Rating: 
Summary: Anita Grows Darker
Review: I had just reread "Guilty Pleasures" before reading "Narcissus in Chains" and the changes and growth of the main characters is typical of the mastery of Hamilton.
Anita is pushed further into the world of her "Cats" the leopards she'd inherited after killing their leader. Fresh from the depths of Obsidion Butterfly's power, Anita is ready to defent those she loves, her home, and the innocents who too often get dragged into the fight between good and evil.
Another wonderful example of Hamilton's writing- provocitve, downright scary at times, I couldn't put it down (Though it cost me a few night's sleep).
Rating: 
Summary: Gave Me A Headache
Review: This book is proof positive that an author might want to back away when going through some personal issues.Silly, repetitive, smutty (which is a good or bad thing, depending on your POV), and very, very disappointing. The only mystery in this book is "can the series recover" from the awfulness of this book. Give me Richard & Jean-Claude anyday of the week, spare me the diminutive furball with zero personality.
Rating:
Summary: A Real Letdown
Review: Anita Blake was a great character. I loved her struggle with her humanity, her resistance to the darkness of her world, the wonderfully ordinary things about a woman that was so extraordinary. This book just blew that all up in a big steaming pile of...dust for me. Here we have an Anita who hardly even resembles a human. When she isn't having sex with strangers, she's tasting people's flesh, or feeding off their sex (What the HECK does that mean?) or channeling undead werewolves or unleashing her "power" and saving the day for all the were-creatures who can't seem to make it through a day without her help. And as a reader, I'm left with...who cares about this woman? She's become too powerful for anyone to defeat...she casts off lovers and gets new ones without blinking an eye...and she seems completely free of a conscience and humanity. Those were the very things I cherished in her to begin with. As for the other characters, Jean-Claude floats around in the background giving advice (and once again, he almost gets killed...he is the most helpless "Master of the City" imaginable). Richard is slashed and burned as a character. I can understand if Richard & Anita can't make their relationship work...after all, Richard still clings to his humanity and is paralyzed with his conscience (which is written as a deplorable thing here, instead of honored for what it is). But I don't understand the writers need to destroy the character. Has it never occured to her that he may have fans too? Not everyone is blindly devoted to Anita. Jason, Asher and the rest seem to fare fine, though I wish they would stop worshipping at the altar of Anita. They deserve better, and should be allowed to grow into 3-D characters. And speaking of cardboard characters, Micah shows up on the scene. He is Anita's "Nimir-Raj" (I think thats wereleopard for "he who kisses Anita's backside"). According to the writer in an interview, he was brought in to "simplify Anita's lovelife". So, I guess instead of working through issues with the characters already introduced and developed, its easier to take the cheap and easy way out and write in a character that should have "the perfect mate in every way for Anita" stamped on his forehead. Disappointing, very disappointing. I will read the next book and see if the author reverts to form. I'm hoping that Richard gets to pull himself together, and regains the important role he's played in previous books. I'm hoping the Jean-Claude gets his groove back. I'm hoping Micah is pushed into the obscurity the character so richly deserves. And I'm hoping that Anita regains that human vulnerability that made her a character worth reading about for 9 books.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe it's not the same book
Review: I'm near the end of _Narcissus in Chains_ and popped in to see what other readers thought of it. I guess I'm not reading exactly the same book because while I can agree with some opinions I just can't see the basis for others. I've read all of the Anita Blake series and frankly had gotten to the point where I just could no longer tolerate Anita's immaturity or LKH's need to stress repeatedly how tough and wonderful Anita is. NIC is a relief in that suddenly Anita is being forced to grow up and accept that - as nice as it would be - the world is not black and white. There are many, many shades of gray. My favorite example of this is when Gretchen's coffin is opened and Anita becomes aware that her unyielding determination to follow her own code has compromised the code of those she supposedly cares about. I tolerated Anita's self-righteous surety that nothing she decided or did could possibly be wrong because LKH made it very clear that Anita was in her early twenties and this attitude fit the character's age. Anita is growing older and needed this opportunity to grow up. I did find the Scarlett O'Hara aspect of the tale amusing ("I'll think about that tomorrow") but was annoyed with some of the gaps other reviewers mentioned. Where DID Richard go after Anita was injured? I'm looking forward to the next book and hope that LKH can build on the growing maturity she's started in NIC. I also wish she'd learn (as I said in a review of _Obsidian Butterfly_) that readers can draw inferences and come to conclusions without being told on every page how bad, wonderful, evil, decisive, protective, whatever a specific character is. Leaving out those 'reminders' would cut her books in half!
Rating: 
Summary: Graphic,sexy,shocking!
Review: This is the new Anita Blake novel.She has to come to the rescue once again,to save her pard,and gets to meet some very strange were-creatures,including Micah,the Nimir-Raj of another pard,who she has a very steamy,sexual encounter with!All the regular characters are here,including the very sexy vampire,Jean Claude,and the gentle,but rugged werewolf,Richard.In this story,both Richard and Anita struggle to accept each other,and who they are,or should I say,what! Especially when Anita is seriously hurt by another leopard,and you have to wait until the end of the book to find out if Anita does become a true Nimir-Ra!I thought Narcissus In Chains was one of the best yet,it has sex,excitement,and surprises.Although what happens to Anita's relationship with Richard,in the end,made me feel sad.I love Richard,and he belongs with Anita!I think most true fans will like this story,although there are more sexual scenes in it,but personally I think they add so much more tension and excitement to it.I am impatiently waiting for the next novel,Cerulean Sins!
Rating:
Summary: Anita's libido in chains... or rather, unchained
Review: This was okay, but I'm glad I waited for it in paperback. While Hamilton remains a great, imaginative writer, the storyline and pace of this story don't match up to her past efforts in the series. It used to be like this: Anita clung tenaciously, endearingly, to her humanity as it slowly slipped away from her. The more she dealt with the monsters, to borrow a concept from Nietzsche, the more she felt herself resembling them. In the meantime, there was a delicate balance: her contacts with humanity through her work and play, and her tendency to become snagged in the web of preternatural politics and struggles. Through all this there was a great deal of action, often libidinous but always fast-moving and exciting. A woman, small of stature but with a streak of chutzpah a foot wide, took on monsters who could throw her--and tended to win. With _Narcissus_ the balance that marked the series dies its final death. I don't recall her workplace even being mentioned. Her police contacts make a couple of widely-separated appearances. Two-thirds of the book is about how horny Anita is. Jean Auel ran into this problem as well: the more sexual the main character becomes, the less interesting or exciting the sex becomes, until it degenerates into a steady stream of it. With Auel, we have the eternal 'nodule' between Ayla's legs. With Hamilton, now, we have the various flavour-related metaphors by which Anita 'tastes' everyone's lust, skin, blood, fear, and so forth. The quality of Hamilton's writing, her ability to create new and interesting characters, and the remnants of Anita's struggle to remain truly human are always of value. So good, in fact, that they compensate for a somewhat subpar story with repetitive 'action' (mainly lust, and the slaking thereof) that doesn't remind you much of the previous books until the final third. Also, on an intangible level, there is sort of a bitter undertone to the whole book. A previous reviewer perceptively noted that Richard's dismissal seemed almost vindictive, as though Hamilton got really angry with a person who inspired him. Even the author's expression in the back-cover photo looks bored and vaguely annoyed. I begin to wonder if she isn't thoroughly sick of Anita, having reached the point of marquee name recognition at which publishers will pressure an author to keep pumping out the same sort of thing because it's sure to sell books, and who cares about the soul of the long-term storyline as long as we're all making money and receiving endcap space in bookstores. (For an ultimate example of this phenomenon, see either Auel or Leon Uris.) If so, I hope Hamilton is in a position to tell big-money publishing to get bent, and to write material in which she can really invest heart and soul. The book is good, but the series is no longer great. Laurell, please come back. We know what you're capable of.
Rating:
Summary: And Thats One Star Too Many
Review: Book 10 in the Anita Blake-Vampire Hunter series is a complete trainwreck of a book. Awful is too kind. Perhaps parody would be a better description. Oh, where to start....well, the beginning of the book actually starts out promisingly. Anita's back in town after leaving to get her head together, a crisis erupts, Anita calls Jean-Claude, her vampire lover, for help...he shows up and brings Richard, Anita's werewolf lover, along. They "marry the marks" , and the book is humming. Then the boys somehow disappear, Anita gets injured and wakes up naked in bed with 2 men she's never seen before. WHAT??? Who substituted this piece of .... for the book I was reading? Well folks, from there it continues to spiral down into the abyss. The only good thing about this book is that it virtually guarantess that the next one will be better....because nothing could be as bad as this.
Rating: 
Summary: How sad it is
Review: Laurell Hamilton "jumped the shark" with this book. I have read all of the Anita Blake series & was highly disappointed with this one. The plot was VERY thin to non-existent. I don't mind the sex as long as it fits in the storyline & doesn't seem like it IS the storyline. I hope the next book is better.
Rating:
Summary: Wow, This is Bad...
Review: Let me just start by saying that I've read all the books in this series. I may have had a quibble here and there with them, but overall I like them all. And then came this book, and I simply can't believe its this bad. Plot? Well, there isn't much of one. I think the point of this book is Anita getting in touch with her inner-monster, or something along those lines. No more need for those pesky morals, now its just sex and killing and threatening galore, and darn it, she likes it that way !! Pass the barf bag. Its especially amusing how the author has to constantly keep throwing in characters making comments about how wonderful and special and perfect and terrific Anita is, we are even assured God still loves her (really? I wouldn't be so sure). Its like the author had to keep reminding us "you are *supposed* to like Anita". As for the other characters, Jean-Claude is relegated to bit status and mainly seems to be around to explain things to Anita, Richard is cruelly eviscerated with such malice it almost seems personal (can't help thinking that whoever she based this character is based on pissed the author off in a bad way), and Anita's human friends are essentially cast off as unimportant or "not understanding her". Anita has a new man now, her instant "yes" man/soulmate, who seems basically there to assure Anita, once again, that everything she does is the absolute best (ya know, in case we forgot the other 6534 times we are told in the book). If he's a permenant addition to the ever growing cast of characters, thats a real shame. And maybe the author should have tried to give him a personality based on more then his enormous...assets. Lots of unsexy sex in the book b/c now Anita has the "arduer" so she can't help herself. Its too ridiculous a concept to even spend another minute thinking about. The book raises to the level of parody when Anita has to delay saving one of her "leopards" (who are so hapless, you'd like to push them all down a well) because she has to get in bed with 4 men for some magical screwfest. I can't believe I used to actually like this character. This is the worst book I've read all year, and I've read many. Thats sad. The jury is out on whether I'll read the next one. Think I might just read the ...reviews and make my decision then. If you liked the Anita of the first books, and like the mystery/crime-solving element of the books, and enjoyed Anita's very real struggles with morality and her humanity be forewarned, this book is probably not for you. If you're someone that just says "Wow, Anita kicks butt and everyone wants to have sex with her, Cool!!", you'll probably love it.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Steamy!
Review: Laurell K. Hamilton produces the most interesting novels. They also seem to be getting a bit racier every time. This one certainly takes the cake. Warning: Has Been Known To Cause Elevated Pulse! Give this one a spin, but be prepared for naughty dreams.
Happy Reading!
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