So, Anita Blake. There's quite a few other Anita Blake reviews I've written already - check out that review link up above to see more. I have a love hate relationship with her. About a year or so ago I decided to read her books over again from the beginning & review them all, and read until I couldn't stand them anymore, taking breaks as needed. So here I am.

I'm still at the point where I mostly like the book. I'm even giving it four stars. There's a decent amount of plot, some sexy scenes but nothing over the top like in later books. There's the usual amount of describing all the clothes bit which drives me bananas, but again, not as bad as in later books where all Hamilton writes about is clothes & sex.

My biggest issue with the book - and why I'm not giving the book 4.5 stars - is the baddies in the book just aren't scary, like, at all. I know part of my problem with the bad guys is I know in every single Anita Blake book the bad guy is described as the scariest bad guy ever - which is exactly how Anita describes the bad guys in this one. Ugh. Really? Every one? And she's just so full of herself and everyone fawns over her. I repeat: Really? Ugh.

Of course, everything wraps up just in the nick of time at the end, and the books are so quick to read it's over before you've realized you've even started reading, so that's a plus too, especially this time of year when everyone's so busy.

But, the world building is great, and I still like Anita, and I'm still interested enough in the series that I'll read the next one, though I'll give it a bit again. I'm kind of interested to read the downward spiral, honestly - a bit of hate reading I guess. It's going to be fun to nitpick the later books, which is why I'm going to keep going.This review was originally posted on Rambling Reviews