Skin Trade

That's ★★★ when compared to the drivel that precedes this instalment in the series and ★ overall. I keep hoping the series will get better, because I like(d? past tense, possibly) Anita Blake, but that's probably not going to happen. My interest in Blake, her story, and the decisions and choices she makes, keeps me reading in spite of the rubbish writing. sigh

I kept saying I was giving up on Hamilton's books, then giving her just one more chance as each novel came out, hoping that at some point she'd give up the porn and write real novels again. With this volume, the effort is finally vindicated.

Don't get me wrong–there's definitely sex in Skin Trade. Sex with yet more new men, even! But it doesn't start happening ‘til well into the book, and when it does occur there's a lot more justification for it than at some times in the past. It's still explicit, and there are still likely to be more than two people in any given bed at a time, but if any of that squicked you, you wouldn't be reading any of her work.

The book nearly earned four stars, but there were a few plot holes that bothered me too much to forget them.

Since Anita gained the ardeur, this series has been in my eyes mainly about sex and less about the story. I stopped reading the Anita Blake series because of that, ending with Blood Noir. My brother convinced me to give Anita another try so I picked up Skin Trade and was pleasantly surprised. Laurell Hamilton has finally gone back to having a strong base storyline and plot. The first few lines of this book instantly made me hooked, having Anita receive a head in a box was proof enough for me that this novel would be grisly and dark like the original Anita's had been. While there was sex in the novel as it should be due to her ardeur, it was just enough to support the story and not take it over the top. I am really looking forward to the rest of this series now.