Rating: 
Summary: Truly one of the vampire classics
Review: I am a collector of other world books (vampires, lycanthorpes, wizards, and other-worldly beings). I truly enjoy these types of novels. I was recommended Guilty Pleasures at the bookstore, and all I can say is you will not be disappointed.Meet Anita Blake, necromancer. She raises zombies for a living and works part time for the police dept. solving crimes involving "other worldly beings." This is the first book in an excellent series. You will not be disappointed! (For those of you new to the series, be warned, the first four novels are excellent. Novels 5 on start to go downhill, and around novel 8 they crash and burn and turn into a porn fest (which is a pity). Those who have read the series know exactly what I speak of. This Anita that you will discover in this novel, is tough, but humanistic. You will love this character! This book is highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining dark fantasy
Review: The Anita Blake series, which began with this novel, is an entertaining light read about an "animator" (someone who raises zombies from the dead for a living, for eg. to check the details of their will) who also is a legal vampire slayer - she's sent out with a court order to slay vampires who break the law. As you can guess, this series is set in an alternate reality where fantasy creatures exist and vampires have recently gained legal "human" status. Anita herself has some interesting personal conflicts - she is a committed Christian who works with dark forces and kills a little too easily, and a very dainty and pretty-looking person who considers herself to be "tough as nails" (it makes it hard for the bad guys to take her seriously). Each of the books is loosely based around a supernatural mystery and the ongoing story of Anita's life (she's 20-something at the start of this book). The writing is a little sloppy, but quite compelling, and the series steadily improves for the first few novels (the later ones get a little bogged down with Anita's issues).
Rating:
Summary: Vamp Review
Review: I thought that this was a wonderful book. It was well written, however an easy read. The book was suggested to me by my 11 year old cousin, who is at an adult reading level, like me. The characters may have been a little underdeveloped, but if you read the entire series (up to Cerulean Sins) you'll be able to understand why they were sketchy. The books aren't made for children and definetly not for the squimish. If you don't enjoy blood and gore don't read them. If you do, then you'll never want to put one of these series down until you're done. The last book written was better than Guilty Pleasures, but only because of the full character development and more suspense. Follow the plot closely in each book, they can become a little confusing.
Rating: 
Summary: Good little mystery and it has vampires!
Review: STORY: As one review so simply put: "Anita Blake, full time animator of the dead and part time vampire slayer, has been hired by the thousand year old Master of the city to find a serial killer who's been knocking off the undead" MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING: This is an alternate world where what appears to be 20th century humans coexist with vampires and other supernatural creatures. There are even laws that give vampires certain rights in this new world. Our brief glimpse of the world created is teasing in its possibilities and enjoyable. 2) CHARACTERS: Anita Blake is our main protagonist. She is a female version of a smart-mouthed detective from some stereotypical gumshoe story. She is a character who proudly displays her stereotypes but also enjoyable has a couple of traits that add something memorable. I liked the character enough that she is more the reason why I would want to read the next book than because the plot was maybe fabulous. 3) PLOT: Speaking of plot...it was a nice little mystery. I didn't feel that there were enough clues to who the "bad" guy was but the story had enough unexpected events that I kept reading. Story was overall handled well though I would have liked to see more "action" scenes vs. scenes that were potentially eruptive in action...if you know what I mean. 4) CONTENT: This book would be rated R for gore and violence. The "sensual" scenes were handled very professionally, were brief and were NOT graphic sexually...which I appreciated. I wanted a vampire, action, mystery and that is what I got. OVERALL: I liked this book and if someone likes to read vampire books and have a mystery I'd recommend this in a heartbeat. Just because the covers of this series and the titles of the books may imply this is erotic horror, this book wasn't. If the rest of the series is, I don't know. But this was a fun little read that I really enjoyed.
Rating:
Summary: Great pleasure, not guilty at all
Review: This is the introduction to LKH's Anita Blake universe, and it is possibly the most addictive debut novel I've ever read. This is, honestly, a book that you cannot put down. We're introduced to Anita, a young woman who raises zombies and slays vampires. Hamilton was one of the first to create a world where supernatural creatures had civil liberties and were protected under the government. That world is vividly created from the novel's opening line. Those few words immediately reveal Hamilton's alternate universe to be a place of magical ghouls a la Anne Rice and hard boiled protagonists a la Raymond Chandler. Those words drag you into the story, and you won't really emerge until the last line. The story is primarily a mystery. Someone is killing vampires and Anita, who usually is the vampire killer, is 'persuaded' by the most powerful vamp in the city to solve the case. She's aided by people like Edward, a sociopathic hit man, and Jean-Claude, a French vampire straight out of a trashy romance novel, who's so incredibly appealing on the page your jaw will drop. What makes this world so real and interesting is Anita. She's a good Catholic girl (or was until she was excommunicated) who doesn't like premarital sex and always goes to church, but who knows how to gut a vampire or sacrifice a goat to raise a zombie and not think twice. Also, she's a huge bigot. Hamilton makes her heroine instantly suspicious of those 'different' dead types, giving the character room to grow. Granted, she's a little too far off the path in the present volumes, but it's wonderful to watch the seeds of doubt first appear in her. She's a character you feel for, but you know is obviously flawed. Hamilton didn't try to make a perfect, balanced and fair-minded character in book one, thereby making development out of the question and Anita a bore. This protagonist is grumpy, sympathetic, wary and often hilarious. The other books in the series, from 'Laughing Corpse' through 'Obsidian Butterfly', are also wonderful. After that, things get a little too outlandish, but they're still good reads. However, 'Guilty Pleasures' is the first and must be, if not the best in the series, the most memorable and the most fascinating, since it's an introduction to this strange world. Just don't start reading it if you have to be somewhere in a few hours, because you won't want to move until it's done.
Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This is the first book in Hamiltons' Anita Blake series &, if you like the genre, it's well worth a read. A little superficial, & we never feel that we get to know the characters all that well, but these earlier books in the series are extremely original, & fairly entertaining (sadly the later books just turn into supernatural porn).
Anita Blake, our heroine, is an Animator - she raises the dead. She's also a licenced vampire executioner, & she works with the police to solve crimes that seem to fall into the supernatural category.
In this first book Anita is hired by a vampire to find out who is 'killing' the undead, which puts Anita in an interesting position considering she rather sympathises with the killer!
Rating: 
Summary: Good setup for a series
Review: Being a huge horror fan, I decided to try the Anita Blake series after a recommendation from a friend. I was not disappointed. The fast paced chapters and the originl ideas kept me turning pages. It was a quick three day read. However, the cover of the book claimed, "A heady mix of romance and horror". I saw the horror, but where's the romance? The only hint of romance happened on page 148... and the book is only 266 pages long! I expected some really steamy scenes, but I got none of that. My only other complaint is the random rules Laurell Hamilton seems to make up regarding the raising of zombies and ghouls to fit her storyline. But don't get me wrong, the danger and villains are plentiful. Instead of the standard ways in which to kill a vampire, characters use syringes to inject silver nitrate into the undead's bloodstream. This is something I really like. Putting a spin on the classic vampire mythology by incorporating today's technology. I'm looking forward to the second book in the series, "The Laughing Corpse".
Rating:
Summary: Fun but nothing that special.
Review: I read through this book pretty quickly, as it is short, and i was pretty much entertained throughout. There are no 'downtime' scenes with filler and the pace is fresh and fast. I picked up this book mainly because of the series' gigantic popularity and found the cover and front/back cover blurbs way off. With a cover of a naked woman, and 'romance and steamy' words thrown on the cover you would expect this to be like that. But it couldnt be further from the truth. I wasnt looking for 'romance' in this book so i wasnt disappointed. However if you are looking for this then look elsewhere. The book was interesting enough for me to pick up her next few books but from what i have read the later books turn into 'soft core porn' so i will be staying away from those. If youre looking for an interesting twist on zombies, ghouls, vampires, wererats, etc then pick up this book. It will keep you occupied for a weekend.
Rating:
Summary: Good read for vampire horror fans
Review: If you want a great story with vampires, shapeshifts, and zombies - you've come to the right place! This book has a great collection of monsters and a kick butt slayer who raises the dead for a living. 4 for horror, 2 for romance, 5 for a good read!
Rebecca
The Vampire Book Club
http://www.vampirebookclub.com
Rating:
Summary: An excellent guilty pleasure!
Review: Having read and loved A Kiss of Shadows, I decided that it was time I gave the Anita Blake vampire series a whirl. Guilty Pleasures is a fast-paced, enthralling horror novel that kept me turning the pages until the wee hours of the night. The series starts out when Anita, a professional vampire executioner, is forced to investigate the recent murder of various vampires. But Anita's job is to execute vampires, not help them, but the master vampire Nikolaos is not someone you can turn down. There are various twists throughout the novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat... I love Anita's narration and the story's steady motion. There isn't a single boring moment in this novel. I can see why so many people have become addicted to this series. Laurell K. Hamilton is a great talent of paranormal fiction. There is plenty of horror and suspense throughout the novel, but there isn't a trace of romantica. That's the only thing I didn't like about the first installment. But I was told that the romance and erotica come along later in the series (and I hope that Jean-Claude, a dark and sensual vampire in the story, will be part of said romance and erotica). Even though I prefer vampires as sex gods rather than evil, this is one series that I intend to read from cover to cover. A great start to the Anita Blake series! This novel is definitely a guilty pleasure...
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