Rating: 
Summary: 200 pages no gun fire, but lots of sex and talking heads
Review: Guilty Pleasures, the first Anita Blake novel, was an apt title for me because I enjoyed the book and its successors as a fun read. Though sick to death of the romanticized vampire I enjoyed the alternate reality world, the mixture of crime, and supernatural. What I enjoyed most was the strong female character of Anita. Her initial dislike of vampires and the creatures of her world, made for great conflict as she got to know these "creatures" as people, and the hints of her childhood troubles with her mothers death, her step mother and half siblings gave a depth to the character as did her slow moral ompromises made in the interest of survival. Cerulean Sins, like Narcissus in chains, suffers from Anita becoming less a character and more a reputation. Conflict in the book consists of a vague psychic kind of mind battle that becomes dull and repetitive and can only be fought with a ghost-in-the-machine solution usually involving sex, sex and more sex. Instead of a story we have characters had feeding us the events through dialogue, its not enough to have every character comment on how tough and uncompromising Anita is every two pages, show us. The many supporting characters each require their share of back fill slowing the novel and the characters them selves have become redundant. I know there are at lest two or three long hair submissive, damaged, sex toy types, a few sadomasochists, a couple "beautiful" androgynous male vamps and werewolves that have that woodsy feel. They all have one thing in common every guy wants Anita, they all run around her mind, and the girl who once would save her self for marriage is now a rampant nymho. We know that many vampires all are eye-catching, posers because we are reminded every few pages. The only compelling slice of the book for me was the disintegrating relation ship between Anita and Dolf of the crime unit. Her embrace of the "monsters" is alienating her coworkers and friends. This is interesting stuff. The rest felt like i was reading some soft core porn novel.
I miss the detective angle, the once expanding world creation that made it so much fun. For example: the rescue of comatose Vampires from the burning house in an early novel gave us a fun moral twist. Fire fighters questioning the rescue of creatures they fear and hate. The politics of this New World were vampires have rights, discrimination takes on new allegories. Lacarthrophy as an AIDs metaphor; as when Richard feared losing his job as a schoolteacher if he was "outed". But poor Anita spends half the book as a sex maniac and plot points such as a new case and murder are all but forgotten for the next two hundred pages. Laurel K. Hamilton has given me much enjoyment, her books are fun, scary, and action packed. Her last two offerings in this series seem to be forgetting what made these books fun. I owe her some loyalty but next time I am waiting for the paperback.
Rating: 
Summary: I really liked it
Review: My past reviews of the Anita Blake series have been back and forth between one and three stars because the series was developing, finding it's footing and developing of the character. There are still flashes of the old problems here but it's far more under control. This book was not only good in the places but pretty much as a book as a whole. Though I will say I hedged my bet by buying it for 60% off and I will admit that there is still a lot of conversational psycho analyzing going on in the character's interactions.There is a really interesting point of Anita having to open herself up sexually beyond simply a puritannical/Christian sense of one woman, one partner which is an interesting dynamic. Also the concept of fluidic sexualities within the sphere of people she's around, there is a true pushing towards omnisexuality. That's a great element of this book and how everyone's powers---vampires, werewolves, wereleopards, etc.---is so intrinsically linked to sex and emotional intimacy. And that the literal focal point of all of this is someone who has prudish values to such free love and sex. While Richard, teh werewolf king may seem like the stick in the mud to them truly being a team, the ultimate kind of family, I think he is the most human of them all. He doesn't like what he is, what's around him, what he's been forced to become----there was no choice in it for him and I realized in his hesitations and depression and anger he is the most human of them all. Unfortunately everyone else has made it so mandatory that he accept this whole lifestyle eventhough none of them else have regular lives outside of all of this weirdness. It would be nice if the inherent selfishness of the group is explored in that it's ok that someone doesn't want to be a part of this world. Onto the villainess, Belle Morte!
I'm glad she didn't get a bullet in the head and is being saved as another problem for the future and this whole Mother of All Darkness is very interesting and it looks like it's part of Anita's destiny to be a link to all of these supernatural tribes to deal with this evil. What I do find interesting is how everyone is pushing in their "vampire worlds" this ultimate Uber Evil (Angel, Buffy, here) and at the same time here in the book the government (rightfully so) is taking an interest in all of these factions and using them for their own means. It's about time.
I hope thatteh series doesn't shut down after a book or two because their are international dilemnas out there. It's also a pet peeve of mine that for all of their talking and constant emotional analyzing they never TALK to each other. They talk abotu themselves and push and pull but there are a couple of times in the novel where it would've been nice for Anita to pull Jean Claude aside and sit for a couple of hours to understand the vampire rules. Sometyimes her ignorance is used as a device to tell the reader things that we don't know about this world but it also serves to keep the exposition going on for tooooooooo long.
As always the criminal investigation of the book doesn't get underway until page 100-125 which if you pay attention to the pacing of previous novels is how it always happens, the predictability caused the loss of one star. The hitman aspect of this was a little thin, thinner than most of the criminal plots of the book and more of harked back to characters that appeared in the beginning of the books to wrap up the end. That was the weakest aspect of the book in that this whole other sub-plot was developed as something that I expect will ultimate appear in future books. I was very pleased with this book, it has much more polish and isn't as reliant on Anita being able to shoot anyone and anything to beat it. That showed a maturity of the work and it's nice to see Anita enjoying and accepting having so many varied lovers and the bonding of being part of a pack. As I was reading the book, aside from the romantic part of this and the erotica, it was great to see Anita growing and questioning why she loves as she doesn, why she pushed people away. It would be nice to see another female in the book to give another perspective on her---what ever happened to her best friend? The children vampires, Valentina and Bartolome are an excellent addition to the cast of what is turning into a very unique "family". I was thinking that this sort of village living and loving would be a great thing.
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.
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