Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton Series: ,
Publisher: Berkley Trade on August 3, 2004
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy, Vampires
Pages: 355
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Purchase: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads
Rating:
"My name is Anita Blake. Vampires call me “The Executioner”. What I call them isn’t repeatable.
Ever since the Supreme Court granted the undead equal rights, most people think vampires are just ordinary folks with fangs. I know better. I’ve seen their victims. I carry the scars…
But now a serial killer is murdering vampires—and the most powerful bloodsucker in town wants me to find the killer… “
In a world where vampires, zombies and werewolves have been declared legal citizens of the United States, Anita Blake is an “animator” – a profession that involves raising the dead for mourning relatives. But Anita is also known as a fearsome hunter of criminal vampires, and she’s often employed to investigate cases that are far too much for conventional police. But as Anita gains the attention of the vampire masters of her hometown of St Louis, she also risks revealing an intriguing secret about herself – the source of her unusual strength and power.
Okay, so I want to try this new thing on my blog. I have had less and less time to read books this past year and it’s been hard to maintain the average 3 reviews per week I strive for. So I thought I would start reviewing the books I read before I started blogging. The ones I never got to review. I am not rereading these books. I am rating and reviewing them based on memory, which I often remember a lot about books I have read no matter how long ago. I don’t know if I am going to make this a feature, or give it a name like Old School Reviews or A Look Back Reviews or Before Blogging Reviews (can anyone think of a good name?). But I always wanted to share my past books with you guys but new books always took over. So it’s all working out in the end. These won’t be as detailed as my main reviews because I can only remember so much. So, here we go:
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When I first got into reading again with Twilight (yes, I liked it when I first read it, don’t judge!!) I started looking into books that were similar but for adults. And in my searches I found the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series. Mad obsession followed. When I first read Guilty Pleasures, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I loved the gritty, dark nature of the story and characters. The action was amazing and the descriptions were detailed. But it was the characters that drew me in. Anita was the original badass. You can’t get much tougher and rougher than her. I loved reading about a woman who could take care of herself and kick a lot of ass. Then Jean-Claude was all sorts of yummy and dangerous. Then we had Edward, the psychopath who kills psychopaths. Honestly, Edward is one of my favorite characters of all time. He is creepy but efficient. I also remember the story being in-depth and interesting. I just loved pretty much everything about this book.
However, I do remember it being SUPER heavy in descriptions. Like it took forever to get to the main plot because apparently we had to know every detail of Anita’s house or what a vampire was wearing. It didn’t bother me then, but I know better now. It was too much and it slowed the pacing. I would have given this book 5 stars when I first read it, but I am taking half of a star for the heavy detail.
I don’t know how much my review/rating would change if I read it today, but I know that I have reread a couple books in this series a few times and I still loved those books just the same. Now, a warning, this series gets super sexual in later books and the plot suffers greatly for it. I have stopped reading the series, but I am still fond of the first 10 books or so. Those are still worth the read.
Melanie Simmons (@mlsimmons)
You have to give LKH credit for one thing, she doesn’t leave out details, that is for sure. I know what you are saying about those. I remember when I first starting reading this series, making fun of the fact that I knew what color sock and the color of swoosh on her Nikes. On one hand, I like the descriptions of the people, I can always remember everything about each of her characters, where some other authors, I might not even remember hair color. But do I really need to know the color the swoosh? Great review from memory!
Jennifer Bielman
You are so right. Out of all the books I have read, the characters in Hamilton’s books are the ones I can still picture to perfection.
braine
I loved the first three books but then fans of the series were in the consensus that the series went downhill so I stopped reading it. Do t want to waste time reading something I will eventually dislike. But yeah, the first one is awesome!
Jennifer Bielman
I liked the first like 8 I think. Then it went down hill for me. Too bad too. Such a great start to a series.
Carrie
I think this is a great idea of going back and reviewing previously read books. I have a ton that I didn’t review but I’d have to re-read before reviewing them. I remember the story and whether I liked it or not, but not enough to give an honest review. I have no ideas for names for you though. I like “A look back” though.
I have heard of this series many times and I never did read them, but the idea sounds great and if I’m not mistaken, I may own some of these books. I should hunt them down (pardon the pun). BTW ~ I’m a huge twilighter too, so I would never judge. LOL Loved the books can’t stand Kristen Stewart.
Jennifer Bielman
Ugh, Sterwart ruined Twilight! I do think the books were not the best written but I had fun with the story.
Brandi Breathes Books
I loved twilight too, so should look into this
Jennifer Bielman
It was a good first few books for sure.
Nikki
Love, Love, Love this series! I’m only up to the 18th in the series. I have to go back and re-read every so often to refresh my memory. But I absolutely adore the earlier books.
Jennifer Bielman
I am happy to hear you are still reading this series. I did read until like book 16 or 17 too. I had hoped the books would start getting better like the first books.
Melliane
oh yes the first books of the series were awesome. It’s one of the first UF books I tried in French and one of the first I tried in English too. But the last ones… they’re not that good but it’s ok now. But not amazing. We’ll see, I keep hope lol.
Jennifer Bielman
Wow, that’s cool. I really hope these books get better as the series goes on. Happy to see someone continuing this series.
laura thomas
I love this series and can’t remember if I wrote a review for this book. I like your idea. There are so many books I read before I started reviewing that I’d like to talk about.
Jennifer Bielman
I always wanted to review my old books but Braine from Talk Supe had a similar idea and she actually implemented it, so it gave me courage to do the same.
Jaclyn Canada
I had to stop reading the series too, but I loved this one a lot. I thought I had found the next best thing too. Anita is fierce and I enjoyed Edward a lot too. Great review! Jaclyn @ JC’s Book Haven.
Jennifer Bielman
Anita and Edward were really amazing characters. I want Edward to get his own series.
Aarati
No judgement here. I loved the Twilight series initially too. In fact I’ve read the book numerous times, but if you ask me now I’ll stay far far away.
I wanted to read the Anita Blake series, but I’m not so sure anymore. There are SOOO many books!!
Jennifer Bielman
Yeah, now, when I read Twilight, it’s not so great. But a few years ago I was obsessed.
Heena Rtahore P.
I’m looking forward to starting this series 🙂
Jennifer Bielman
Yay, awesome!