Guilty Pleasures

My first foray into the vampire/paranormal romance genre. I set my expectations as low as possible, and they were well met. I was hoping to find a gem in this genre I knew I couldn't possible like. I had a few nice surprises before, like with Outlander, which turned out to be one of my favorite books of all time. I also hoped at last for a glimpse of something like Mercy Thompson, one of my favorite series of books.

So what did I expect? Well, when you check the reviews and you see the first 100 or so are all women gushing over the mere mention of the word “vampire”, and praising the kick ass girl power heroine who takes no shift from anyone, you get an idea.

But it doesn't stop there. The characters are blend, the story is simple and straightforward. There is nothing in the prose for me to hold on to. This seem to be the most popular book in the genre. It doesn't mean it's the best, but it should count as a good representative.

This feels much like a poor man's True Blood. I tried 2 other books in the genre (Magic Bites, The Hollows), they were also disappointments.

Brief summary

Anita Blake is an Animator, someone who can bring the dead to life for a a little while. Her intimate knowledge of the dead turns her into the go for person a perfect fit for a consultant for the law enforcement agencies when dealing with vampires.

In the first scene, she is invited by a friend of her best friend, who she doesn't know, to participate in a bachelorette party in a vampire strip club. She really doesn't want to go, because she is not that kind of person, but it is for her best friend, so she must endure it. Vampires are out in the world, and society pretty much accepts them as they are, as long as they don't kill anyone.

In the club, she is assaulted at every moment by vampires trying to “hipnoseduce” her. If she looks into their eyes, she is their forever (apparently this is totally legal). She is approached by BillJean Claude, a beautiful and seductive vampire who she isn't supposed to like, but he is so nice, for a vampire. He asks her to help the vampires in a murder investigation. She refuses, he threats her friend. She agrees.

She is taken to see their vampire lord, there she meets Erick a good looking and seductive vampire who is a bad boy, and his progeny, a female vampire who enjoys tormenting humans.

Read 1:51 / 9:19 20%

BLUF: Don't read if you're looking for a thriller. Do read if you're looking for a new series to delve into. It's OK as a standalone, but best for those wanting a new series. (Although, I hear it gets pretty sexual later in the series..)

Brief Synopsis: Guilty Pleasures revolves around animator (raiser of the dead) Anita Blake. Anita does not deal with vampires. In fact, she has killed a couple in the past and, currently, would rather have nothing to do with them. Unfortunately for her, the vampires are looking to hire her to solve a crime the police aren't interested in. (See, Vampires aren't fully accepted at this time. Not quite second class citizens, but not first class citizens either.) While Anita refuses, the vampires counter with an offer she cannot resist. (Spoiler alert, part of that offer is “do or die”.) Anita is not the woman to half-ass her work assignments, but is this a crime she can solve?

I enjoyed this book, which is weird because, thinking back on the book, there wasn't very much action in the book. I listened to the unabridged audio version and the speaker is, by far, the best audiobook speaker I have listened to. She changes the tone for each character and maintains a consistent tempo/volume. (She does tend to make all female parts sounds somewhat the same, with the exception of the main two or three females in the book. It didn't bother me, but I feel compelled to be honest.)

The background takes about a third of the book to set. This is mostly unideal but, knowing that this is the start of a series, it's to be expected. I didn't pay much attention to how the characters were built, but felt they were given personalities and written consistently. I enjoyed the character interactions and adored the main character. She is the strong female character I look forward to having in the books I read. I may have connected a bit too much as she can be sarcastic and easily amused.

Two thirds of the way in this book, they kept bringing up new characters. My memory is not that great so I ended up Wikipedia-ing these characters to help remember who they are and why I should already know them. I should have known better, but I truly didn't expect any of these characters to be the killer... I thought I might as well quit reading at that point – after all, I knew who the culprit was, what else was there to the book?

Here's the truth. Knowing who committed these crimes does not take away the climax. The book isn't truly about finding the killer, but as an introduction to the series. It took me until the end to realize this because I was so fixed on figuring out whodunit! This was genius on the author's part. It keeps the reader thoroughly entertained while establishing the back stories to the series.

I had a friend who passed away who lived to read this series, as weird as this is going to sound I miss her and thought that since she loved them so much I would give this series another chance. My best friend is completely addicted to the series so yet another person pushing me to give them a shot.
One of the things that I loved right off the bat about this book was that all the old vampire clichés are there (they can't go out in the sun; silver, crosses, holy water burns them; sleeping on coffins; etc) More often than not, the author's try so hard to separate their vampires from the typical stereotypes we have associated with them, that they become too much like superhero's and less like what they really are; the living dead. Personally, I found that refreshing. Also, I thought this was a supernatural romance book so I was initially a little let down that there was not dirty stuff.......but I got over that pretty quick.

The ending, I thought, was a little lacking. There was a lot of drama that led up to the last fight scene, and when it came time for her to kill some vampires, I thought Anita took the easy way out. It was kind of a letdown and my actual reaction was, `Really? That's it?' The only other thing I didn't care too much for was the amount of unimportant side characters. There were a BUNCH of them and I found it a little confusing to keep up with everyone. Fortunately, a bunch of them die in this one so hopefully the next book won't have this same problem. (Sorry for the spoiler, but I don't think it gave anything away) Other than those two little things, I really enjoyed this book!! On to book two after work!