Yes, my vamp-romance reading is still happening! I bet you thought I'd have given it up by now!
The latest series that I've been tackling is the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K Hamilton.
Initially, I read a short story involving the Anita character and so tottered off to the library to find more. My favourite librarian (yep, have one of those, too!) gave me her summary of the series....it's 'can't put down till about book 9 or 10 and then becomes smut!'
Hmmmmm...so with that in mind, I embarked on the Anita reading adventure.
The first couple of books in the series were exactly how my fave librarian described them. They are seriously 'can't put down' material. Anita is a vampire hunter and animator (in her world, that means that she raises zombies to help usually with legal or family information). Now being a vampire hunter, naturally she has serious misgivings about the 'monsters' as she calls them and is even called in to help the police on numerous investigations into 'preternatural crimes'. What she doesn't expect, however is to start developing feelings for the local Master Vampire of her city (St Louis).....one hunky if undead vampire named Jean-Claude. The problem becomes that she also happens to fall for another yummy 'monster' who is the local werewolf king. So along with catching the bad guys, she also starts to realise that some of the monsters aren't really bad. In fact, some of them are down-right sexy!
So, read onto book 9 or 10 and you start to see why my librarian was in a bit of shock. Anita, who managed to avoid the 'come-ons' of so many of the hunks for so many books, suddenly has no choice but to give in. And let me tell you, give in she does! But to be fair to Anita, if you are prepared for the fact that her character does an about face on morality throughout the series, then you can probably live with it. Anita remains her flippant self throughout and at book 12 (which is currently where I'm up to), she is still chasing bad guys and helping the police out. In fact, if you love Anita's dry sense of humour and Hamilton's style of writing then I think that on some level (ie ignore the smut!) they still remain can't put down books. The only tip I'd give is to read them in order cause without that, it could be hard to follow some of the developments.
At the moment, I am ploughing through them. I'll let you know when I've finished.
Footnote: After having read book 12, I have to amend my opinions above! Book 12 is exactly what my librarian described! Gratuitous sex scenes and a total character turn around. Don't it if you aren't into shock value either. I really had to force myself to read it for the most part. I do feel a loyalty to the character but honestly this book and the bit I've read of book 13 are so hard to get through. :(
