Laurell K. Hamilton

In my defense, I've been trying to make bookshelf space, weeding out books I bought (and read) years ago. But it's hard to part with them--after all, then-me must have liked them for some reason, right? Currently, most of the Anita Blake series is in a box in the basement, but I brought this one up because I couldn't remember when the series finally went bad for me. I'm betting this one was the proverbial straw.

On the positive side, it kept me awake, partly because I was curious if the story started in the first four pages--a hit man looking to raise a zombie--would ever be completed, and partly because trying to figure out if I was remembering this plot or the plot of another one in the series was like a mental itch I couldn't scratch.

Speaking of itching, Laurell Hamilton is a tease, and I don't mean that as a compliment. Anita Blake's ability to raise zombies and her dominating personality made her an interesting character, one of the first female leads of the UF genre. The hook of a human among the supernaturals, working murders with the police was a captivating one, as evidenced by endless entries in the genre since. However, by book (pick any number after 5), it was mostly about Anita and her sexual inhibitions/adventures.

Cerulean Sins goes far down that path of exploring Anita's sexuality in its many forms, with a driving plot in vampire politics and a minor consult or two with the police about various grisly murder scenes. Read if you feel in the mood for some supernatural erotica, but don't expect any actual investigation or character development beyond sexuality. This is about who Anita will take blood/sexual energy/sex from and why, and her guilt about it. Actually, it becomes kind of boring, the erotic equivalent of watching the same car chase or shoot out again and again.

I never realized what a classic Speshul Snowflake Anita was--skills that make an assassin pause, strangely strong necromancy, powers of a vampire servant, an excellent shot, leader of a ware-jaguar pack, enforcer for a werewolf pack--she really does everything in the supernatural world. With the bonus special superpowers of being able to arouse lust in five seconds flat through her magical ardeur powers.



My only excuse is that I hadn't found on-line book clubs yet and was seriously in need of something new to read.



This one goes to the used bookstore, even if they don't want it.… (more)

So far I'm loving this series! Anita is great and I love following her around as she gets caught in the mess of vampires. I thought she was interesting and a very strong female character. Shes going to make a wonderful character to follow during this series and I can't wait to see more of her. My favourite part was how honest she was about herself. She admitted when she was scared but decided to do something about it. I really admired her for that and it makes her a really great character.

I was a little disappointed we didn't get to know any other character besides Anita but I think we'll see more of them in the next books (I hope anyways). I'm interested in seeing if there's going to be some romance happening because there wasn't much (if any) in this one.

The plot was quick paced though at times I found myself a little lost when something wasn't explained as good as it could have been. It was still a great start to this series and I'll be continuing with it in the near future.… (more)