Book Review: Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

Review: Guilty Pleasures
Series: Anita Blake – Book 1
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
No of Pages: 266
Release Date: 1 October 1993

In the novel that introduces Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, the monster she’s sworn to kill becomes the man she can’t live without...

My Thoughts:

I can’t believe I waited this long to start this series. It is awesome!

Anita Blake is a necromancer, which basically means that she can raise the dead, making zombies. With vampires out in public, Anita doesn’t have to hide her powers because seriously what’s more scary, a vampire or a chick that can make zombies? Anyway Anita makes her living by raising the dead for legal reasons, sometimes poor Auntie Mabel dies without leaving her fortune to anyone, so Anita is there to raise them long enough to make out their final will.

Anita is approached by Jean-Claude, a vampire that she has a somewhat awkward relationship with. Anita seems to have an unusual attraction for Jean-Claude, and he tries everything within his power to get her to let down her guard against him. Anita kills vampires, she doesn’t hook-up with them, even if they make her forget what she was doing, and always manage to illicit a reaction from her.

Anita is one of the best Urban Fantasy heroines I have read about. Not only doe she talk tough but she can actually back up her claim. She is known throughout the vampire community as the executioner because she isn’t afraid to get hurt if means she will get her kill. Anita has a platoon of weapons including – but not limited to – holy water, guns, stakes and knives. She gets jealous of Edward, an ally and fellow vampire hunter, because he apparently has a bazooka and a flame thrower.

Anita refuses to cower behind others and that is what made me instantly fall in love with her. People cower behind her, even men. Anita is smart, brave and extremely cool in her mannerisms and techniques and she stays true to what she makes out to be and lives up to that hype.

Although Anita tries to convince herself that she hates him, I loved Jean-Claude. He is so suave and confident, even when Anita humiliates and mocks him he never seems to lose his edge over others. Feared and respected Jean-Claude is the third most powerful vampire in the city and he makes sure people know it without being too over-confident and annoying. It is a trait that can only be respected because he doesn’t really have to do anything for others to cower at the mention of his name, yet Anita is the only person he sees regularly that isn’t scared of him. It keeps him grounded and likable.

Guilty Pleasures is definitely one of the stronger books in this genre and I urge anyone and everyone who has ever had a fascination with vampires to read this book.

Also in this series:

The Laughing Corpse

Circus of the Damned

The Lunatic Cafe

Bloody Bones

The Killing Dance

Burnt Offerings

Blue Moon

Obsidian Butterfly

Narcissus in Chains

Cerulean Sins

Incubus Dreams

Micah

Danse Macabre

The Harlequin

Blood Noir

Skin Trade

Flirt

Bullet

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