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Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I picked this up with low expectations. And it was as infuriating as I expected it to be. I've been an Anita Blake fan from the beginning and have been along for the ride for years. And as the series got more character driven and less plot driven -- less and less substance, action and suspense, more and more sex and introspection -- I stuck with it stubbornly.

Like someone else already said, it's like a train wreck, you simply can't look away. But this book felt so much like a filler in between stories, that I am debating if I will get the next book in the series. But then again, train wreck!

There are numerous plot bunnies. But they never lead to anything. They raise their heads and then Anita briefly jumps into action (oh joy!), to then devolve into self-doubt, strangely placed morals, lots of anguish, thinking, wondering, mental mulling over anything and everything (oh no!), to then let is all go to engage into lots of sex with everybody in reach (again!). Rinse and repeat several times through the book.

The last three pages of the book then hurriedly tie up a few loose ends, including summaries for some of the plot bunnies.

I wonder -- if there was less pointless obsessing by Anita and more elaboration on the plot bunnies, we actually might have had a suspenseful, plot driven, action packed and fun to read Anita of old. I love character development, it'sm important and without it even great series eventually go stale. But a little storyline with some action would go a long way to keep me going!

As it is, this is not satisfying. It's a lot of hot wind and very little happens at all.

But because I'm a sucker and hope springs eternal, I will probably get the next book. Maybe there will be a story? With an Anita that is less whiny? Please?

A Lick of Frost (#6 of the Meredith Gentry series) by Laurell K Hamilton

From Amazon:
"Princess Meredith NicEssus of the Unseelie Court finally reaches an elusive goal in Hamilton's seductive sixth Meredith Gentry paranormal romance (after 2006's Mistral's Kiss). Half-human, half-faerie, Meredith is a former L.A. PI whose current full-time job is trying to get pregnant—trying at least three times a day, in fact, mainly with her devoted retinue of sex-starved guards—to insure her ascendancy to the Unseelie throne of night. Unfortunately, her bedding schedule has been interrupted by Lady Caitrin of the Seelie Court, who claims she was raped by three of Meredith's guards. Meredith must protect her faithful retinue from the terrible wrath of her uncle, King Taranis of the Seelie Court, and defend herself from the dangerous desire Taranis harbors for her. Hamilton depicts Meredith's erotic adventures in her usual breathless, overheated style, but also reveals a deeper glimpse into Meredith's introspective side as she reflects on her favorite lover, Killing Frost, whose strange fate finds her re-evaluating the costs of being a future queen."

Deeper glimpses? Not sure. I mostly read these books for the sex... ;-)

I am not exactly sure why I keep reading it--besides of the sex I mean. Pure stubbornness, most likely. I just want to see what happens next. The storyline is pretty far fetched, but I still buy into it more than into the magic described in Stolen (see my previous review). Also my imagination gets a great workout, trying to picture the outlandish looks of all of Merry's bed companions. I even pre-ordered the next book, Swallowing Darkness, on Amazon. It's supposed to be available here in November.

Which brings me to another topic. I have been surfing the BC forum a bit and have also scooted around on BookMooch and LibraryThing and noticed--not sure where exactly it was--that quite a few people seems to heavily dislike Amazon. Someone even described them as hell-spawn or something equally demonic. Why is that? Here is a question for my friends:

1) Do you order from Amazon? Why do you or why don't you?

2) Where do you get most of your books?

3) What do you do with your books, when you have finished reading them?

I obviously have thoughts on why Amazon might be perceived as the devil, but I am keeping them to myself for now. I want to see your answers first.

Blood Noir (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #16) by Laurell K Hamilton.

This is the 16th book in the series. The books have changed a lot over the years. They started off as your run-of-the-mill vampire hunter novel, tough heroine, nasty bad guys, lots of sleuthing, crime busting, general fighting and monster slaying. Eventually the books lost more and more of those standard items, the characters went through lots of changes in the process, it got more gory and more sexual as time wore on. Lots of fans didn't like that and stopped reading at some point. Others came to it later and some die-hard fans like me just stuck with it, despite lots of bitching about the amount of sex and the lack of plot in some of them. I have been with this series for so long, I just don't want to miss what happens to Anita. I already ordered the next book, number 17.

Blood Noir does have a plot and the usual heavy smothering of sexual encounters. The gimmick of the doppelgaenger in this one was a bit lame in my opinion. It worked for the plot, but can we expect people to really be so stupid that they repeatedly don't get it? I am not convinced. I missed Jean-Claude in this one. He is my favourite character besides Anita. And I could have done without Richard. I really, really do not like him. And I wish Hamilton would kill him off already. But I guess that's really a no-go with him being part of the triumvirate with Anita and Jean-Claude. He is just such an idiot, I just groan as soon as he appears on the page. I like Nathaniel and Jason is growing on me. This book gets an 8 out of 10 from me. Maybe even a 9. Better than the last 2 instalments. I am actually looking forward to Skin Trade, the next title in the series.