Nothing to feel guilty about (Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K Hamilton)

Member Name: blackviolets

Product:	Guilty Pleasures - Laurell K Hamilton
Date:	08/08/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good story and characters. not too much blood

Disadvantages: the ending didn't go off with a bang

I'd like to congratulate myself on reading and completing my first vampire novel. I am very wary of this type of fiction, mainly because blood sucking doesn't really appeal to me. However with a lot of books I read, it all depends on the first two pages. In this case they made me want to read on, hence the reason on why I am determined to hunt down other books by Laurell K Hamilton.

The Anita Blake series has 17 books in the collection, first published in 1993 with Guilty Pleasures as the introduction to her life working as an Animator.

Guilty Pleasures is a vampire strip club where all of Anita Blakes troubles start off when a supposed friend gets her there under false pretences. All things monstrous are not fantasy here, vampires, ghouls even wererats are about the place.

Not that anybody can say anything as the city where they live has decided that vampires are now classed as legal citizens, things are a bit different when there are vampire murderers wandering around. Especially when she is being blackmailed by the master of the city, Nikolaos, into finding out who is doing it.

Anita has already pointed out that she doesn't work for vampires full stop, prefering to stick to her work as a zombie raiser. Bringing back the dead, questioning them for legal reasons concerning wills, murders or any other necessary information. She is also a vampire hunter so the 1000 year old master knows what she is dealing with.

This is such a good book to read if you want a book involving vampires. Whilst it includes all the usual fangs, blood and throats being torn out that you'd expect it isn't over the top with how much is written. In that there is more to the story than to what the main characters are. In fact it's more based on the solving the crime side of things than anything else.

It contains a wide range of characters who are easy to determine as to if you should like them or not. She also writes about three different types of vampires. You have the charasmatic, charming and manipulative ones, the visious and brutal kind and then the few that have only recently been bitten. Those who are still getting to grips with the new powers they have.

I've only recently come across Anita Blake and that was only because it was the recommended section and I liked the look of the cover. Smashed lightbulb covered with cobwebs-maybe not all that interesting when you think about it but it caught my eye.

Anita is a strong woman, highly sarcastic and knows that digging her nails into the palm of her hands is a quick fire way to cause herself enough pain to snap her out of a spell which has been put on her. Even the idea of a man carrying her to her bed is enough for her to say the words which symbolises everything about her personality. She hates to feel so helpless.

It's an easy to read book which you can pick up and not feel confused about where you've gotten up to. Although it's not exactly packed with amusing moments it does have a fast moving plot, there's always something going on. Building up with tension till you get to the final and you can't wait and then...it's a bit of let down.

It's as if Hamilton ran out of steam and put all her effort into the beginning and middle before thinking about how to finish it all off. That's not to say it isn't good. It's still captivating and it does tie up the loose ends without giving a final conclusion.

Like any good series started Hamilton has described the characters well enough to make you want to read the following books. I am personally intrigued as to whether Jean Claude, a highly charasmatic vampire, will become-involved with Anita as there seems to be a kind of attraction between himself and the animator.

You can get it for £5.50 from Amazon but £7.99 from all good book shops!

Well worth the money, especially if you're a newbie to the vampire way of life.

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