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It did create a fantastic world that I am looking forward to reading about more in the future. Guilty Pleasures is the first book in the Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series. But when the local vampires decided that they want her to investigate some vampire murders, she learns that they will go to any lengths to get her to do what they want.I've never read any books by Laurell K. But on it's own, it was just alright. Overall - A really good read. Hamilton, although I've been meaning to for quite a while.
I liked what I saw of him, but there really wasn't anywhere near enough of him for me to get a good feel for him. The protagonist, Anita, is a necromancer with a real hatred for vampires. Those of my friends that are huge fans of this series have mentioned one of the characters, Jean-Claude, many times to me. When you read a lot of books in this genre, you hear her name a lot. So I finally am trying her out.This book does seem to be a good set-up for a great series. Hopefully his character will be explored more in the next few books.
Not a favorite, but I have a feeling that the series will just get better.
It was so bad, I couldn't finish it. Ok. She's described as being more masculine than feminine -- that's quite an understatement, as I never rememeber recalling any feminine characteristics about her other than she's a woman -- and yet we're supposed to believe she's this undead sex magnet. Maybe I was put off by the numerous grammatical errors I found within the first few chapters alone. She's rude to everyone, even the things that are trying to kill her.
The next thing that bothered me was Anita. I absolutely cannot stand to not finish reading something, but it was just that horrible. It was ghastly. To me, she's just a Mary Sue character -- flawless and stronger and more capable than everyone else in the book. I only read half of this book.
She's this super-strong no-one-can-beat-her mortalish thing, with no frilly female characteristics to make her undesirable, except she's smoking hot. That part probably bothered me the most. Her attitude is horrible as well. You shouldn't be distracted by miuse of words or lack of punctuation while reading something for leisure.
Later on in the series it's no secret that she sleeps with everything on two and four legs. Someone lent me this book and told me I'd love it. I have to be honest. Every time she's faced with an adversary, instead of thinking about her situation and how to get out of whatever predicament she's in, she says the most rude thing she can off the top of her head to her enemy and then remorses over the fact with an "Oh, oops.he's mad now. Maybe I shouldn't have said that." I have no problems with masculine or dominant female figures in a novel, I just think Anita was poorly thought out. She sounds like she came fresh out of a man's fantasy. Her unkempt and mutilated body. I wouldn't finish it if my life depended on it.
I don't know where to start. I never got sucked into the story enough to care what happens. Where is this attraction coming from. Hamilton went to painful lengths to make sure to tell us about how most of her body is covered in battle wounds. Ok, so not everyone likes her and it can be argued that she has "flaws." Still, to her character, these things don't matter because she believes she is better than everyone else. I can't even say I'd recommend it to even the most die hard vamp/urban fantasy fan.
I have started reading it and at first found it a little hard to get into, and a little confusing in spots, but once you get used to the author and her style then it gets easier. I just received this product along with the 2nd and 3rd books. They arrived here VERY quickly, and I am stationed with my husband in South Korea so its a big (and rare) deal if you get things fast. I had been reading one author for about a year straight so it was just different to get into another authors style of writing. I like it alot so far and I'm looking forward to reading the next 2 that I've bought.
The trick is figuring out exactly when to STOP reading the series and move on to better things. Where to start with the Anita Blake novels.Well, as you've probably read by now, it evolves dramatically over the course of the series. My advice has been not to bother after "Blue Moon" (the eighth book), but other people advise stopping as early as "The Killing Dance" (the sixth book).Regardless, "Guilty Pleasures" is the first book and definitely worth the read. Anita Blake begins as a tough-as-nails character who is juggling her preternatural crime busting with her "day" job of raising zombies. Later in the series she evolves into some sort of sex fiend who can't go more than a few hours without having graphic sex with multiple partners or she'll die. Although it is an introductory book and thus has to spend a lot of time introducing central characters that will become pivotal later, it's still an interesting read as well as an intriguing mystery.Most of the negative comments on this book (aside from those that can't seem to get around the fact that this is an introductory book) revolve around the apparent inconsistency of the Master Vampire that forces Anita to solve the murders and then seems to spend her time attempting to "break" her. Personally, I saw no inconsistency as I assumed from the start that a Master Vampire would be, by definition, power hungry and manipulative.
It just didn't work. How did this happen.Why is it that Nikolaos goes through a lot of trouble to recruit Anita to solve the murders, and then she spends most of the book tormenting her. I was also turned off by the many incomplete sentences and her many one-word commentaries to herself, like "riiiight". First of all, regarding page turning: I get the appeal of short digestable chapters, but these are too short. After reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels, I was looking for other modern vampire novels and was hoping I had found a whole series with this one. Especially now that I read some more reviews and it looks like he ends up being only one member of the many love triangles, squares and whatnot in the later books. How did she become such an expert, and also so know-it-all at age 24.Also, in this universe, as another reviewer also noted, how is it that vampires are "legal" if they are clearly so dangerous. Why does she hate vampires.
I just did not believe this character and her motives. This is the first book of the series where the universe should be really well defined, and we should learn more about this character than we actually do. While Ms Hamilton did create a page turner, I was disappointed by the book overall. Did she survive 1,000 years with this type of temper and short-sightedness. The character of Anita Blake didn't seem real enough to me. Why does she do what she does. Hamilton started something interesting with Jean-Claude, but not enough for me to keep reading.
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