I can't remember what books I was buying when I was at Waldenbooks when a stranger walked up to me and looked at what I was buying, told me if I liked that type of author that I would absolutely love Laurell K. Hamilton. I have to admit, I was quite skeptical, but since the first two books were extremely well priced I bought them and took them home. I didn't touch them until I finished reading what I had bought (I can't believe I've forgotten).

When I first started reading Guilty Pleasures it made me itch. I didn't think I could sit there and read it. The first chapter about killed me, but since I have reread it I don't know why. It may have been because this was a completely new author, a different writing style than I'm used to, or something else that I'll never quite realize.

The chapters in Guilty Pleasures aren't long, but they are good. There isn't any formal introduction right away about what's going on or even who the heck Anita Blake is, perhaps that's what I'm used to, being introduced to the characters. You get pulled in slowly, kind of like fishing (you, the reader, are the fish) and the next thing you know the book is over, the case is solved and you are still hungry for more.

This book introduces you to Anita's world full of Vampires, Shapeshifters, Magic and more. The things that occur in this book are what shapes who Anita becomes later on, who she is forced to be. It is a foundation on which the other books have built and you can't just pick up in the middle of the series and expect to know what's going on.

There are several reasons why I like Anita. She seems like a real person. Laurell did something wonderful when she created Anita. I can actually feel as if I went to St. Louis that I could run into this woman on the street. It's absolutely amazing what I feel when I read about her 'life' and the things that are going on. There are times where I felt angry when she was angry because I'd be angry about being woken up by the phone after only two hours of sleep as well. Who wouldn't? That's something normal people would be angry about. I can also see myself relenting to being designated driver for a friend's bachelorette party.

I enjoy Anita's bluntness. She let's you know she has no clue as to what you are trying to tell her, she lets you know what she thinks and what she's going to do about it. There are very few times I have seen her hesitate. If she's going to shoot someone, she shoots them until they are dead. Yes, the books are violent and filled with gore, don't let the kiddies read them.

The first book is a great introduction to Anita's background, her strengths and weaknesses, her personal morality and it gives you an insight into how the series may progress. The first book is also a good length, it's short and to the point. You get introduced, you get hooked and you go buy the second book. I've enjoyed reading it more than once, as I have the others.

Throughout Guilty Pleasures you learn the rules of dealing with Vampires, never look into their eyes or they can enthrall you. There are laws protecting the vampires from the humans and vice versa. There are, of course, loop holes along the way that are exploited.

While becoming familiar with Anita and her life, she's also solving a case and trying to stay alive while doing it. You'll get to go on adventures with her in every book and they will keep you entertained, enthralled, in fear. So if you like horror, romance, thrillers and mysteries, you should enjoy these books. They have sex, violence, blood and magic, again, don't let the kiddies read them. So start your adventure with Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in book one - Guilty Pleasures.

I wanted to write down my first impressions of this novel. I received it as a christmas gift and I think it's absolutely perfect. The cover shows Sidonie, Dauphine of Terre d'Ange on the cover dressed for the Longest Night as if she were the Sun Prince. For those of you who have kept up on this saga, and have read Kushiel's Scion, you'll know what the outfit is all about. If you don't, reread Scion and you'll understand right away.

I'm about half way or perhaps slightly more through the book and I have a very hard time putting it down. I am trying to take my time reading it, forcing myself to do things in between, but it is quite difficult to do so. I've always loved the imagery that Jacqueline Carey creates with her writing. This book is no different.

In this piece of the saga you continue to follow Imriel de la Courcel through his impending marriage, a love affair and magic that is new to him. He may have broken the one precept set forth by Blessed Elua and in doing so he and Sidonie may have to pay for it, how I don't know yet, I haven't gotten far enough.

What I do know is that while there isn't any adventure in first several chapters of the book, there is love and danger, blessings and curses that keep you turning the pages. Phedre and Joscelin accompany Imriel on his trip to Alba. Eamonn and his Skaldic shield-maiden (wife) Brigitta return to the story. Hyacinthe has made a decision regarding the powers he holds as Master of the Straits. Adventure begins as Phedre and Joscelin make there way to their destination to do what they came to decide with Hyacinthe regarding the pages of the Book of Raziel. This book is still about Imriel, though and I am sure it will continue to follow him as he tries to make Alba his home, to try to love his wife and, of course, tries to be good.

I am going back to reading again. I hope you have the courage to read this saga, starting at the beginning of course, with Kushiel's Dart.

Kushiel's Justice prevails, as I predicted it would. Imriel goes through many emotionally wrought travails in this novel. I finished it last night, or rather early this morning, just before 1 am. I couldn't put it down, after what happened when he and Sidonie went against Blessed Elua's precept they were punished, or rather, the Albans were punished in my opinion. I thought it was harsh and cruel and I didn't know what to think. I felt huge amounts of sympathy for the Albans and I wanted to strangle both Imriel and Sidonie.

Imriel has grown and so has Sidonie. Maslin has changed as well and will become a diplomat in a new young country. I wonder how many more crazy and dangerous adventures it takes for people to think they are cursed and Imriel tends to think he is with all the horrible things that have happened to him throughout the past couple of years featured in this novel. He and Phedre suffer from bad luck, being in the wrong place at the right time and a lot of people usually end up dead or exiled. Luckily those who end up dead or exiled usually deserve it. This one the one person I truly liked and thought that would make a difference in the future ended up dead.

I can only tell you so much without ruining the entire story and for this I apologize. I wanted to cry, I wanted to laugh, and at times I wanted to throw the book across the room. That's how I know that this novel is worth reading and the saga is worth my continued devotion. If my reaction had been any less, then I'd have to finish as quickly as possible with the next book to find out what happens next and possibly move on. But I won't. I will continue to read the story of Phedre and Joscelin and now Imriel with his Sun Princess.

I don't know what else to say about this novel. It was obviously a great read if I finished it in the time I did, trying to take my time and do other things in between reading it. I couldn't put it down last night, I had to find out what happened. Imriel had a quest, Phedre and Joscelin were doing something with the Book of Raziel and weren't there to help him. There was a war that was missed by all three of them and that's strange because usually they are in the middle of it somewhere.

Again, if you haven't started this saga, don't read this book or you'll have no clue as to what's going on. Start at the beginning with Kushiel's Dart.

Joie to all and remember to Love As Thou Wilt.

Book 2 of the Anita Blake saga, The Laughing Corpse, won't leave you in tears laughing your pants off. It will make you shiver and shake in fear if the main killer creature in this book were real.

Anita's schedule is filled with a killer zombie, a queen of voodoo, attempting to keep the master of the city arm's length away and attempting to keep doing her job as well without being killed for it.

If you can't stand gore, I suggest you not bother with this series. If you can handle gory movies like Saw and its like, then you can handle this book. People get torn apart, children get eaten, it's that horrific. If this book were reality I'd never live in St. Louis or anywhere else crazy supernatural things like this happened, but with my luck they'd come to me.

The Laughing Corpse is a comedy club owned by the new Master of the City, Jean-Claude. Anita doesn't know until she chooses it as a place to meet him regarding his so-called claim on her as his human servant.

Alas, if this were the main story of this book, it would have been a pleasurable read, not that it wasn't mind you, because it was. Anita kicked ass and took names. She saved a womans life and probably a few families' lives as well. This book gives you the reason as to why she wishes to be cremated at her death and I sympathize with her.

Anita also gets to meet up with the Queen of Voodoo, Dominga Salvador, the woman no one would ever piss off and looks so sweet and grandmotherly you'd never think she was filled to the hilt with evil. She creates zombies and puts their souls back into their rotting bodies, of course, the body stops rotting when she does that, but still, who would want to be replaced in their dead body? Not I.

Dominga isn't thrilled that Anita refuses to help her in her enterprising business and sends along a few things to entice her, or perhaps just kill her, she was pretty pissed off about it. There's a lot of violence in this book due to the main creature that is killing people, ripping them to shreds and eating them. I advise you again to not let the kiddies read these books. They'll end up with nightmares.

The book is still quite the pageturner it was when I first read it, I finished it in a day and started book three, the Circus of the Damned, again. I have read over half of it already and will be posting a review as soon as I have reread it. Yes, I love these books. Honey keeps harassing me to read something new. I will, but for now I want to finish off these books quickly and post the reviews of them. I hope those of you who ran out to by Guilty Pleasures also bought the Laughing Corpse as I recommended, if not, run out and get it today or click on the Amazon box to the right to get your copy through them. There are new versions of these books out with new covers, they are wider, thinner and I really liked the new designs. I hope that if you do take the time to read these books that you enjoy them as much as I have.

Ahh so I finished Circus of the Damned and I am still secure in my love for Laurell's writing. You feel everything that the characters do, when they laugh you may get the giggles, when they cry tears fill your eyes. When they are hurt, you feel their pain and root for them to win over the bad guys.

Edward, known as Death, is after Anita again for the daytime location of where the Master of the City, Jean-Claude, sleeps during the day. What he doesn't know is that Jean-Claude is the Master of the City, so she lies to him and tells him it's someone else, someone who has been leading a pack of vampires and killing innocent humans.

Ok, so the humans they are killing aren't so innocent. They are members of a hate group called Humans Against Vampires and the pack is using them to help turn things back the way it was in the olden days where vampires weren't known about. Even if they could, I think it's a little too late since everyone knows about them, don't you?

Anita meets a vampire who's so old it makes her bones ache, he could possibly be 1 million years old, but no one will truly ever know. He controls snakes and Anita gets to meet a Lamia (half woman/half serpent) creature that tries to turn her against Jean-Claude.

You'll be disappointed in Anita at first with this book, but she comes around and gives a hell of a fight and just about dies trying to help others survive. And oh yeah, Edward uses his trusty flamethrower, you don't want to miss that!

So enjoy Circus of the Damned. Meet the hate groups against vampires and other non-human creatures (they even try to go after Anita). Meet Anita's new partner in animating, Larry, who's so green you'd want to kick him back to the college classes he should be retaking.

As were the first two, the third book of the Anita Blake saga are page turners, again I finished it in a little over a day. I am off to the fourth book for your pleasure, the Lunatic Cafe. Yes, it's a cafe.

I love the new covers that came out with the current prints. Can't decide which ones are my favorite though. Go enjoy Circus of the Damned, already!

Nice name for a cafe, don't you think? The Lunatic Cafe is a haven for shapeshifters to hang out and act like normal humans, but there is nothing normal about them. Anita gets in thick with the local werewolf pack and meets a few other interesting shifters as well, including a swan, who turns out not to be a shifter, but a human cursed by a witch centuries ago.

Shapeshifters are being kidnapped and some are being skinned, others are being hunted, one was killed by their spouse. I never did find out why. Perhaps he couldn't deal with being married to one of the monsters? Lycanthropy is considered a disease, there is no cure, but there is a vaccine. You can get it from a bad batch, just like you could get the flu from a flu shot but at least with the flu shot you wouldn't turn furry once a month.

Jean-Claude is back at it again with Anita as well, sexual harrassment simply doesn't cover the description and I'm shocked she hasn't killed him yet, but then again it is hard to kill someone you love, even if it is only in a dark twisted corner of your heart. He convinces her to allow him to start dating her since she is dating his possible rival, Richard the beta werewolf of the local pack.

There is so much for Anita to deal with, you'd think two men wanting to date her would be enough, but no, she almost gets eaten by one of the weaker members of the pack, she gets to kick some major ass of those who are hunting shapeshifters and she ends up with a certain someone's "pelt" encased in glass on the wall of her living room.

These are the details I can give you without ruining the story. She runs into another immortal creature, witches, and figures out who is making snuff films for Edward to go after. He seems to enjoy being around her being as she provides people, or rather supernatural creatures for him to kill.

Enjoy the violence all you want, be thrilled it isn't real.

Rawhide and Bloody Bones is going to get you if you're a wicked child. And he got them, too.

Anita Blake goes up against more than just your average vampires in this novel, she also goes up against a faerie and a nursery boggle named Rawhide and Bloody Bones. Everything that can go wrong, does. Anita gets captured by the Master of Branson in this story. Jean-Claude isn't strong enough to save her or protect her.

I don't know how to explain this story, it certainly kept me turning the pages. I read it in under 24 hours if you take out the time to eat, shower and sleep. It all starts out as an innocent zombie raising to settle a legal dispute between someone who bought property from a family that didn't own it, yet the court decreed that they did. So if it turned out that the bones dug up during construction were found out to be of a family plot of the people who did own it, the person doing the construction was going to have to buy it all over again, and that isn't going to happen because the family refuses to sell.

The family turns out to have fae blood running through their veins. Anita finds out what it's like to be around a faerie who's attempting to place a glamour on you. Larry's with her in this epic adventure and finds out what it means to work with Anita, not only as an animator, but also as a vampire hunter. It's sad to see him lose his innocence so quickly.

Anita also finds out there's a new quirk to her necomancy that is completely unexpected, although it was rumored possible from ages of old. The power over the dead doesn't just mean human, it means vampire. Anita raises a vampire, completely on accident, but it saved her life all the same. She doesn't get any time at all to even think about how it happened or why after breaking free.

Jean-Claude loses his coffin somehow when he makes the trip to help Anita make overtures to the Master. They steal his coffin because he didn't follow protocol. When he goes to retrieve it they dump it out in front of him from a back, broken and shattered to pieces. Anita sees what it really means to be a vampire during the day. She watches Jean-Claude slowly die as the sun rises and starts to reconsider her theory that vampires truly are dead.

Follow Anita as she tries to catch a killer and pedophile vampire, finds out what death really is, and almost falls into the seduction of Seraphina, Master of the City of Branson and her ghosts. Watch her find the link between a losing battle and defeating Bloody Bones.

I'm almost done reading the next book, the Killing Dance. Review will be up after I finish it.

Anita is on the run in this book, when Edward calls her up and tells her that he just received a contract on her head. After your heart starts beating and you can breathe again he tells her he has turned the contract down. He's decided that since he tends to kill more people around Anita he'd rather keep her alive than kill her and that means he needs to get himself to St. Louis in order to protect her from whatever the man with the money finds to replace him.

Anita almost gets taken out twice. Once in her apartment before the call from Edward, a second time at the new dance club owned by Jean-Claude, Dance Macabre, and again later on in the story by someone she put her trust into and genuinely liked.

Anita survives, so read the book. She sees Richard with his pack, becomes officially his Lupa without becoming a shapeshifter after proving herself to two of the wolves that she is dominant to them. Anita promises to protect them and they return the favor by trying to watch her back during the time of the contract.

Jean-Claude gives his protection to Anita and makes her a guest at the Circus so she will be underground and protected, surrounded by both wolvs and vampires. No hitman would want to go through that many bodies to get to anyone, especially when they all have supernatural strength.

The bond between Richard, Jean-Claude and Anita becomes magical, and not just metaphorically either. They create a triumvirate for the first time in this book between them. Anita becomes closer to Richard and has convinced him to kill Marcus instead of letting him live. She knows Marcus won't back down and will try to play dirty in order to kill him this time around.

There's another triumvirate in town, but I can't give you too many details, as that would give a lot of the story away. Gabriel, the scary were-leopard and Raina, Marcus' Lupa, both make a very horrifying appearance as well. The pages keep turning, the action is non-stop whether Anita is running for her life or falling in love.

Honey kept telling me that I had to read this book, that I would like it. In a way I did and in other ways I didn't. The story kept you going because you wanted to find out the details of what was really going on and you wanted to find out who the killer was. When there are many suspects and nothing specifically pointing to a particular one, you may end up getting yourself killed.

This book was like that. It wasn't a fast read for me until I was halfway through and I wanted to get through it so I could know who killed her and why and who was she really. Martin is a good writer from what I read in this book, he provided sketches of two of the ships in the book as well, which helps when going through the motions with the inspector.

Americans and Russians working together is something that happens, the joint venture was good for both sides and just because of that you knew someone had to screw it all up. Someone wanted to play spy, another was a killer, some were drug smugglers. You didn't know who was reporting to the KGB, you didn't know who was going to support the inspector.

All in all, it may have taken me a bit of time to get into the book, but it was definitely worth the sit down.

The Hero and the Crown is an older fantasy book, published way back in 1984 when Fantasy and Science Fiction were thrown into the same category because the books were so extremely rare. They were also such a tiny genre of the publishing industry that the publishers would pretty much take anything they could get because they knew there was a guarantee that it would sell, and it did. There were a set number, around 40K, of people who would buy fantasy and science fiction, and they'd buy anything they could get their hands on. Every now and then this number grew as more and more people became fascinated by the worlds these authors created. Now the genres are explicit, the lines are drawn, and it's no longer considered simply 'speculative fiction'. It's still fairly easy if you have a good start with magazines and short stories to get published in SciFi or Fantasy, but once you are in, it's extremely hard to get out and try new things.

The Hero and the Crown was a good story. The problem with me is that it wasn't well written. I stumbled over a few things through the book. The timeline was quite irritating as it would start out one place and the heroine would start thinking of another and the author would then enter that time. The book is short, only a mere 227 pages yet it took me forever to read it. I've read other books three times as long in a much shorter time period.

I think it would be amazing if someone actually was able to take this story and rewrite it. Give it more depth, more color, more of a streamlined approach. Music artists re-do each other's songs, why not have authors rewrite older fantasy and science fiction novels to give them a better go around the second time? I can see a huge issue regarding copyright and so forth, but what if the author (or the author's descendants) gave permission as long as they received some form of compensation for rewriting the story? There's another book that was written before this that does have to do with it, called The Blue Sword, but I highly doubt that I will ever bother to read it. If the writing in that book is anything like The Hero and the Crown then there's no way I'd bother to read it.

I do understand that fantasy and science fiction writing back that long ago was new and exciting, but that doesn't mean you should make up words for the heck of it, causing some people to pause and attempt to think as what you are attempting to describe. Unless, of course, there's a description to go with it. In fantasy, maybe people think of Medieval Times, so it would be msuch easier to refer to food from that time period if you were discussing a meal. Sometimes it's easier to go with what is known rather than to create your own words for (at the very least) food to get the story moving. It's very rare that a meal is so important that you have to create a whole new type of food anyway.

I can understand creating different words for creatures, but to me a wolf is a wolf and a bear is a bear. Makes things that much easier and you can always concentrate on other things going on in the story. Make the creatures or monsters that your main character is fighting against the fantastic things that can't possibly be real. Then I can believe it.

Besides, in the story a dragon was a dragon, so why couldn't a wolf be a wolf and a mountain lion be a mountain lion? Perhaps now you understand my point.

I've got to admit that I had to start over reading the Wheel of Time series when I bought the newest installment Knife of Dreams because when I started reading it I couldn't remember anything from the previous book. When I decided to try re-reading Crossroads of Twilight, again that happened. So I went back to Winter's Heart. When I had issues remembering from there I decided to reread the entire series. I am currently on Lord of Chaos.

It's odd how when I start to reread a series that I remember everything from the beginning but not from the most recently read books. I don't understand how that works, but that seems to be the way of it for me.

The Eye of the World starts you on a journey with four young people from Emond's Field and takes you on an adventure with them. Another from home joins them on the journey, completely unexpected by them, but needed by the Pattern. There are dangers from every shadow and every turn of the page. In this book, people who thought things were myth learn otherwise and meet fantastical creatures and their worst nightmares. At first it's simply a battle to be able to return home and becomes so much more, a battle for sanity, a war against darkness.

The intricate details with the people involved in the book it's amazing. You truly get to know the characters you are reading about. Not just their strengths and weaknesses, but you also learn their fears, their loves and their needs. It's the absolute strength of will that keeps them from being swallowed by the Shadow and engulfed in darkness.

It's easiest to read such a long saga like this one straight through as much as possible. I have always had problems waiting for the next book to come out because by the time it did I would have to reread the previous one.

There is even a role-playing game that has been created for this series for those who wish to experience this fantastic world in another way. I've personally never played it but I know those who have. If you enjoy the saga and enjoy the different characters, you should look into it and find a group with credibility. Enjoy!

Even though I had never read any of his novels previously I knew Orson Scott Card was an amazing writer. I had bought two of his creative writing help books (Elements of Writing Fiction - Characters & Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing) & How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (Genre Writing Series)) which were great because of the way they were written and because he didn't tie you down to writing in a specific way. I've been wanting to read some of his books for quite awhile and recently we went to Paperbacks Unlimited in Santa Rosa to see if they had any that could be added to our collection of 2, previously to that we hit up Borders to buy Ender's Game and we already had Children of the Mind.

Surprisingly they had the two other books we needed to complete the original quartet. I devoured Ender's Game. I absolutely love the way Orson Scott Card writes. You simply join in with the story from a couple of different angles. One view is Ender himself, another view are the people who brought him to the Battle School hoping he is the Earth's salvation and then you get to see what's going on with his family, specifically Valentine and Peter.

The way the story goes you root for Ender to overcome his obstacles, you hope he doesn't crack and go insane under the huge amount of stress that is put on him during his years in the Battle School. He is separated from the group by just a few statements from the man that brought him to the Battle School and ends up being friendless for awhile. He does what needs to be done, what is required of him to accomplish and attempts to make friends. Everytime things get better for him they uproot him and force him to start all over again.

Finally he is given a short reprieve and returns to Earth for a few months. The officers use his sister to convince Ender to go on, to save the Earth, although she does love her brother, she also sympathizes with what he's going through. They are as close as brother and sister can be. Ender goes on to the Command School in order to learn how to command the fleet that will take out the Buggers and eliminate the threat they pose to humans.

This is where I will stop regarding Ender's Game. If you want to know more, simply grab a copy at Borders or order it from Amazon (Ender's Game). You'll follow Ender to a new colony, learn what his dreams mean and find out how he becomes the first Speaker for the Dead.