Rating: 
Summary: Highly readable - more action than sensuality
Review: I came to this series after greatly enjoying the Anne Rice vampire series. Guilty Pleasures lacks the history and voluptuousness of the Rice books. However, the plotting is much more urgent, and it's more of a page-turner. Not disappointing, just different. Anita is an interesting character, and there is plenty of room for development. If I thought that this was the only book, I would have been disappointed not to know more about the background of the people involved. As it is, I know I have something to look forward to.
Rating: 
Summary: not while eating
Review: Enjoyable junk reading. Just don't eat something with red sauce while reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Imaginative But May Repel You
Review: I've read this first book and have two more of the series in my to-be-read pile. I don't know what to do: read the remaining two or sell them. Here's my quandary: This writer has a terrific imagination. She puts together a world with vampires unlike anyone else's to date. Her vampires have full legal rights and protections and her female protagonist, Anita, is in the business of hunting them as well as zombies. Then there's a possible love interest with Jean Claude, a top vampire. These elements are all well done but the kicker is that much of the material is so vividly realized that it can actually repel a reader, as it did this reader. Hamilton writes some unbelievably creepy scenes. One, set in a cemetery, with her killing a zombie she digs up, while she wards off vampires who attack her, is one you do not want to read at 3am alone in the house! She also has a scene at the vampire hangout involving rats that was highly disturbing. Ironically, I've heard from countless romance readers about how much they love these novels yet it is the last series I would have picked out for them as a probable read. I loved the original Bram Stoker "Dracula", the Coppola film of "Dracula" starring Gary Oldman , and Anne Rice's "Interview With A Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat." However, the Hamilton vampires may simply be too much for me. I realize that "character development" may not be a big element in this first book but I did feel that the characters were better developed in the earlier vampire works I've listed than in Hamilton's novel. My friends tell me that more character development will take place over the rest of the series. I honestly don't know whether I'll continue with the Hamilton books or not but I will grant you that she has created a heck of a fictional world that you won't easily forget.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely lives up to the title
Review: First in a series, the Anita Blake-Vampire Hunter books are a serious hoot! Hamilton pokes fun at the genre, but still manages to tell a great story. First meet Anita-vampire executioner and animator, which means she can legally kill vampires with an execution order and raise the dead. Welcome to St. Louis in the near future, where vampirism is the main tourist attraction. The 'guilty pleasures' in the title refers to a vampire club which puts on a hell of a show! So, if you love the vampire genre and are looking for a little fun, check out this series. I have read them all and so far loved them all! Great campy fun, with lots of legendary lore!**Pandora
Rating: 
Summary: why so many high reviews?
Review: I'm wondering why so many other people are giving this book so many stars. Perhaps it is just a question of taste, I dunno. The dialogue and prose is pretty bad. The world is not very consistent. The plot is incredibly thin with an awful lot of plot devices. Anita has nightmares of one vampire who tried to kill her but another similar near death experience is mentioned casually in passing. The introduction of the vampire Valentine was pointless, anyway. There is no explanation that I could make sense of for why people hate vampire killers. There is also no explanation for why a vampire can kill 23 people before a court order is given for its extermination. There is no explanation given for why killing vampires is so hard given they are defenseless during the day and how easily Anita and Edward dispatch several of the city's most powerful vampires. There is too much explanation. Like we're really supposed to believe that Edward, monster hunter extraordinaire, knows nothing whatsoever about ghouls? There is no explanation for why the other animator lures them to the graveyard and wants to kill them. There is no explanation for how he managed to do it, either. There is no explanation for why Edward met with the church vampire. The "mystery" is extraordinarily stupid and essentially nonexistent. Those are just the problems I can think of off the top of my head. The book isn't quite as bad as I may make it sound. It was vaguely enjoyable, which is why it gets two rather than one star from me. But I don't understand how anyone could give it more than three stars.
Rating:
Summary: If Anne Rice had a sense of humor...
Review: Ok, Hamilton is not the Dickens of Horror. She isn't even the Stephen King of Vampires. Frankly, she has too many flaws to rank a five star rating for this book, maybe a three. There are loose ends that she ties together shabbily, whole parts of plot overlooked - what about Caroline? We see her for only a few pages, then she gets a brief mention a couple of other times, toward the end, like an afterthought. The reader needs some explanations. While Hamilton's writing can be sophoric, her creations are worthy of praise. She is setting up a world, even explaining parts of it as she goes along. She introduces ghouls, vampires, zombies, wererats and we read them as a statement of fact. They simply co-exist in the world. Some fear them, others worship them. Hamilton's world is exciting to read, yet at times, not given enough background or description. For a fresh look at the vampire theme, she ranks five stars. This is a fun world to visit and poke around for a few hours.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: I've read the first 5 books in this series, and I have to admit that I'm hooked. When I first picked up this book it was out of curiosity while looking for something new to read. Anita Blake is funny and witty, and says things I wish I had the guts to say to people's faces. The characters are all well written and you feel like you've stepped into their lives for a few hours. I'm not saying the book is without flaws, but it's a good quick read.
Rating:
Summary: 3 Stars Plus 1 For Wanting-More Quality
Review: A shock, if you're used to aesthetic or brooding vampires. Refreshingly down-to-earth, and what a DIFFERENT earth! This book -- and the series -- is good fun, laced with mysteries and preternatural critters galore. Groaners aplenty for fans of the easy pun. Anita Blake is a hero unparalleled. She may be scared witless throughout, but action conquers fear and Anita most definitely reigns. Guilty Pleasures (a more apt title, I've not heard!) is the first book in an open-ended series. Not a serial, each book stands alone, but like most others, reading in sequence is recommended. Hamilton's characters mature as you go, she doesn't set them up on pedestals and doesn't give in to the compulsion to explain everything. (For example, book nine focuses on a major recurring character and at the book's end, we STILL know almost nothing about him!) First person.
Rating: 
Summary: Fresh, funny, scary
Review: This is a wonderfully fresh take on a somewhat tired genre. Imagine a female Spencer (cf. Robert Parker) turned loose in a world in which vampires, zombies, were-creatures, and ghouls really exist. Hamilton's originality and creativity even prompted her to have the Supreme Court recognize the constitutional rights of vampires, so that staking them is a crime. It was one of those few books to which that the old cliche about "not being able to put it down" really applies. I stayed up until 2 am the first night and then woke at 8 am to finish it. A fun combination of the vampire and female PI genres that really works. Although the violence is a little over the top, it is still highly recommended. N.B.: One of the fun puzzles in the book is trying to figure out just what kind of critter Anita is: She has super-human reflexes and prefers the dark. Is she a vampire? Presumably not, because holy water doesn't burn her and she can wear a crucifix. So what's up? Hamilton has the good sense to keep you guessing.
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty Sins
Review: This is quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. To begin with, the story is blase, the world is never described, even the main character and her "powers" are not properly explored. The writing sounds like a cross between a smarty pants teenager with the fantasy of a nine year old wrapped into a very uncreative roleplayer who wanted to make a one-dimensional character fly into our hearts. WRONG. Even the writer losses her own consistency. Halfway through the story, I'm reading of the events taking place through a Saturday, and what happened to the characters earlier that morning was described as happening the day before. Am I the only person with it? How could the author and the editors have missed such a thing? All the characters actions were misplaced and the reasons, unmotivated. If you want to bore yourself, and spend the 7 bucks it takes to read to the witless dialogue and waste the rest of your time trying to grasp the very underdevloped world of Hamilton's, please go to the library, or else you'll hate yourself. I instead suggest sitting infront of the TV on Tuesdays and watching some Buffy. It's a much better portrayal of the supernatural, with smart, intelligent characters and writing to boot.
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