release October this year).
Rating: 
Summary: endless Ardeur
Review: sorry but i am so disappointed by this one. i like the sex as much as the next gal but how about some plot besides anita orgasming/spasming, biting, and all the rest of it (while her males look on in horror/hope/abandonement/confusion)? too much torpor, too much succubi feasting--it's boring! where's anita who kicks butt with the best of them? where's anita with moral boundaries she draws quite firmly in the sand? all gone to the flaccid battle with Belle and the ardeur. snooooore.........
Rating:
Summary: Very entertaining but still dissapointing
Review: First off, I admit to loving Narcissus in Chains. It wasn't perfect and I think the sexual overtones probably could have been toned down a little bit, but it didn't seem to me to be so completely out of place with the series. It just seemed to be taking things to the next level. Anita has been evolving so I had no objections. Plus, I like Micah. No, I love Micah. Who we never see enough of... He really needs to be developed.I feel that Cerulean Sins did not do what I expected it to do. I still very much enjoyed it, which is why I gave it four stars(I would have given it a 3.5 if I could have.) But there was a lot missing in this book and I'm really hoping that it's simply because the series has come to a point where it needs a transition between what has been and what will be; this book very much felt like a transition, kind of like how the second book in trilogies tends to suffer. The other books feel a lot more whole, but this one... It felt short and a bit rushed. And I too am getting tired of the ardeur. It is a plot point that has been stretched too far. One of the great things about each book has been the introduction of something new, but this book didn't really seem to do that enough. It simply continued plot points from previous books. Ok, it did introduce a few new things, but not major enough. One would think that, after the critisism that Narcissus in Chains got, she would veer more toward the style of the older books. I'm not saying get rid of the sex. I love the sex. But I miss Edward and Larry and I miss seeing more of the crime scenes and I miss the fight scenes and watching Anita battle her way out of a sticky situation. It seems like she tried to put too much in this book... There were little glimpses of interesting things but not enough of any of them. This should have been a much longer book, I think, to have made it better. Or she should have left out some things for a seperate book. Unlike many others, I am not giving up on this series, because I still love it. I was just a bit dissapointed by this one, but I have faith in Laurell K Hamilton. I'm looking at this book sort of like the eye of a hurricane. Things should be getting much better and more exciting soon.
Rating: 
Summary: More plot, less porn
Review: I like a good sex/romance scene as much as anyone but I also like a story to go with it. The so-called plot of this book seemed thrown together around Anita's ever-widing pool of sex partners. I was very disappointed in this latest book. I hope that LKH gets her heroine and her storyline back on track soon.
Rating:
Summary: The Story of A , or, the degredation of Anita Blake
Review: First off, when I met Anita Blake, I just adored her. She was smart, principled, and working hard in a hostile world. Ther first three books were marvels of the supernatural mystery sub-genre, morality tales that made me think. Now this is no longer true. I checked Obsidian Butterfly and Narcissus in Chains out from the library, and after this gift book, I shan't read any more Anita Blake. It's just too painful. A woman who had a strong and sincere moral compass in a difficult world now only has a compass for sex. A woman who made choices is now only left with the choice of whether to enjoy being driven to sex, or to whine about it. Carefully woven plots with multiple threads have now given way to a novelette's worth of plot hidden in the sex scenes. Please. Either make it a horrible dream, or put Anita out of her sad and miserable existence. She won't be in my life any more, and I mourn for the Anita Blake I once knew and loved to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes we know already!
Review: Well, many have told you the story so I won't do that. If you are new to the Anita Blake series and just picked this books up it might be okay. It could easily stand alone as long as you didn't have prior knowledge of the characters involved and how they have developed over previous books. Cerulean Sins goes into my pile with Narcissus in Chains because both of them are so far away from the other book in the series.
Don't get me wrong in a series where you are dealing with the same characters there should be growth and change, but not so drastic and not so far the other way. Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter is what we are paying for, but it is becoming Anita Blake vampire hunter only if I don't like you or you upset me in some way.
This volume of the series is heavily graphic as previously mentioned by many others so BE WARNED! Don't let your kids get hold of this book. I don't mind sex in my books. An Erotic vampire/werewolf/human story okay, no problem. However, Laurell K. Hamilton who is a great story teller must have had this book cut down in the editing process. You are left to wonder about crucial moments only to go into more sex. I have read some books that made me blush before, but this is the first time I have read a book with sex scenes in it that actually made me want to skip over them because they were so tedious.
Some people didn't like Anita's wishy washy can't make up her moral high horse mind about sex. Personally it was more believable than this book is. She might have got on your nerves before but if you've read the other books you just sit back and say "What is going on?" I found myself digging out the other books to make sure I hadn't missed something a long the way. Jean-Claude was the sexy, sensual vampire and he's turning into just another blah blah character he still stands out but he's lost what made him great. Richard don't even get me started with him. I loved him. However, I do not believe in a werewolf community he would be top dog, so to speak. To be Alpha you have to be strong and forceful. He's turned into a simpering, whiny guy, okay, maybe he was whiny before, but not to this extent. He was sexy and the story was this triangle of AB/JC/RZ. Now, LKH has thrown all these characters in that add nothing to the story and in my opinion lose the whole heart of the story. Which is what would you do if you had all these moral hang ups but were still in love with a Vampire and/or Werewolf? Situations and relationships that were built up in the previous 9 or 10 books have been shattered in these last two. This book Anita miraculously gets another power that gives her this nympho lust she has to sate or else. These books are for fun and LKH did a fabulous job of building the world through 9 previous books. I gave Narcissus in Chains a chance and thought it could stand alone and work. Cerulean Sins however is too much of nothing. No matter the argument as a character Anita Blake the character that has been created for this series was absent from this book and in her place is someone you wouldn't even recognize from previous editions. I do look forward to the next one, but if more of Cerulean Sins I doubt I'll be back for the next one. I know sales are important to publishers, but geez give us a break. Most of us do like the story. If we didn't we wouldn't be buying books. So for this book I recommend one of two options: 1. Read the other books first so you can see the changes and write your own review so maybe the publishers will get the message.
or
2. Read her Merry Gentry series instead.
Rating:
Summary: Can I give minus stars?
Review: My word, what a tedious book. I've read the other Hamilton books and, while they've had their problems (grammar, LKH, please learn grammar), they've been enjoyable for their humor and subject. But this one is by far the weakest she's cranked out. Whining is not character development, and neither is sex. Also, whatever you do, avoid the audio version of this book. I have a long commute and listen to a lot of audiobooks, but I've never heard such a horrible reader as the one who reads this book. No real attempt at character voices (or, most likely, no ability to do them) and the worst french accent I've ever heard. Avoid her like the plague!
|
