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Daffodil

Daffodil's Library

Currently reading

Watership Down
Richard Adams
The Fairy Godmother
Mercedes Lackey
Unshapely Things
Mark Del Franco
Wicked Pleasure
Lora Leigh
Heart of the Wolf
Terry Spear
Stirring Up Strife
Jennifer Stanley
The Perfect Play
Jaci Burton
Deadworld
J.N. Duncan
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James
Midnight Enchantment
Anya Bast
Hit List (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #20) - Laurell K. Hamilton, Kimberly Alexis Much like the series itself, this book started out with so much promise. There was an actual case to work on, even if Anita and Edward already knew the identity of the killers before we the readers even showed up. Edward was present. I even managed to get through all the dead-eye flirting without too much cringing. The writing style itself is still rough, repetitive words/phrases throughout and Hamilton still can't write a good sex scene. I'm not a prude, I like plenty of other author's efforts. I just don't find what she writes sexy or hot. And I could have looked past all that, because it really seemed as if there would be an actual plot to this book.

Then she lost a brownie point for the change in Edward. Hamilton's portrayed him as a sociopath in the past. His kinder, gentler attitude (in an Edwardesque way) toward Anita just doesn't fly. A minor point, but a point none the less.

Hamilton lost a few more points in not utilizing Anita's skills to their fullest. She's a necromancer for God's sake and not once were those talents even thought of as an option. We've been kidnapped. Oh, no! How are we going to get out this situation? Maybe I can give the vampires' animals to call a sense of pack that they're missing. Make them switch sides. Oh, I know. The ardeaur and the marks make me stronger, faster and heal better. It's recently been fed in the obligatory sex scene, so let's use it. Raise the dead? Hold the bodies of the Harlequin hostage and threaten to make them walk out into the sun? No, why would that even occur to me? I'm going to teach apparently incompetent swordsman how to behead vampires simultaneously.

Then I reached the ending and Hamilton lost all her brownie points, in fact her badges were revoked completely. Mommie Darkness is the big bad of the vampire universe, the name used to frighten all the vampire children into behaving, the ... you get the point. And Anita defeats her in just a few paragraphs. What?!? It would be like Harry Potter clicking his heels three times, wishing Voldemort dead and it happening. No final battle, no sacrifice, no cost at all, it just happens. I feel perfectly justified using the HP analogy, Edward brought up the subject first.

I'd like to think I'll sustain this feeling of overall disappointment and be able to give the next book a pass. Realistically, I probably won't be able to quit hoping for a return to better days and I'll once again check it out from the library.