A serial killer is hunting the Pacific Northwest, murdering victims in a gruesome and spectacular way. The local police suspect "monsters" are involved, and have called in Anita Blake and Edward, US Marshals who really know their monsters, to catch the killer.
But some monsters are very real. The Harlequin have been the bogeymen of the vampire world for more than a thousand years; they are a secret so dark that even to speak their name can earn you a death sentence. Now they are here in America, hunting weretigers, and human police.
The Harlequin serve the Mother of All Darkness, the first vampire. She was supposed to be dead, but only her body was destroyed. Now she needs a new one, and she's decided that Anita Blake's is the body she wants. Edward thinks the serial killings are a trap to lure Anita closer to the most dangerous vampire they've ever hunted. The vampires call Edward "Death," and Anita the "Executioner," but Mommy Darkest is coming to kill one, and possess the other, and she doesn't care how many others have to die along the way.
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So yeah. I can't say that I loved this book. I can say that I had high hopes. SUCH high hopes. I remember when Laurell first revealed that this was going to be an Edward heavy book and I did a mental happy dance. Edward? Such a great character! I loved Obsidian Butterfly (old I know - but I'm just saying!) and I figured that with him featured in this installment things couldn't be too bad.
But see, this is a great example of how I can in fact be wrong sometimes.
The whole thing was just 'eh'. I felt like nothing happened until the last chapter and then that was so anti-climatic I just sat there going "That's it? That's really it?" with a look of confusion on my face. Luckily only one person was recipient of my 'less than pleasant' texts about the whole thing. I'm not even sure what's happening here because I was never one of those LKH fans that sat there wringing my hands because Anita started going out and having explicit sex. I still liked Anita, I liked the small - small - harem she had going on at that time, and I didn't feel like it detracted from the overarching storyline.
And I wouldn't say that it was sex in this book that detracted from the overarching storyline. I just felt like the storyline was a little lackluster in the first place. Everything was too easy and got wrapped in neat little bows that just left me wondering why I'd read the book in the first place.
Which made me sad. Because at one point I really loved these books and sat almost frothing at the mouth in anticipation of the next one. Sigh.
Still, are you by chance looking for something to perk up your expereince while reading this book? If so I'd HIGHLY recommend you go check out the 'Hit List Drinking Game' on ALPHA reader. It has such gems as:
"Anita has sex with a gorgeous stranger because the ardeur needs to feed and said guy is somehow down-trodden/outcast/misunderstood etc, but he appreciates Anita's blatant arousal of him (she likes me, she really likes me!) - CHUG!"
I almost feel like I should reread Hit List just for a chance to play along!
Overall Feeling - Eh/Thumbs down
Series - .... 20) Hit List
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In case you missed it, you still have almost a full day and a half to enter my Young Adult Giveaway!!
