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Review: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton
Filed in Laurell K Hamilton , Review , The Winged Lover Posted on February 21, 2011 @ 11:00 am
13 comments
Format Read: Paperback
Number of Pages: 266
Release Date: 1 October 1993
Publisher: Jove Books
Formats Available: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Book, EBook
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon
Blurb:
When St. Louis’s most powerful vampire comes to Anita Blake for help, she is faced with her greatest fear-a man capable of arousing in her a hunger strong enough to match his own.
My Thoughts:
I can’t believe I waited this long to start this series. It is awesome!
Anita Blake is a necromancer, which basically means that she can raise the dead, making zombies. With vampires out in public, Anita doesn’t have to hide her powers because seriously what’s more scary, a vampire or a chick that can make zombies? Anyway Anita makes her living by raising the dead for legal reasons, sometimes poor Auntie Mabel dies without leaving her fortune to anyone, so Anita is there to raise them long enough to make out their final will.
Anita is approached by Jean-Claude, a vampire that she has a somewhat awkward relationship with. Anita seems to have an unusual attraction for Jean-Claude, and he tries everything within his power to get her to let down her guard against him. Anita kills vampires, she doesn’t hook-up with them, even if they make her forget what she was doing, and always manage to illicit a reaction from her.
Anita is one of the best Urban Fantasy heroines I have read about. Not only doe she talk tough but she can actually back up her claim. She is known throughout the vampire community as the executioner because she isn’t afraid to get hurt if means she will get her kill. Anita has a platoon of weapons including – but not limited to – holy water, guns, stakes and knives. She gets jealous of Edward, an ally and fellow vampire hunter, because he apparently has a bazooka and a flame thrower.
Anita refuses to cower behind others and that is what made me instantly fall in love with her. People cower behind her, even men. Anita is smart, brave and extremely cool in her mannerisms and techniques and she stays true to what she makes out to be and lives up to that hype.
Although Anita tries to convince herself that she hates him, I loved Jean-Claude. He is so suave and confident, even when Anita humiliates and mocks him he never seems to lose his edge over others. Feared and respected Jean-Claude is the third most powerful vampire in the city and he makes sure people know it without being too over-confident and annoying. It is a trait that can only be respected because he doesn’t really have to do anything for others to cower at the mention of his name, yet Anita is the only person he sees regularly that isn’t scared of him. It keeps him grounded and likable.
Guilty Pleasures is definitely one of the stronger books in this genre and I urge anyone and everyone who has ever had a fascination with vampires to read this book.
I give Guilty Pleasures 5 out of 5 Bookies
***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review. FYI I bought this book with my own funds.
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If you are going out to buy a bunch of Anita books now, I strongly urge you to stop at book 9. The series…..evolves into paranormal porn around that time.
Lots of fun until then.
Yeah, I agree with draconismoi – untill the seventh and eighth boook, it's an amazing series, but after it… well, sometimes it's too much for me to take the erotic scenes.
But I love Jean-Claude, too 😉
Unfortunately, I have to agree with the previous commenters. This was one of my favorite series. I absolutely adored it. But the books that came after Cerulean Sins were basically vampire porn. I would definitely recommend the series up to Cerulean Sins, but don't read past that.
I haven't read this series before. I will take everyone's suggestions about the later books to heart. 😉
Stacie
GeishasMom73 on twitter
I liked the early Anita Blake books too and Guilty Pleasures was a good read.
However, then came adeur and don't get me started. After Narcissus In Chains I couldn't stand it any more. lol
I haven't read LKH since.
Great review!
I haven't read LKH…. But I think if I do, I will definitely keep every's opinion in mind!
I love this series, up through Naraciss in Chains, after that it gets too much into the soft-core porn realm, for me. My favorite character, who you won't meet for a while is Jason, one of the strippers at Jean-Claude's club. (Yeah, partly cause we share the same name.)
I have to agree with everyone, and add that's it not even good porn. 🙁
What I love about the first 5 books is the kick-ass story lines. The books are 80% story and 20% sex. After that the percentages flip . I've kept with it though, and she is now getting back to the main story arc.
Agree, agree, agree. Anita starts out so promising. She is a strong, determined, loyal, take-no-prisoners necromancer. Then the ardeur changes everything. (Sigh.)
After this review, I'm gonna to put Guilty Pleasures in the top of my TBR pile XDDD
"With vampires out in public, Anita doesn’t have to hide her powers because seriously what’s more scary, a vampire or a chick that can make zombies?"
…I would be scared of the zombies… D:
XD
I loved this book and this series at first, but the later books, well there are not words. (shakes head in disappointment).
Still, I hope you enjoy the series, and you never know, maybe vamp porn will be your thing.or not.
Anita Blake! ♥ It´s just so amazing series! I love all books which I read although I have to say that I love first 5 books more then the next ones…
When I read the Guilty Pleasure for the first time I was so excited that I couldn´t sit in calm xD I was actually jumping from my chair 😀 xD I think it would be really funny if someone was watching me 😀
I enjoyed this book a lot, because at that time it was something new for me. From the beginning I loved Anita, I think she is great character because she is not trying to please anyone. I read an interview with Laurell K. Hamilton about Anita as character and I loved it. L. K. Hamilton was talking there how many fans wrote her how Anita changed their life and that they are more self-confidence. I think that it´s really awesome!
Anita will always be my favourite and all books from this series will remain forever in my bookcase♥