Laurell K. Hamiltion

Why does the corporation which has just hired Anita want her to raise the whole mass grave when a few would probably do? Where do all the rogue vampires hide before they try to kill Anita? See some new, unique kinds of vampires and see what Anita’s power as a necromancer can do to the newly undead. Ask yourself the question, what kind of Daoine Sidhe names a bar and grille Bloody Bones. I did!
short explication by Flora Greywolf

--The fifth book in the Anita Blake series which began with Guilty Pleasures. Someone wants to hire Anita to raise an entire graveyard full of zombies. A daunting task for any animator. Impossible for most. But the client is most insistent, and Anita promises to at least investigate the possibilities. The further into it she looks, the less wholesome it begins to seem. And at the same time, Anita is assisting in the investigation of the brutal slayings of several teenagers who were killed and dismembered in the woods near by. Anita doesn't like it, but when it starts to look like vampires are involved, she is forced to call on the help of the only vampire powerful enough to help her: Jean-Claude. The tension between Jean-Claude and Anita hasn't eased a bit, but as the situation escalates, they are forced to work together.
--Strigoaica

Well, this one lasted about 5 hours on a first read-through and I’ve read it three times already! Will Robert the Vampire’s child be a vampire? Will it have Vlad’s Syndrome? How on earth is his wife going to cope now? Edward the body-guard? Better yet, Richard and Jean-Claude allied against Marcus and acting together as co-body-guards? Will Richard have to kill Marcus to win pack-leader status as everyone from the King Were-Rat to the were-tiger thinks? How ever did Jean-Claude get proper measurements for the outfit Anita wears to the full-moon meeting, anyway?
Short Review by Flora Greyolf

Rave by Stigoaica

--The sixth and sexiest book in the Anita Blake series. Anita "I don't date vampires, I kill them" Blake is dating two monsters; a position she never thought she'd be in once, much less in duplicate. She is in love with Richard... school teacher and alpha werewolf struggling to gain dominance in his pack without giving up his eagle-scout values; but she is also dating Jean-Claude, the master vampire of the city of St. Louis. Yeah, Jean-Claude blackmailed her into dating him on equal terms with Richard... but now she isn't sure which man she should ultimately choose. Seeing the cold, easy way she is able to kill to preserve her own skin juxtaposed with Richard's morals, Anita is starting to wonder which one of them is ther real "monster".

Anita's life is never simple. She's got her hands full helping keep Richard alive despite his good intentions; trying to cure a disintigrating 600 year old vampire named Sabin; and worrying that her good Catholic parents may have found out she's dating a master vampire... but she doesn't expect assassins to start coming out of the woodwork. Someone has put a contract on her life to the tune of a half a million dollars. Anita had thought all of the folks who might want her eliminated that badly were dead already, and she can't figure out who might be behind the contract. The police frown on the bodies that are piling up around her, but she can't tell them the truth; and until she can get to the source of the money the killers will just keep coming. Meanwhile, working together to keep their mutual girlfriend alive is putting a lot of strain on Anita's boyfriends. Richard is more than a little jealous, and seeing Anita and her undead beau together nearly pushes his control to its limits.

Perhaps age has granted him patience, but for whatever reason, Jean-Claude seems quite comfortable with their situation, despite all indications that Richard has already won her heart.

I didn't have to see Jean-Claude's smile to know it was there. "Oh, you are on your own with ma petite. She is my human servant, so declared before the council, but she answers to no one."

"You seem proud of that," Sabin said. His voice was British and very upper crust.

"She is the Executioner and has more vampire kills than any other human. She is a necromancer of such power that you have traveled halfway around the world to consult her. She is my human servant without a mark to hold her to me. She dates me without the aid of vampire glamor. Why should I not be pleased?"
(page 2)

For Jean-Claude fans who think we've seen precious little of him in the previous books, The Killing Dance is a treat. He's in just about every chapter, and while Richard is busy losing his cool, Jean-Claude gets himself into some steamy situations with his dangerous lady-love. If you've enjoyed the rest of the series, don't miss this one. If Anita's world is new to you, don't miss these books. (The first book in the series was Guilty Pleasures.)

Review by Strigoaica

Just re-read this so I can put something on here and Man, It's been a year since an extremely exhausted Susan read this! I read it last year right after it came out while on planes from Brisbane, Australia, to Las Vegas. I'd forgotten the little sub-plots.

Anita is helping not the police this time, but the fire department. They've got a pyro on the loose and need all the help they can get. Richard is losing his control over himself because of a burning self-hatred of his beast. Jean-Claude just looks sexy. Anita has to take on the leadership role for the leaderless were-leopards as well as truly fulfull her role as lupa for the were-wolves. Several members of the vampiric council have come to town to check out the newly powerful Jean-Claude and his triumverate.

The Traveller has no corporeal body -- he inhabits other vamps. The Master of Beasts leader of another triumverate, but he and his were-leopard and human aren't nearly as powerful as the JC/A/R team. Asher, Jean-Claude's old compatriot, is representing his master. He wants Jean-Claude dead because he saved him instead of Julianna, his human servant when they were taken by religious fanatics a couple hundred years before. Yvette is a rotting vamp who wants to feed off the misery of terrified individuals, and *boy* does she like Jason. Were-rat and RAT is Fernando, sadistic son of Padma, Master of Beasts and he manages to quite easily gain Anita's antipathy.

Will Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard live through the visit? Will Asher forgive Jean-Claude? Who's burning down buildings? Can Anita be a true lupa and leopard-leone to the weres if she'd not even a lycanthrope herself? Read and Find Out!

Review by Susan Stepney

I usually have to meet someone at least once before threatening to kill them, but I was about to make an exception.

Reading this on Hallowe'en, being interrupted by trick-or-treaters, was a surreal experience...

A few books back Anita Blake killed Mr. Oliver, a powerful member of the vampire Council. Now the council has come to town, suspicious of why Jean-Claude won't take his seat with them, the seat that Anita unknowingly won for him. They put Jean-Claude and his human servant Anita through a series of gruesome trials, partly to determine the truth, partly for their own sadistic pleasures. And there's a firebug on the loose, too.

Very little of the original police procedural format, of Anita battling the monsters on behalf of the police, remains. Now she mainly battles monsters on behalf of other monsters, who are seemingly less monstrous -- maybe more 'human', certainly more complex -- as she gets to know them better. And that's straining her relationship with the police, too.

The changes in Anita herself through the series continue here. Her attitude to her scars has reversed: she used to cover them up, now she aggressively displays them. And initially pretty much a loner, she has taken on personal responsibility for Jean-Claude's vampires, Richard's werewolf pack, and now a pack of wereleopards, too. And her relationship with Richard and Jean-Claude is threatening to tear her up. [There does seem to be an obvious resolution to this choice -- but presumably her attitude to relationships hasn't liberalised sufficiently, yet.] Her life is getting really complicated.

Rating: 3
[ unmissable | great stuff | worth reading | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

Very Richard & Anita intensive. Anita has regained some of the personality she'd lost in the last one. When Richard is arrested on suspicion of rape aveyone's response is that they'd believe murder of him before they'd believe rape. So, the whole 'mystery' that Anita has to solve is why and who is framing Richard. She also has to deal with a 'healthy' pack and getting both her pard and her pack to be 'healthy'. She also manages, within a very short time to thoroughly scare a vampire, Master of the City (read: territory), who feeds on others' fear.

Secrets about Jean-Claude are revealed that might even explain the personality deterioration of both Richard and Anita, not to mention how and why Jean-Claude is so much stronger than the council remembered. By the end of the book, much of Anita's personality began to return, though that could be mere illusion. One thing she hasn't even started to lose is the moral degeneration that dealing 'with the monsters' so intimately has affected in her.

Anita goes to New Mexico (Albuquerque and Santa Fe...) to help Edward and meets her next (I'm sure) nemesis... Also, the ancient Aztec vamps are cool, but I sure as HELL wouldn't have gone on the stage with the were-jaguars... No Way!!!

Plus... imagine Edward, of all people, having a sweetie and being a near-dad!

I couldn't find a decent scan of the first UK cover (the one with the face...) nor a single foreign language edition, even one with the same cover image. Dangit!

The series goes from mystery-based with some soft-core descriptions to some not-so soft-core sex scenes and less mystery-based as Anita get deeper and deeper into the were-worlds. Up to now she only had sex with her college sweetie, Jean-Claude (The Killing Dance) and Richard (Blue Moon). In this book we introduce another party: Micah! Seems to me that's the entire reason for this book; there certainly isn't much plot advancement.

Nathaniel calls from a S&M/B&D club for lycanthropes run by Narcissus, a were-hyena. We meet Were-swan (swan-manes and a swan-king, not to be confused with the cursed-swan-prince from book ... 4?), a were-fox, were-cobras, were-bears, were-... ah, hell a lot of new were-kinds. And is it possible that there's a Pan-Were? Dolph loses it. Anita, Richard & Jean-Claud contemplate "marrying" the marks for more power. Metaphysical sex. As if this book and the ones following it didn't have enough highly-detailed sex scenes where both parties enjoy a bit of pain with their pleasure. The true beginning of the decline of the Anita Blake series.

Anita gets the ardeur and her sexual morès go out the window! The council has come calling and Bella wants Jean-Claude & Asher back and thinks she's got ownership rights through Jean-Claude to Anita and her powers. Boy does she have a thing or two to learn.

A creepy guy whose dead-eye stare is as good as her own asks Anita to raise an ancestor and next thing she knows two international baddie are tailing her. There's a non-pack werewolf lose in Saint Louis and Jason is a suspect -- because Dolph just hates the monsters. Will Anita have sex with Asher to keep him from having to pleasure a pain-loving vamp who looks like a walking Barbie-doll?

Another book that was sorely in need of an editor's blue pen. The story is still interesting, when the sex doesn't get in the way. Poor grammar, excessive typos that proofreaders should've caught, overuse of "favored" near-infantile phrases and, of course, excessive and excessive-ly detailed sex.

This one seems to be half of a book... It doesn't have quite the closure for the current "plot" the previous books had. Most of the book is vampire politics and sex but the current "plot" is the rogue kiss loose in St. Louis. By the end of the book, if this were an entire book, this rogue kiss would've been dealt with. As it is, they're still on the loose; not very Anita-ish.

Jean-Claude's territory has been metaphysically invaded by a rival master (through a Trojan-Horse-vampire) who wants to weaken him (The Dragon). Also with the current triumverate's powers growing and the introduction of another triumverate with Anita smack in the sexual middle to throw what little balance they had right out of whack things are just starting to get interesting when the book ends.

What is "achieved" is Nathaniel goes ;). Lots of new sexual partners for Anita are introduced. And I want to know more about the two new vamps that Anita met at Malcolm's! What's going to happen with the un-mastered vamps loose due to that wonderful vampire church? Dammit! Need some closure though think her publisher should assign a tougher editor to keep the sex and so forth in check!

Well, back to paperbacks. At least we can get it hardback from the Doubleday book clubs like The SciFi Book Club. Anita has to fly (she hates to fly) to Philadelphia for an animating job and has to take food (ardeur has to be fed) -- so Micah comes with. This book is VERY short. Here's the amazon.com (slightly edited) blurb:

Equal portions hot sex and supernatural crime fighting—with a dollop of old-fashioned male-female melodrama— served up in a world where were-animals have their own crisis hotline. Filling in for a colleague, Anita travels to Philadelphia to reanimate a deceased federal witness, accompanied by Micah, her wereleopard lover. The jaunt serves as a chance for them to share some rare one-on-one time—without any of her five other lovers around—which Anita fears is not necessarily a good thing. Even worse, since her magic energy has grown unexpectedly strong, she suspects this won't be your run-of-th e-mill animation. A good entry point for the uninitiated, this offering provides further insight into both characters and their universe. A bonus excerpt will whet fans' appetites for the 13th full-length novel in the series, Danse Macabre, coming this June.

I liked this series better with just the steamy un-requited lust, not the "hey, it's been 10 pages, need a highly detailed oral-rich sex scene" we've had since Narcissus in Chains. I like Nathaniel (yum) and wish Micah would grow a personality (this book kinda helps), but think just the love triangle (classic!) of Anita Jean-Claude Richard was plenty. And the "excerpt" was HUGE. I've been to her website LaurellKHamilton.org and read the rest of the available teaser for the next book and as an English-speaking person with a degree (granted, it's an Associates Degree (second major)) in English, I hope her copy editor goes nuts. Bad grammar, mis-spellings... it wasn't well written, though it does have the "gripping" focus we all love in a LKH book.... Now just to wait til June.

There is much here to offend more conservative readers, but if you aren't repulsed by a liberal dose of sex and violence (and violent sex), it is an engaging and entertaining read.

In her role as supernatural detective, Merry and her band of guards and lovers are faced with investigating mysterious mass deaths in California, despite resistance and prejudice from local authorities. In her role as would-be queen to the sidhe, she continues to investigate her convoluted and perilous political position, to nurture alliances, to consolidate her power base, and above all to try to get pregnant (which is, after all, the only way to actually become Queen and thus survive).

The mystery sub-plot is jerkily developed, and insufficiently realized. The focus of the story has definitely shifted to Merry having sex in more ways with more characters, for a multitude of purposes. Very little happens in this book without being in some way tied to sex. However, LKH continues to develop her playground: the world of the sidhe grows in richness of history, detail, and intrigue. For this alone, the book would be a worthy addition to the series.

Do NOT read this book if you didn't like the first, or if you are conservative about sex or violence. Do read this book if you have a high tolerance for these topics and are looking for entertainment.

Meredith is quite an interesting character. As a female you can't help but be sucked in to wishing you were in her shoes. On an average day she has 5 lively, handsome, men at her side willing to please her in any way she wishes. Two at a time even. As the book unfolds she ends up with even more lovers. The men will leave you breathless, and wet.

Although this is the 3rd book in the series so far it was the first one I've read. I am actually ordering the first two and the next one now. I'm hoping they are all as tingling as this one.