Rating: 
Summary: From a New Fan
Review: I had never read anything by Hamilton until Cerulean Sins. I was surprised to find in was more centered around sex than mystery, crime, and suspense. Although more than half of the book dealt with Blake's sex life and the mating habits of preternatural creatures, what remained was very well thought out and tied together from beginning to end. Keep in mind though, this is not an action packed book. You aren't going to find any great fight scenes, but you will find blood and conflict.
Rating: 
Summary: A Waste Of Time
Review: I was not one of those who read Narcissus in Chains and then immediately jumped back in horror. Sure, LKH had managed to surprise me with the unexpected twists, but i thought that it was not too below her usual caliber. And so, i was willing to read Cerulean Sins.
I was glad to see Zerbrowski and the other cops, but i disliked how LKH changed Dolph into a hulking, vampire-hating pain. That just really annoyed me. And i'm not too happy about Anita's numerous bed partners.
but that wasn't the worst part. the worst part was how much paper and space LKH wasted with anita's angst. every other page was filled with, "No, i can't have sex with all these men... But i have to, the munin and JC's sex hunger forces me to do it... Oh, my goodness, i can't believe i just did that... Oh screw it, i'm gonna do what the hell i want to do... Oh wait, did i really just do that?" Halfway through the book, i honestly had a headache from the way anita battered her situation from all sides mentally. i mean, at least in the Merry Gentry series, paper isn't wasted on how internally uncertain she feels about sleeping with all the men. she accepts it as something she has to do.
Not only that, but most of the action/plot in the novel was basically present only in the last...fifty or so pages. And they were not soooo good that i was willing to forgive the not so likable parts of the book.
for me, the anita blake series ends at Obsidian Butterfly. I highly doubt that i'll be willing to venture into any new AB books again.
Rating: 
Summary: Anita Gone Wild!!!
Review: Well, if you are already up to book number 11 in this series then I can assume you have met and feel as though you know all the essential characters. In CS Anita is far from the no nonsense-vampires-are-bad type of gal we know her to be in GP. Jean Claude and Asher get a suprise visit from Belle Morte's right hand. This little predicament opens doors for new relationships. Damian fans be prepared to be teased mercilessly!! Hamilton only minutely covers the connection between Anita and the thousand year old red-headed hotty!! Jason is his usual witty,charismatic self but even Jason is surprised when Anita's "fire" engulfs both of them. Anita Blake Fans will love this book. It still has Anita's wit. Her sharp tongue and fast draw. Its still filled with our familiar sexy heroes and it introduces a couple of new villains sure to make your skin crawl. Fans of Hamiltons other works will see a slight resemblance between Anita and Merry Gentry. But fear not Anita may encompass some of Merry's heat but she'll still pull her Browning and put a bullet between your eyes. All in all...read it. You'll thank me.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, sexy, violent, but flawed
Review: Anita Blake is trying to put some balance in her life, but things seem to keep getting worse. Werewolf-boyfriend Richard is still sulking about not getting Anita to himself. Anita is happy with vampire-boyfriend Jean-Claude, but Jean-Claude's alter-ego, Asher, wants in on teh Anita Blake action. He was content to wait until their master-vampire, Belle Morte decides to call Asher home. Anita can either add Asher to her lover list, or lose him entirely. Richard won't be happy. Vampire politics are bad enough, but a serial killer appears to be operating in the area--a killer that Anita believes can only be a were. She could really use Richard's help on this one, but the police aren't even sure that they can trust her. The Anita Blake stories have been getting progressively bloodier as the series progresses and CERULEAN SINS is no exception. The graphic descriptions of the serial killer's work are disgusting but appropriate for the subject, deeping the horror that Anita faces and making it clear that she has no choice. The violence associated with Anita's sexual appetites will put some readers off--but it just might be what others are looking for. CERULEAN SINS parallels two subplots--that dealing with the internal politics of the vampires and the threatened rise of the mother of darkness, and that dealing with the serial killer. The two subplots are only loosely connected thematically, and not at all connected from a plot perspective. Thus the novel sometimes appears disjointed. I would have preferred to see a closer link between the two major story elements. Author Laurell K. Hamilton is completely convincing in her description of vampires and were-creatures, in the subculture that they create and in the ambiguous (at best) feelings that they create in others. Her heroine, Anita Blake, is refreshingly cynical about the government without having given up on it. I found that some of the clothing descriptions went on a bit, but fans may enjoy the richly detailed imagery. Fans of this series will find a lot to like. Anita continues to mature, struggling with the realization that the simple rules that once guided her are not longer enough. Richard, the deeply damaged were-leader represents what Anita would have become if she hadn't changed--and the destruction he creates in his pack is a microcosm of what Anita could create in the larger preternatural community. Still, each loss of innocence has its costs and Anita must pay those costs in full--often sexually, and always violently.
Rating: 
Summary: A horrible read ...
Review: I fell in love the Anita Blake series because LKH knew how to entice the reader to not put the book down with this strong hellcat of a hunter, Anita Blake. She had morals, goals, and opinions, and she didn't succumb to anyone else's thoughts. However, the last 3 or 4 books, Anita has turned into quite the girl we love to be catty about in high school. I am all for erotica, but I buy books with that in mind. I don't mind reading books with "passion" in them, but this one was the worst of the series. 30 pages of "passion" after a crime scene was seen, then she brought the real reason of the book back. And it is hard that the book seems to place in a 48 hour time frame, which makes all the sex and other going ons hard to believe. At some points, I was just turning pages just so I could move forward! The only consolidation is that of Richard, my fave werewolf. Granted, he seems to be made into the bad guy for some reason (heaven forbid, he has morals yet hates who he is), but there is hope for a good story in the next book, if there is one. Is it worth the read? Sure. Buy it used though. Save yourself that much.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment.
Review: I've been a fan of the Anita Blake series for three years now, and enjoyed all of them up until "Narcissus in Chains." Because of this, I decided to give "Cerulean Sins" a chance. Surely, I thought, it was possible for the series to bounce back. Unfortunately, "Cerulean Sins" falls farther down the sinkhole established in "Narcissus in Chains." Complaint the First: There are an extremely large number of run-on sentences and comma splice errors. I don't know why, unless this was rushed into publication hot off the press, which I suppose is possible. They distracted me from reading the book and made it extremely hard to finish at all. Complaint the Second: The sex scenes are more numerous and have even less point than in "Narcissus in Chains." There were several that had true potential, but tapered off into simple repetition. Where is the woman who at the beginning of the series refused even to sleep with a human whom she didn't know well? Dead, I suppose. Complaint the Third: Belle Morte appears, briefly, as truly threatening, only to turn out to be a pawn of an even more powerful vampire. This is a trick Hamilton keeps pulling, and it has long since worn thin. Unless the next book somehow manages to end with Anita's death, one knows that the powerful vampire will be defeated and Anita will live on, though probably with added angst. It robs the book of all suspense. Complaint the Fourth: All the males in the book, with the exception of Richard, now worship Anita. This deprives many of them, including Asher and Jason, of most of their personalities. When other characters cease to exist save as shadows around the hero, then I want to read a different series. I think I stuck with this series for so long because it was one of the few examples of dark fantasy I know of. But there are others. Try "Kushiel's Dart" by Jacqueline Carey, or (at least the first book of) the Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. They go more firmly towards the fantasy side of things, being set in other worlds, but the darkness is blended with the world and intensified, and every motion of the characters has a point.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome series
Review: I have loved this series from the beginning and enjoy how much the characters have grwon and changed. However, if you haven't read the series, do not start with this one. They need to be read in order.
That said, Anita Blake and friends are about to have the "honor" of a visit by a representative of the vampire council. Right from the start things go wrong and they are only complicated by the consequences of Anita's acceptance of being bonded to a master vampire and an alpha werewolf.
I would give all the other books in this series five stars. However, this one only got four as there were several continuity errors that disrupted the flow of the story when they cropped up. Aside from those errors, this was a fast read, engrossing, and a great addition to the series. I can hardly wait for the next one!
Rating:
Summary: smut
Review: now dont get me wrong....there is nothing wrong with a little smut and sex to liven up a book. i started this series loving the plots, action, and yes even a bit of sex. the later books i didnt love but i at least liked them. this book was awful. anita has no time to solve crimes, weld weapons, or have interesting conversations. she now only has time for having sex, thinking about sex, or talking about sex with a variety of partners. anita blake used to be one of the best female characters around, now i hope hamilton will decide to kill her off quickly and painfully. at least as painful as it was to read!
Rating:
Summary: The Anita Blake series may be back on the upswing!
Review: I was originally a little bit nervous to purchase this in hardcover, as the last few Anita Blake novels have really let me down. So, I approached reading this book with trepidation. So, first off - I liked it much better than Narcissus in Chains, which beat even Bloody Bones for the not-so-coveted "worst Anita Blake novel ever" award.
Cerulean has an actual murder mystery that runs alongside Hamilton's continuing (and confusing) vampire politics plot that hasn't slowed down in ages (and in my opinion needs a serious breather). The RPIT return, Larry is mentioned (where did he go for so long?), and gosh, we even have Anita in the thick of said investigation, helping solve it. Who'd've thunk? It was good to see the same sort of book I'd loved near the beginning of the tale.
That was the good stuff.
The bad stuff is the continuing use of ardeur to make Anita sleep with everyone and everything that moves, including public metaphysical sex to a large audience of Musette/Belle Morte vampire contingency, and her having threesomes and so forth. This is getting old, fast.
All that said, the side-characters got a lot more interesting in this tale, Richard had a turning point (and it's not further into Idiot/Moron/Angry/Jerk territory), and I'm very curious to see where Hamilton is taking Dolph. We'll see. It seems like Blake is back on the upswing, and that's a very good thing.
'Nathan
Rating:
Summary: Just Awful
Review: Cerulean Sins is the latest novel in a series about a vampire executioner named Anita Blake. This story focuses on Anita's romantic entanglements, with a few small subplots thrown in--namely, a murder mystery and the threat of a very powerful vampire coming to town. This book is so badly written, it was a chore to read it. The writing is sloppy, tedious, badly edited, and confusing. Ditto for the plot. Ditto for the characters. The book is mired in convenient plot devices and tired and uninspiring sex scenes. There is no suspense in the book, despite its mystery/horror angle. Bottom line: this book contains no redeemable qualities at all, unless you're looking for a book filled with sex scenes. Then CS *might* be worth your while. Other than that? Leave this book well alone, unless you're planning on using it for a doorstop.
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