Rating: 
Summary: Disappointment
Review: When I started reading this book, I hoped that it would be as good as "Obisdian Butterfly." Mistake. Anita Blake seems to have the morals of your local hooker. I have to agree with the reader from Las Cruzes, these books are becoming sad. Anita no longer fights monsters, and is has lost touch with her human friends. Jean Claud and Richard are fast becoming things of the past and minor characters. Let there be no mistake, I AM NOT A PRUDE, a touch of sex (or perhaps a little more than a touch) of sex does not bother me, but three at a time?! We may end up having to buy her books at the local adult book store in the future. I would like the Anita Blake of the past to come back to the future. I do not mind change, I just don't like mindless change. Before you buy this book, read all of the reviews, and then ask yourself, would you leave this on the coffee table for younger teenagers to read? Go for the paperback if you want it.
Rating: 
Summary: The more I think about this book, the less i like it
Review: I was realy excited to read this book, but when I did finally get it I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong there are some things I like about it, such as more Jean-Claude, and my favourite people Asher, Jason, Nanthanial and Damian(if only for a little bit).
However I did not like the inclusion of Micah. I thought his character was badly written and the only purpose he served was to be the "perfect" boyfriend for Anita. To which I would I like to point out has the very qualities which Anita says Jean-Claude does throughout the series. He accepts her and is like her in many aspects, however it seems that because Jean-Claude does not have a pulse, he is not good enough to really be hers. I was glad that Richard was given the flick,as I never liked the prissy boyscout, however I did not need him to be replaced by someone who was so badly created. I like the idea of the Truimvative and where did it go?? Oh yeah, down the toilet with the plot.
The biggest disappointment in this book(besides a repetative storyline) is the amount of sex. It shouldn't have such a dominant position in this series. I always admired Anita's will in not giving into sex throughout the series, and while I was hoping she would give in to Jean-Claude's charms all along, I was very angry at her abandoment of her morals. I realise this is due to the succbi nature from Jean-Claude, but excuse me why did this not make some appearance when they first made the marks?? I fail to see how such strong characteristics like the succubus and the leopard as her animal to call were not somehow present when the marks were made.
To finish up this review before I continue ranting, I will say this. Laurell I love your series, but please don't turn it into trashy erotica. Bring back the smart, sarcastic, strong willed Anita who never took crap from anyone and had a job. Also make her more human, if she keeps getting stronger what is the point? She was the animator who took her chances against the big bad vamps and beat them with wit and her Browning, please don't throw her away for what i fear she is becoming.
If you like the series read it, there are some good things, and maybe you'll come out of it like I did, hoping the next installment is better.
Rating: 
Summary: loved it!!!!
Review: my brother gave me obsidian butterfly,i just kinda look at him "like ok".i picked it up and couldnt stop reading it,then he had NiC,the second i put OB down i picked up NiC,let me tell you i devoured it ,i liked the action of the fights,and the moving sexual experinces with i ardeur.I think anita is just getting started to explore her whole self,and i LOVE Micah,he is her nimri raj!
Rating:
Summary: The VERY WORST of the Series!!!!!
Review: Okay I have read all of Ms. Hamilton's books and I was ready to give her the benefit of doubt. But this book is a stinker. She has gone so far off of what her characters were you can hardly regonize them.
There is no plot and if just sex is what she was going for then she did achieve that.
(...) What she has done to Jean Claude is in itself a crime. Also please what happened to the Anita we all knew?????
Please do not buy this in hard cover and waste your money, if you must read it wait for the paperback.
I believe this is the last book I will read unless by some miracle she can get out of her "Anne Rice" mode and write like Laurell K. Hamilton again.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!!!
Review: I have to say, I have read all 9 books and by far this is my favorite. A must read for any fan! It had all the aspects of the series that we all have come to love: Sex, violence, intrigue and a couple of great plot twists. I have to say just one bad thing about it. It felt so final at the end, as if this was the last Anita Blake book we might see for quite some time if at all. :-p If this is indeed the last book she writes in this series, it is one (...) way to end, on top! ENJOY!!
Rating:
Summary: Anita the victim
Review: I was disappointed in the many fragmented plot lines that pulled Anita into too many directions and neglected an insightful/in depth conclusion for any of them. Anita's intelligence and insight seem to have departed in this novel with no central story that pulls it all together, leaving Anita, at the end, no more aware of what has happened to her than the reader.
Rating:
Summary: Egads!
Review: I'm reading all the reviews (yes, all the way from the beginning) and the overwhelming vote seems to be that Hamilton has ruined a perfectly good character. Well, I concur. I ate up the Anita Blake books in a four day weekend, devouring the various plot points and situations much like my fellow reviewers. By the time I got to NiC, I was getting a BAAAAD feeling. Anita starts out such a moral character that it was fascinating to watch her get out of her various moral dilemmas. Her struggles to keep true to her beliefs, and the keeping of her sense of self were part of my fascination with this series. I liked her guts, her need to try to save as many people as possible. But everyone is right: NiC is a boink-fest, and guess who the main debaucher is? Okay, Richard is turning into a mess because he wants so badly to be human and fears to be the monster he is, Jean-Claude is a vampire who even seems to fear Anita, and NOW--NOW--there's Micah, who I just CAN'T STAND! Ugh. Like there weren't enough men in the picture. And the sex goes on and on... sigh. The irritating "four men at once" scene (2 master vampires AND 2 lycanthropes; even her SEX drive is superhuman!), the addition of B&D, the constant comments on "size"... Come on... I want the old modest Anita back! I want to start an "Anita the ANIMATOR" petition, because I'm dying to know how she's supporting herself at this point. She hasn't worked in, what? Three books? Oh, and then there's the fact she's burning her bridges with Dolph, which has meant there's been no actual police work for a while. Watching Anita become this superpowered "necromancer" that's now hyped up on vampire and werewolf power is aggravating, since I realized that they were simply going to have to kill her at some point. I mean, she's becoming so powerful, nothing will be able to stop her. She's very much becoming the thing she hates most, and I wonder where Hamilton will be able to take her superhuman as the story continues? At what level monster will she simply have to die? I'm willing to bet it'll be all her human friends that knock her off (Edward!!), because no one else will have the power, although, if she takes the fourth mark, she's invincible. Sigh. My other concern is that, as a reader, I have NO idea what Jean-Claude and Richard get out of this. Obviously Anita gets Master Vampire skills and lycanthrope powers (let's hear it for the ménage a trois!) but what have they gained? Do they get to tap her Necromancy? Perhaps I'm getting this bad feeling too soon. Maybe there'll be an end to the amount of power she's accumulating? Maybe she'll see what's she's doing and, if not turn her back on it, CONTROL it. I just hate to see a great character fall into the ravine of bad taste. Hamilton, hon, you're creeping awfully close to Anne Rice's "Sleeping Beauty" trilogy. Watch your step!
Rating:
Summary: not what I'd hoped for
Review: After eagerly awaiting the new Anita Blake novel, I'm very disappointed- definitely not of Laurel Hamilton's ususal quality- major characters are underdeveloped, plot twists have no explanation, and Anita acts out of character- more like Merry Gentry, but even more gratuitous. I'm hoping that future books are back to the standards I've come to expect from Laurel Hamilton.
Rating:
Summary: Narcissus in Chains could be the next big genre in porn
Review: So the first Anita Blake books were really really good. Each one got progressively better - the first few books were great because there was anticipation built up - who would Anita choose, Jean Claude or Richard? Who had stronger ties? What would the marks mean? Then the leopard factor was brought in, and some fae, and the lupa thing, and Asher . . . still, Hamilton held me. Now we get to Narcissus In Chains. What starts out as a possibly good book (the three, Richard Jean-Claude and Anita decide to marry the marks because their powers have been failing due to Anita's absence) becomes a bunch of porn. You bring in a complicated fourth party in Micah, yet another person Anita can sleep with (whatever happened to her being a moral character?) Then you get the whole Nathanial being in trouble again (yes we get the point that Nathanial is everybody's victim, but he can only be tortured/kidnapped so many times before you just don't give a damn anymore), and of course there's the "are your or are you not a lycanthrope" thing AGAIN. And the "Anita gets even MORE mysterious powers" angle . . . *sigh*. THESE CLICHES ARE GETTING TIRING!!! Hopefully, Hamilton can reign the series back in, get Anita back to being Anita and not some supernatural Debbie Does Dallas type of woman, and write a story that doesn't include EVERYBODY sleeping around. Honestly, I dread the way things look like they are going . . . This is not the Anita Blake I enjoyed so much. When was the last time you heard about her acting like the necromancer she claims she is? She doesn't really WORK anymore, and all her normal friends (Caroline, Ronny, even Edward) seem to be secondary to the sex. Sad . . . very very sad.
Rating:
Summary: Anita Blake might have no choice about being a monster...
Review: It is impossible not to be ambivalent about "Narcissus in Chains," the tenth and latest novel in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. It starts off like a typical Anita Blake novel: our heroine has been ignoring both Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of St. Louis, and Richard, Ulfric of the local werewolf clan. So, once again, horror literatures most dysfunctional love triangle appears to be moving back to square one. But then we have an interesting twist. Usually Anita manifests another new dimension to her growing powers at the end of the novel, in term to help her out of the horrendous climatic confrontation where people she cares about are about to get killed by the new bad thing in town. However, this time around Anita is almost fatally injured in a fight. A weresnake is trying to rip her heart out of her chest when Gregory, one of her pard's wereleopards, forcible removes the attacker's hand. But in the process his claws something vital and now Anita is showing all the signs of preparing for a transformation in a wereleopard, which would make her a true Nimir-Ra. It looks like Anita might not have any choice about embracing the monster inside her (and what would Eward thing of this development? I can hear us all wondering). "Narcissus in Chains," the title refers to a S&M Club run by a werehyena with a penchant for names from Greek mythology, is one of the faster paced Anita Blake novels. Basically Anita has to go through a series of rescue missions, such as saving Nathaniel from the sex club, Jean-Claude from jail, Gregory from the wrath of Richard's pack, Damian from being chained in a cross-covered coffin, and on and on and on. In addition to the possibility of turning into a lycanthrope, Anita has two additional complications. First, she had picked up Jean-Claude's "ardeur," which is basically a lust that goes well beyond sex. Second, she meets Micah Callah, who wants to be the Nimir-Raj of Anita's pard. The end result is that the unresolved love triangle has now been upped to at least a quadrangle, and that is before we even begin to figure out how Nathaniel and Asher fits into all this fun. The sexuality of both the main character and the narrative has been building in recent novels, but I would make a conservative estimate that the amount of sex in "Narcissus in Chains" is easily double what we had in "Blue Moon" and "Obsidian Butterfly" combined. Hamilton has a hard time topping herself in each adventure in terms of horror and violence, so it is not surprising that she turns to other avenues. But even if Anita is becoming more comfortable with her sexuality and being nude among her pard, that does not mean the result of us are thoroughly enjoying the ride. The ending of "Narcissus in Chains" does turn out to be the traditional Anita-pulls-something-new-out-of-her-hat variety, along with what is becoming another cliche, the revelation of the villain's true identity. However, Hamilton remains a compelling read and the most encouraging development off of this novel's conclusion is that we have reason to believe that, maybe, just maybe, Anita has finally resolved her relationship with Jean-Claude and Richard. That would certainly be a step in the right direction as we move way beyond "Vampire Hunter" territory.
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