Rating: 
Summary: I do so love Anita Blake...
Review: The "you'll like this book" ratings system by our friends here at Amazon really worked for me on this one. After it popping up over & over again on my "recommendations" page, I bought it on a weekend I needed some "FUN" reading. I instantly loved Laurell K. Hamilton's scrappy hero, Anita Blake and bought all the books in the series, devouring them one by one in a matter of weeks. I then moved on to her other books, and enjoyed them too. Now, they are sometimes a little "blush-inducing" in the romance department. Hamilton really catches that "attraction/revulsion" tradition of the vampire. You want to like them, and you want to be repelled by them, just as Anita Blake is. You worry right along with her that the things she does for a living might be affecting her soul. You don't believe it, but wonder. I think that this is a series well-worth reading. As a review said, it's like Buffy, but grown up. I like the feminist touch that appears ever so lightly, and the fact that even when Anita is fighting, she is not always "pristine" and she gets beat up sometimes-- makes it more realistic than the ones who never even break a nail.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly Disappointing. . .
Review: I've really enjoyed the Anita Blake books so far, but this one I couldn't even make myself finish. I forced myself to read about 3/4 of the way through but just couldn't make it to the end. Maybe that makes this a slightly unfair review, but so be it. Anita used to be a very strong, very powerful character. I was looking forward to her slowly becoming the true Master of the City. Instead, she's turned into a [woman] with no self-control. I am not a romance fan to start with, although the previous books' romance elements were fine for me. But in this book, Anita was having sex with everyone she met without a second thought. And for the record, I consider her first tryst with Micah to be rape -- she says "no, no, no" and he has sex with her anyway. Of course, it turns out she likes it, which drops my opinion of her even farther. Not only does she have no self control, she's turned into one of those obnoxious stereotypical women who says no but means yes. And what about her great detective powers, being used to save the day? Nope. I'm sure she stepped in at the end, but throughout the entire rest of the book it never even crossed her mind who had brutally tortured and nearly killed two of the wereleopards under her protection. The old Anita would have been rampaging through the streets looking for answers & making sure it never happened again. But the new Anita decided she'd rather stay home and have sex with as many men as possible. Give me a break. The only reason I gave this book a rating as high as one star was that the actual writing (descriptions, etc) was not hideously awful. And that's the best I can say about this book. I won't be buying any more Anita Blake books.
Rating: 
Summary: Well we wondered where she could go next
Review: Sometimes I miss the original Anita from Guilty Pleasures and all of her old habits... but that's just the Taurus in me. If every book had the same Anita not really being affected by everything that happened to her it would get really dry really fast. Series like that spend all of their time developing the villains because they are the only dynamic parts of the story. There has been a build in the last couple of novels where Anita has noticed thaht she has become more and more comfortable with killing. She was genuinely bothereed that she was having less and less resistance to taking life and I for one wondered if she really was becoming a sociopath. The issue was dealt with heavily in this book and I was relieved that all of this building wasn't for nothing. For a little while i was felt like Anita no longer lives in the real world. As others have said she deals more with the monsters now than humans. This too was dealt with well, as we see that the spooky folks can't just have huge fights in the middle of suburbia. Why not 5 stars? Ok I like the sex scenes, I think it's great but it seemed like every one was identical, in the end i was skipping over the pages and pages of everyones power spilling over each other. The fight scenes and sex scenes are great and all but I needed just a little more variety. This is a great step in Anita's saga and everyone who's been following her should read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Sex and violence - no plot or humor
Review: I love the Anita Blake series - but definitely not this one. To this point, Anita has been a witty, intelligent, dangerous woman with great internal strength. In this book, all that goes out the window. Her powers continue to grow, and her moral resolve crumbles to nothing. Where in previous books, she tries to make hard choices, and approaches life with a sense of humor, here she is not funny, and a sex maniac. To LKH I'd have to say - keep the sadomasochistic sexual tendencies to your fairie character from Kiss of Shadows - keep Anita the strong ass-kicking ball of INDEPENDENT fire that she always was. And bring back the humor! Where Anita was once a woman I could admire, and even wish to emulate, she has now become someone I would want nothing to do with. Remember - most of your readers are like Ronnie - regular people who want the best for Anita. We dont want to see her as a mindless, unfunny sex slave.
Rating:
Summary: temper is a weapon we hold by the blade
Review: i'm not sure if it's because this was the first anita blake book i read, but i really enjoyed it. i thought it had a very deeply involved storyline, with a lot of twists and turns. when i went back to the previous books, they were enjoyable, but not to the extend of this latest book. it involves more romance between richard and the master vamp. i don't know why this book got so many bad reviews from readers. i thought it was amazing, and didn't want it to end.
Rating: 
Summary: Sigh...
Review: Alright, first off, I gave it two stars because /I/ didn't like it overmuch, but that doesn't mean it's Worlds Most Horrible Book. I think LKH overdid the sex, and recently Anita has shifted from the witty, sharp witted character I found so fun in the begining of the series. Re-reading Guilty Pleasures and Circus of the Damned after reading Narcissus in Chains made that really clear. I was unhappy to see so little of the police group, and Animators Inc...especially Zerbrowski (And Larry, whatever happened to him???) Again, I'm not putting a big DO NOT READ sign on this book, it has it's good (and bad) points, but more of a warning, this is a big change, and if the Anita from the early books is who you loved (Gag me with a spoon etc), you might want to skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Very Good! My first book read by Laurell K. Hamilton. Anita Blake the smart ... chick who can defeat both vampires and shapeshifters alike rules the world of both the light and the dark in a whirlwind of adventure, sex, and weapons.
Rating:
Summary: This is a train wreck!
Review: Anita is so far from the original character we fell in love with when the series began and not for the better. She's not a vampire but now has a vampire as her human servent, she's not a werewolf but is now lupa and enforcer of Richard's pack, she's not a were leopard but managed to be leopard queen of her pard and now Micah's. Anita is always the best, always the one in charge, always the most powerful, always the one that rescues, always the one that beats the bad guys, always the one everyone is afraid of. The list goes on and on, it's too much for even my level of disbelief and I no longer root for her. The author keeps telling us that God still thinks Anita is good all the while telling us over and over again how she can kill and feel nothing. Who is she trying to convince, herself? LKH has really painted her into a corner and there is no going back. I never thought I'd say this but this is it for me, I doubt Laurell can pull the series out of the mess she's made with it nor recapture the magic of previous novels. Too much, too fast for our heroine. I not only don't recgonize her anymore but my biggest surprise was that I don't even like her either.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Entertaining.
Review: "Narcissus in Chains" by Laurell K. Hamilton elicited some mixed responses from me, but for the most part, I thought it was great. I was captivated by the story, and barely put the book down until I was finished. After reading an excerpt of this book in "Out of this World", I thought I would not buy it, but when I found it at a used bookstore, I decided to give it a try, and I have not regretted it!
The story begins when Anita Blake, hard-boiled necromancer and vampire executioner (among other things), is called in to save two of her were-leopards from an S & M club where they are being held captive. She seeks the help of her sometimes boyfriend, Master Vampire Jean-Claude, who she has not seen in 6 months. Upon meeting her at the club, 'Narcissus in Chains', Jean-Claude insists that they must marry the marks that bind them together, so that Anita will have a chance of surviving this fight. Richard, Anita's other sometimes boyfriend and werewolf king, arrives also, and three of them partake in a highly sensual and magical moment as they solidify the connection between them.
While trying to save her were-leopards, Anita is seriously injured, and quite possibly infected with leopard lycanthropy. When she regains consciousness, Anita finds that there is a new man in her life, when the Nimir-Raj of another were-leopard pack, Micah, comes to her aid.
From this point on, things get violent and complicated for Anita, and Hamilton takes her readers on a wild and wonderful adventure alongside Anita. There are a lot of new characters introduced and there were a couple of times where I had to stop reading and wrack my brain as to who this person was and why he had suddenly appeared again, which I found a little annoying. Besides that, however, I liked many of the new additions, especially Micah and his pard.
Due to the marrying of the marks, Anita inherited lots of powers from Jean-Claude and Richard, but she was also given a curse - Jean-Claude's ardeur (his need to feed off lust). Because of this, there is a lot of sex in this book, but I personally was not bothered by it. I didn't feel that the plot was merely there as a vehicle for the sex scenes. I thought the sex scenes were an integral part of the book, showing Anita's long overdue acceptance of what she really is. Yes, the scenes were quite explicit, but I personally found them wonderfully sensual and erotic.
One complaint I have is that the Epilogue covered some issues in one or two lines that could have made up several enjoyable chapters, and several comments posed more questions than they answered. None-the-less, when the book came to a close, I was sated and happy with my purchase.
So, did I like "Narcissus in Chains"? Yes. Is it perfect? No, but what book is?
The reason I read is because I love to be swept away into a different world for a few hours and not worry about anything else. This book did exactly that. I was absorbed into Anita's weird and wild world and simply enjoyed being there. If you go into "Narcissus in Chains" planning to look for all its flaws, you probably won't like it, but if you just suspend your disbelief and read it for pure enjoyment, just to get away for a few hours, you will love it like I did.
Rating:
Summary: Loved this book
Review: Narcissus in Chains is the culmination of all of Anita Blakes kills. In this book, you finally realize the reasonings for all of her relationships and Anita realizes that she is not so much better than the monsters she takes to bed. This book is not a mystery like the others,slaying takes a back seat to Anita's personal problems. She resolves her issues with Richard and Jean Claude and another male character is introduced.
If you are not interested in her sexual life, do not read this book.
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