Rating: 
Summary: Someone is killing the Undead
Review: Anita Blake is working with the police to try to catch a killer...of the already dead. Many master vampires are being brutally murdered by persons or creatures unknown. The murders have been particularly brutal. St Louis is apparently a vampire friendly city, bars, strip clubs and the like owned by vampires like Jean Claude. Anita really doesn't want to get any more involved with the case, but is strong armed into it by the Master Vampire, a childlike creature named Nickaloas. Jean Claude sends a vampire junkie named Philip to help her access the vampire community. It is difficult to gain trust when you are known as The Executioner and have 14 legal kills to your record. Adding a complication is the arrival of Edward, known in the vampire world as Death, in search of another vampire kill. Either she does what they want or the vampires will kill her best friend. Her friend was betrayed by a coworker. This is a really interesting series and I will definitely read more of them. The author has a real gift for making the reader believe in her alternate reality and it's mores. Very good book and a great start to the series.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best of vampire books
Review: This book is part of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. Inside, there are zombies, vampires, were-rats, werewolves, and ghouls. The setting is in the future where society is trying to come to grips with the legal status of supernatural beings. Anita Blake is actually an animator (raises people from the grave for a price), but due to circumstances, has created a reputation as a vampire killer. She is also working with the local police department's special squad that investigates crimes, like murder, to supernatural beings. Given this, you would think that the vampires would hate her. Actually, some of them recruit her to solve the mystery. Unfortunately, Anita, and the reader, never gets a clear explanation of why she has been chosen. There are some clues, but for the most part, the rationale is unknown. Nevertheless, her search for the killer takes her to a vampire "strip club," the Circus of the Damned, and a freak party (where humans go to be "teased" and bitten by vampires). She comes across a vast array of characters that makes it difficult for the reader to keep track of. I recommend not putting the book down, or you will be lost when you pick it back up. The book is told from her perspective. The tone is that of a sassy detective who is seen a lot and won't take crud from anyone. To be honest, it reads like a vampire, Harlequin Romance. All the cover needs is a vampire with his shirt torn, exposing his pale, undead (yet firm) muscles. I would not recommend this to someone wanting something "new." The book feels trite.
Rating: 
Summary: Buffy meets the Babysitters Club (with sex!)
Review: Having now read seven (and most of the eighth) of the Anita Blake novels, I can't help but come to the seemingly paradoxical conclusion that Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the most INARTICULATE authors I've ever read. In writing about characters who are supposed to be charming, mysterious, worldly, etc., the dialogue she puts in their mouths is exceedingly clumsy. Ms. Hamilton is in dire need of a good editor to clean up her style (not to mention her bad grammar -- that would be nitpicking). Hamilton's main strength, if one may call it that, is in plotting stories and coming up with a new set of supernatural features in every novel. This strength is far outweighed by her flat inability to put together sentences that manage to create a cohesive impression. Her novels are like very long high school essays, with lots of sex. And, oh the sex (cringe!). Hamilton is trying, I suppose, to write horror romances, but the romance aspect of the writing is so juvenile, one is tempted just to skip over it to get to the violence. And her protagonist, Anita Blake, is written as being so bullheaded and impulsive that it's a wonder that she has lived as long as she has -- she just can't hold her tongue, which isn't a wise choice for someone dealing with dangerous forces. Last, but not least, is Hamilton's habit of going into excruciating detail on irrelevant matters, such as the layout of certain St. Louis suburbs or what colour brassiere to wear with firearms. It's like she's just using whatever random details reside in her memory to pad things out.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant characterization and most unique plot line
Review: When I picked up this book, I had no idea that I would find Anita Blake so appealing. Nor did I realize how humorous and creative Hamilton's style was. I am an avid reader of vampire tales, especially classics like Le Fanu, Stoker, and tales from "Blackwood's," and never have I come across something so unique as the St. Louis of Anita and her lycanthropic and vampiric cohorts, or her zombies. That all sounds a bit cheesy, but in fact it's very elegant reading for anyone who enjoys detective stories or female heroines, with a special twist of course. I've also read "The Laughing Corpse," next in the Anita Blake series, and now I'm hooked. Her style is readable and flows into a world I can only describe as scintilatingly enjoyable. Blake raises zombies for a living, a bit messy but not quite as messy as some of the police cases she becomes involved in. Every moment in this book is interesting, there are no "when does this blab stop and the action start?" thoughts. From cover to cover it's a fast-paced, enticing read that only makes you crave more. Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down- a sure sign she's got something good here. The last book that did that was Rice's "Queen of the Damned." This book is not just for vampire or horror lovers, it's for anyone that likes to read a well-written book, but this one is a "bite" more interesting
Rating:
Summary: Vampire Hunter kicks ...
Review: Guilty Pleasures is the first of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels. The first thing you should know is that Anita is a flawed heroine, and a great narrator. In LKH's alternate US, the monsters are alive and well. Anita works as an animator, a raiser of the dead in St. Louis. We don't know much about her, and her history expands as the series continues, and as Anita learns more about her own powers. The vampires have recently become legal citizens of the US, and Anita is a licenced Vampire Slayer, the boogeyman (or woman) of vampire kind. Anita is 'hired' by the Master of the City to find out who is killing them. Working for the master is hazerdous to your health. Anita learns about the human culture peripheral to the vampire's in her attempt to learn who is killing them. If she doesn't work fast enough or give the answers the Master wants to hear, Bad Things will happen. Vampires are not people with fangs, nor are they the absolute monsters of creation that are portrayed in other vampire novels. (I detest Ann Rice's vampire chroncles.) In fact, this book makes you want to stay far far away from them, if you ever run across one. I like the Anita Blake series because the vamps are not the good guys, but it shows differences among them, making them complete personalities, not just a type. These are scary individuals. Guilty Pleasures sets the scene for the Anita Blake series, but reads as a complete novel on its own. The end of the book is an end, not a cliff hanger to get you to read the next book.
Rating:
Summary: You have to start somewhere...
Review: I love the Anita Blake series, but "Guilty Pleasures" was the most difficult book to read. The main reason I had trouble with it was it felt like there was no history of how Anita came to be the person she is at the beginning of the series. She would mention a particular scar given to her by vampires and I was screaming, "Well, why not start the story from that incident?" I was expecting something like the Buffy movie or the first episodes of the series where they establish what is a slayer, etc. But with encouragement, I finished the book and was intrigued enough to pick up the second. I have not stopped reading since, often polishing off Anita Blake books in one or two nights because I just can't put them down. And starting in the second book, Laurell Hamilton starts filling in the pieces of Anita's history. Looking back, I realize that the events in "Guilty Pleasures" were the beginning of Anita's saga, not the day she started hunting vampires. So while this book is not my favorite in the series, you need to read it to understand how events are set in motion and meet Anita and the supporting characters who become important in later books. And once you've read the later books, you can re-read this one and appreciate it.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely, a Pleasure I'm feeling guilty of.
Review: This is the fisrt novel of the serie and even from the start it's an non-stop action package. She did create an entire world in which her caracters brings more credibility to a fantastic chain of events. What should be impossible becomes a part of your reality for few hours.
I've got to confess, Anita may mot be your kindred spirit, but I'm sure, as for me, you'll feel deeply her generosity, her witty repartees and for sure her own confused love life. But she's before all this the Executioner. Guns, martial arts, animator bringing back zombies to us who's living above the ground, are just few of her abilities. And with her spare time? Anita's just tracking a buch of vampires with some silver ammo and a stick just in case... And don't forget at the end of this book that it's just the begining, because there is much much more to come. Jean-Claude & cie will seduce you and you'll forget where reality stands for a while, when at three AM, you'll come back with a wow to your lips.
Je vous lève mon chapeau Mme Hamilton, car rare furent les épopées qui incendièrent à ce point mon imagination. Ici, j'appose un homage au génie qui est le votre.
Rating:
Summary: just getting started
Review: i just wanted to start at saying how much i loved this book!!!
it didnt wait for you to get use to her world it stuck you right in the middle and hoped you got the drift
You would have to be the most up tight,sensable person with no sense of humor not to like this book.
I've read these books (all of them) over and over agan and still haven't found anythink i really didnt like yet.
The book has romance,death,violence,friendship,humor and a number of dirrerent objects stuffed into one.
L.K.H has really made a book that you cant put down.
Rating:
Summary: Buffy, Who?
Review: I first discovered this book by accident one day in my local used book store, and boy am I glad I did! If you pick up these books and think your going to read a poor-man's Buffy, then think again. While there is certainly a similarity, especially with kick-ass heroines, there is also a major difference. In Anita's world, vampires and other creatures of the night are known to exist in the real world, and live along side human beings. Anita Blake is a tough, gritty heroine who doesn't take crap anyone, either living or dead. This book also introduces us to the best vampire since Lestat, Jean-Claude. There were many times I found myself chuckling at his flirtatious behavior with a vampire hunter who would gladly stake him. One of the great things about this book is that it is based in a St. Louis that I know well (without the vampires, of course), and that adds a sense of reality to this lush, vampire fantasy. Anyone looking for sophisticated, action-oriented, vampire fiction should read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Blown Away
Review: Wow
I was blown away when I read this book. I was looking in my school library for something to read during English class so points would not be taken away and i ran across this book. I have always been interested in vampires and the undead.
Well i loved this book so well that I read it twice and recommended it to everyone of my friends that were also interested in vampires. Alot of people like Anne Rice's novels as do I but i would rather read about Anita Blake's evil vamp butt kicking!
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