Rating: 
Summary: Another action-packed tour de force from Ms. Hamilton!
Review: I've become addicted to this series! Laurell K. Hamilton knows how to keep you turning the pages all the way to its staggering conclusion. Circus of the Damned is the third part of the Anita Blake series and the best one thus far. A pack of vampires has murdered several people. Anita has to figure out who is in charge of the crimes. What ensues is a battle between various vampire masters who want to replace Jean-Claude as the Master of the City, and Anita is right in the middle of said battle. Jean-Claude and Alejandro want her as a human servant. She has to choose between the two -- something she isn't prepared to do...Circus of the Damned, like the first two novels, is action-packed from beginning to end. Hamilton does not allow any breathing room between the horror scenes. Her novels are riveting and suspenseful from beginning to end. What I like most about this novel is the progress, however small, between Anita and Jean-Claude. Anita has reluctantly caved to Jean-Claude's charms a bit. I love Jean-Claude! He is a great character -- mysterious, complex, sensual. The reader also gets a glimpse of erotica in this offering. The building of tension is second to none. The action, horror and suspense aspects are better than ever. I recommend this series and I cannot wait to start on the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Vampire? Werewolf? How DOES a girl choose?
Review: In this third book of the series, Anita Blake is getting stronger as a woman/character. In Circus we see tons of action concerning a giant cobra, a rogue vamp named Alejandro who wants Anita for all the wrong reasons, and of course Jean-Claude who is STILL trying to get her into his bed but at the very least he wants her as his human servant. Anita finds herself, and her "friend" Edward, in a battle for thier lifes, in this book, along with a few new vamps and weres. Will she live? Well now.. thats a silly question! We are talking about Anita here!! Oh.. Did I mention Richard? Hes the new man in Anitas life. She thinks hes human at first but then the jealous Jean-Claude spills the beans about him being the runner up for Ulfric, King of the Werewolfs, in the city. And we cant forget Larry. Hes Anitas new "sidekick" and she is teaching him the ropes but he is kindof nervous about all the killing and zombie stuff that takes place around Anita. We shall see! :)
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Fantastic!
Review: Laurell K. Hamilton's done it again: she has once again surpassed her previous 2 books in this third installment. In this story, we find Anita Blake back in the hornet's nest of vampires and undead power struggles. This book has more interaction with the spellbinding Master of the City, Jean-Claude, which is always a plus. There are a few new characters introduced, one being Richard Zeeman, a junior high school science teacher who just happens to turn into a werewolf once a month. Another new addition is Larry Kirkland, a youthful, very naive addition to Anita's animating firm. The plot in this one revolves around a struggle between two forces: Jean Claude and his vampires and a rogue, ancient vampire with some very radical, deadly beliefs. The action scenes are incredible, and the battles, oh! Anyone who has read any of Hamilton's work will adore this book.
Rating:
Summary: The one that got me hooked
Review: Looking back many years ago to when I was reading this book for the first time, I think this is the one that got me hooked. This is partly because of the love triangle that is introduced and partly because this is where the series hits it's stride. This installment, more than any other, has the perfect blend of romance and plot. This is one of my favorites in the series and after four or five rereads it's still highly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: This is Laurell Hamilton's third book from her amazing vampire series (be warned after about book 5 the storyline becomes a soap opera). Also, in my opinion the later novels are just plain awful. Still, as this is the third book in the series, in terms of great vampire fiction, this can't be beat. Meet Ms. Anita Blake, necromancer (she raises zombies) and vampire executioner. She is 5"3", packs all different types of weapons, and is pretty darn tough. She is also caring and very loyal. She works part-time for her money hungry boss raising zombies and is also on loan to the police department helping them solve murders. Anita's world is becoming difficult. First, she has Jean-Claude, the Master Vampire of the City, who wants to make Anita his human servant (even though Anita hates monsters and has no intention of becoming a human servant to anyone). What's worse is that even though Jean Claude drives her crazy, she is attracted to him. You are also introduced to Richard, a very handsome man that Anita is attracted to, but she has no idea why he would want to hang out with Jean-Claude. Anita gets pulled into a new case by the police dept. There has been a murder, with a body drained dry by as many as five vampires at one time. The problem with this is that vampires don't hunt together unless a master vampire is involved. As Jean Claude is the only master in town next to another vampire that owns a church, Anita has her work cut out in trying to determine who the killer is, why still trying to remain alive.
This is an excellent excellent story. Very highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Starting to hit her stride
Review: To recap (for those who don't read every one of my reviews, because I've heard that there are a few of you out there) I really didn't like the first book, "Guilty Pleasures." I thought that book two, "The Laughing Corpse" got a little better. This installment of the series seems to have finally hit some sort of stride. It is far from perfect, but I enjoyed this one more than the previous two.
I felt that there were fewer things that came up out of nowhere (such as the Deus Ex Machina villain in book one) and I felt mostly satisfied with the characterization. I thought that the inclusion of a new Animator and an extremely ancient vampire were interesting. Overall, this novel seemed to flow better than the previous two.
I did have a few problems with the book, however. The characters were drawn well, but their actions did not always seem consistent with previous books (didn't the bounty hunter still have a contract on the Master of the City?). Some things still seemed thrown in with no regard for plot (okay, so why was one of the new characters naked when we first meet him?). And I would still like a better analysis of the world this story is set in (what, exactly, are the first two marks? where did vamps come from? are they evil? if not, why do crosses burn them?).
In short, this series does not seem to be terrible. It can kill some time and satisfy a vampire craving. However, don't expect the intelligence or depth of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or the intriguing ambiguity of Anne Rice. I don't know where the series will go from here, but so far it's kind of fun. Maybe not fun enough to get me to read the rest of them, but we'll see. :)
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