Cerulean Sins

Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #11

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Cerulean Sins, the eleventh entry in the hugely-popular Anita Blake series, finds everyone’s favorite vampire hunter keeping house and kicking butt.

Anita Blake is trying to get her life back to “normal” after a break-up with her werewolf lover. She has settled into a pattern of domesticity, which means that the new man in her life, the leopard shapeshifter Micah, has no problem sharing her with Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City. Things are as peaceful as they ever get for someone who raises the dead, when Jean-Claude receives an unexpected and unwelcome visitor: Musette, the very beautiful, very twisted representative of the European Council of Vampires. Anita soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous game of vampire power politics.

To add to her troubles, she is asked to consult on a series of brutal killings, which seem to be the work of something un-human. The investigation leads her to Cerulean Sins, a vampire-run establishment that deals in erotic videos, videos that cater to very specific tastes. Anita knows one creature of the night who has such interests — Jean-Claude’s visitor. But if Anita brings Musette down, the repercussions could cost her everything she holds dear.

Once a sworn enemy of all monsters, Anita is now the human consort of both Master Vampire Jean Claude and leopard shapeshifter Micah. When a centuries-old vampire hits St. Louis, Anita finds herself needing all the dark forces her passion can muster to save the ones she loves.

Anita Blake returns to find hell hath no fury like a vampire scorned.

Genres: Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Fiction

529 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Laurell K. Hamilton is one of the leading writers of paranormal fiction. A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Hamilton writes the popular Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels and the Meredith Gentry series. She is also the creator of a bestselling comic book series based on her Anita Blake novels and published by Marvel Comics. Hamilton is a full-time writer and lives in the suburbs of St. Louis with her family.

Reviews

[Regina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started the Anita Blake series knowing what I was getting into. I had heard the bad buzz, but I also heard that the earlier books were solid good urban fantasy badass heroine writing. And I gotta say, that is true. I loved the first 10 books in the Anita Blake series. Loved them. Obsidian Butterfly ROCKS. The world LKH created in the book is damned scary, gruesome and surprising. I enjoyed the development of Anita from the first few books through books 5-10. Anita progressed, the characters grew on me and LKH often scared me senseless with her gory and gruesome stories. I am hugely happy that I enjoyed 10 books in the Anita Blake series. 10 very good urban fantasy books, not many other series give readers that many strong books. So I am not disappointed that I started the series. Additionally, there have been no cliff hangers, so it is fine to just walk away. And that is what I am going to do. I am going to walk away from Anita Blake because Cerulean Sins is a disappointing read. It is disappointing on so many levels, but mainly I had grown to really like Anita as a character and she is no longer what she was in the first part of the series. What was the plot of this book? Well, there is no true plot per se, perhaps I am just being a stickler for literary guidelines, but there were definitely themes! Here are the ones I identified:

1. Visiting super strong vamp. I know what readers of this series are thinking – didn’t a super strong vamp with amazing abilities from another territory visit in an earlier book (or wait, was it books?)? But this is a DIFFERENT super strong vamp with DIFFERENT amazing powers.

2. The visiting vamp wants to control Anita. Familiar?

3. The visiting vamp tries to get to Anita or see how she will react by threatening “her people”. Hmm, I know I have read this one before.

4. Anita protects her people and pisses off the visiting vamp. Yes, yes, you know this already BUT she does the pissing off in a really new and different way – she has sex with the person she is trying to protect.

5. The cops Anita works with give her a hard time and yell at her. They harass her at the crime scenes. What I don’t get is why do the police continue to call Anita to the crime scenes? Why does she continue to go when they call her? How many years has this harassment and belittlement been going on? I swear, I feel like I have read Anita’s posturing with cops in other books but I could be wrong ….

6. Some bodies are being raised, some general people in the background hate Anita.

7. Anita needs to feed the ardeur. Okay, this is a new theme. Because of the ardeur, Anita needs to constantly have sex and sexual contact and then feed off her sexual partners’ desire. Constantly. All the time. A lot.

8. Anita talks about feeding the ardeur. A lot. With everyone. All the men in her life talk about Anita needing to feed the ardeur. A lot.

9. The ardeur.

10. The ardeur.

11. Oh there is a murder or two.

12. Richard. Ah yes Richard. Anita talks about Richard. A lot. Why their relationship failed. How it failed. The moment it failed. I will let you read the details, I don’t want to spoil it for you.

13. Some silk underwear is involved – I lost track of all the men wearing tight silk stuff.

14. Lots of men need to take care of Anita, help her walk because she is overwhelmed by stuff, but she is still a toughie and wants to have access to her gun.

15. All the men want to have sex with Anita.

So there you have it, the themes of Cerulean Sins. Good-bye Anita Blake. It was a good ride (err….) read for a while there.

[carol. · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my defense, I've been trying to make bookshelf space, weeding out books I bought (and read) years ago. But it's hard to part with them--after all, then-me must have liked them for some reason, right? Currently, most of the Anita Blake series is in a box in the basement, but I brought this one up because I couldn't remember when the series finally went bad for me. I'm betting this one was the proverbial straw.

On the positive side, it kept me awake, partly because I was curious if the story started in the first four pages--a hit man looking to raise a zombie--would ever be completed, and partly because trying to figure out if I was remembering this plot or the plot of another one in the series was like a mental itch I couldn't scratch.

Speaking of itching, Laurell Hamilton is a tease, and I don't mean that as a compliment. Anita Blake's ability to raise zombies and her dominating personality made her an interesting character, one of the first female leads of the UF genre. The hook of a human among the supernaturals, working murders with the police was a captivating one, as evidenced by endless entries in the genre since. However, by book (pick any number after 5), it was mostly about Anita and her sexual inhibitions/adventures.

Cerulean Sins goes far down that path of exploring Anita's sexuality in its many forms, with a driving plot in vampire politics and a minor consult or two with the police about various grisly murder scenes. Read if you feel in the mood for some supernatural erotica, but don't expect any actual investigation or character development beyond sexuality. This is about who Anita will take blood/sexual energy/sex from and why, and her guilt about it. Actually, it becomes kind of boring, the erotic equivalent of watching the same car chase or shoot out again and again.

I never realized what a classic Speshul Snowflake Anita was--skills that make an assassin pause, strangely strong necromancy, powers of a vampire servant, an excellent shot, leader of a ware-jaguar pack, enforcer for a werewolf pack--she really does everything in the supernatural world. With the bonus special superpowers of being able to arouse lust in five seconds flat through her magical ardeur powers.




My only excuse is that I hadn't found on-line book clubs yet and was seriously in need of something new to read.



This one goes to the used bookstore, even if they don't want it.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why I did I not like this book? I suppose it could have been the fact that a once kick ass heroine is now a sex fiend. However, Anita is Hamilton's character, and Hamilton has the right to change the character. I just wish she had done it in a more believable way. Why, for instance, can't Anita control her desires when Jean-Claude can? Why doesn't Anita even try? I might not have liked the book because all the sex sounds the same. It really does, and it is really boring sex. The only difference in the way the men have sex with Anita is the size of their equipment. Maybe it is because Anita is now totally self-absorbed that everything she does is right, and everyone else is wrong. This isn't character growth. It's character regression. How does Jean-Claude rule as a master vampire when he is wimp? How does Richard keep power when he is a wimp? Why doesn't someone shoot Anita in the head and take over the city? The fact that the characters have been so warped might be another reason why I did not like the book. Actually, it was all of the above combined with the fact that Hamilton or her editor neglected to use her Spell checker. I wanted to get out a red pen and fix sentences. If you like unintended comedies, you might like this.

[Jilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vampire games, how fun! In this book we get another sadistic insane vampire coming into town to rape, pillage, and torture, and Jean Claude gets to host her. Anita knows that their pleasant "visit" will turn into a blood bath, but she is trapped by all of the rules of vampire society.

If Jean Claude would just let me shoot everyone in Musette's party tonight, it would save a lot of trouble, I just knew it would.

Good point, Anita. I knew there was something I liked about you. Killing everyone sometimes would solve all of life's problems. (Awkward family holiday gatherings come to mind. )

We also get Asher's story, a bit. I know I'm alone on this, but I like Asher. I also think Anita is a ridiculous hypocrite for not allowing Jean Claude to have a side relationship with him. I mean, sheesh, how many boyfriends does she have at this point?

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Most people don't find me funny at all."

Anita Blake meets a guy in her office. Gasp, shock, horror, she actually accepts his job. She then raises a zombie. Asher arrives to tell her "Surprise! Musette, Belle Morte's cronie, is here!" She rushes to Jean-Claudes to get in a p!ssing match with Musette. Then she has to rush home to feed the ardeur. She argues about who she will have sex with. Asher waffles about having sex. Anita Blake has sex. Anita Blake is summoned to a crime scene, but she is too weak to go herself after such amazing sex so Jason drives her. She needs to feed the ardeur. Anita argues about who she will have sex with. Anita has sex. She talks about sex. She talks about her relationships. She talks about the new French vampires from Belle Morte. She has sex. She talks about sex. She finally goes to meet the French vampires. Oh, yeah, and she finally remembers the murders and the zombie raising she was hired to do at the beginning of the book. Good thing those last two could easily be wrapped up in a few minutes.

I'm sorry. I know a lot of these reviews have been nothing but me saying "Anita Blake is a horrible woman", "The writing is so mediocre and misogynistic", "There is a good story here, but too bad it is buried in bullsh!t". And I'm afraid this is another one of these reviews.

It's sad, because amidst all the sex, talking about sex, prepping for sex, arguing about vampire politic minutiae, arguing about werewolf political minutiae, p!ssing contests, misogyny, and bad fashion shows, there IS a good story. The zombie raising at the beginning of the novel (while barely, by a tenuous, subtle thread, connects to the "main" plot--whatever that is) was one of the best in the series. I felt, for the first time in this series, that I had a clear idea of what Anita did and how she did it. The shapeshifter murder mystery isn't half-bad. And I don't want to send you into cardiac arrest, but Anita actually gets a Court Order of Execution and IS THE FRAKKIN' EXECUTIONER with a one-liner that would have made Arnold Schwarzenegger proud. In a book series, where Anita Blake is supposed to be a "Vampire Hunter" so feared she is called the "Executioner", this is the only book I can remember where she got an actual Court Order to kill a frakkin' shapeshifter or a vampire. About damn time.

And then we have the one character who doesn't suck up to Anita and isn't afraid to bring up Anita's stupidity, Jason:

"I think you dated [Richard and Jean-Claude] both to keep from falling in love with either of them." - Jason
"Originally, Jean-Claude said he'd kill Richard if he didn't get a chance to woo me too." - Anita
"Why didn't you just kill Jean-Claude then? You don't tolerate ultimatums, Anita. Why would you tolerate that one?" - Jason
I didn't have an answer for that. - Anita

"I loved someone once with my whole heart and he stomped on it." - Anita
"Please, not the fiance in college, Anita, that was years ago, and he was an asshole. You can't spend the rest of your life nursing one bad experience." - Jason

In the ways I listed above, "Cerulean Sins" (which doesn't refer to any building, but apparently the memo everyone got to wear Cerulean Blue) is actually better than "Narcissus in Chains". I mean, CS did have a plot; it hasn't been THAT long since I finished NiC, and I can't give you a plot summary to save my life (other than "Sex, BDSM, sex, sex, drama, wangst, sex, sex, arguing, sex"). But in many ways, this book is just as bad as the previous books.

Anita Blake might as well rename herself "Mary Sue". I've forgotten how many titles she has to her name now: Nimi-ra, Animator, Necromancer, Jean-Claude's human servant, succubus, Federal Marshall (which happened all off-screen by the way), etc. I've forgotten how many men are lining up to get into her panties (which, conveniently, match with her bra): Jean-Claude, Asher, Jason, Nathaniel, Micah, Zerbrowski, etc. She has demanded to be called "Ms. Blake" but then won't respect a mourning woman's desire to be called "Mrs."

She thinks a covering a transsexual's family problems and a teacher raping a 13 year old boy are "weird crap":

"It was just the kind of weird crap [Court TV] liked to televise. You know, transsexual's custody case, female teacher rapes 13-year-old boy student, pro-football player's murder trial."

She is making out/having sex with several men, and yet somehow Asher says this about her:

"I have met saints and priests over the centuries that had not your will to resist temptation."

Last I checked, resisting temptation kind meant NOT doing whatever is "tempting", not "holding back from screwing anything in sight".

What is probably most groan-worthy is the silly plot device that “forces” Anita to have sex, the “ardeur”. Anita has to feed it every 12 hours or she will die. This leads to a large portion of the novel dedicated to sex, relationships, arguing about who is going to have it with whom, and so on and so forth. It bugs me that this “ardeur” basically strips Anita of her choice in the matter; if it is supposed to be a metaphor for women's sexuality, it fails.

But of course, Anita doesn't WANT that much sex. Oh, no, like a bad, pornographic movie, she is FORCED to have this much sex:

"Why was I always made to feel guilty because I wasn't having sex with more people? Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around?"

Despite claiming to be a feminist, Anita frequently makes misogynistic remarks such as:

"If I'd have been a man, I'd have let it go, but I was a girl, and girls poke at things more than men."

Yup, Anita, you really are equal rights. Calling grown women "girls" and comparing them to MEN is really feminist of you.

She pretty much gets into a fight with any authority figure whose path she crosses. Double-time if that person happens to be a woman. Triple if that woman is blond and tall.

Not to mention, Anita seriously needs to check into the hospital. Besides having breathing problems:

"I was blushing so hard, my head was beginning to hurt."

"I tried to speak but couldn't remember where my mouth was or how to draw a breath. I couldn't remember how to answer her."

"It was hard to swallow past my pulse."

"...I felt like the only thing keeping my pulse in my mouth was the tight line of my lips.

"I think I stopped breathing."

"I kept my mouth closed; I was afraid of what would fall out if I opened it."

Or then, Anita thinks she is oh, so clever and goes off on random rants that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot or what is happening at the moment:

"I think that's why dogs are so damned popular. You can cuddle a dog as much as you like, and the dog never thinks about sex or pushing your social boundaries in anyway. Unless you happen to be eating. Dogs will invade your social boundaries for table scraps unless trained to do otherwise."

"It wasn't the beauty of him that made me love him; it was just him. It was a love made up of a thousand touches, a million conversations, a trillion shared looks. A love made up of danger shared, enemies conquered, a determination to keep the people that depended on us safe at almost any cost, and a certain knowledge that neither of us would change the other, even if we could. I loved Jean-Claude."

"Guns don't care if you're psychically gifted; guns don't care about anything. They don't b!tch at you about the rules in your life, either. Of course, neither does a dog. But I don't have to use a pooper scooper after I'm through shooting my gun."

"Sometimes love makes you selfish; sometimes it makes you stupid; sometimes it reminds you of why you love your gun.

"There was that word again. Love. I was beginning to think I didn't know what it meant."

"Sane happy people don't hack their hair off at home with scissors. Cutting your hair like that is usually a substitute for hurting yourself in other, more permanent ways. Any counselor will tell you that."

"But once you get me angry, I usually stay there. I enjoy my anger; it's the only hobby I have."

"It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Because for anything to matter, I could not have gone back into that room. I had to go back into that room, so nothing mattered."

Other than Jason, I didn't care for any of the other characters. Pretty much all of them have been reduced to their one attribute and nothing more. Asher whines about being ugly; Richard whines about being a monster; Dolph suddenly gets all aggressive and offensive to Anita, when before he had been nothing but professional. Nathaniel is creepy and disgustingly submissive. And Jean-Claude continues to parade the bad fashion that makes this book a riot to read.

Because it is an Anita Blake book, I need to talk about the fashion disasters in this book. On the most part, I've tried to ignore them (such as Anita's wearing baggy shirt and jeans and SOMEHOW passing as a teenager in the early 2000's or Anita's wearing some slutty garment because *lame excuse here*), but here are some of the ones I caught that made me laugh until I cried:

"[Jean-Claude] was wearing skin-tight leather pants, tucked into thigh-high boots so it was hard to tell where the pants left off and the boots began."

"The panties and bra were a matched pair, a shiny navy satin. When I'd found them, they had reminded me of the color of Jean-Claude's eyes."

"...his eyes [were] as normal as they ever got - midnight blue, lashed with black lace."

"The hair was like a living accessory. For a moment, I thought [Jean-Claude] was wearing leather pants, until I realized the black boots ran up the entire length of his leg. He was wearing black pants, but they were barely visible."

One of the best parts, in that "So Bad It's Good" way, is the writing. Hamilton's writing has always been serviceable at best; here, it's as if no one bothered to proofread it:

"His voice held sorrow so thick that you could have squeezed it out, tears in your cup."

"Asher was afraid. I could taste his fear on the back of my tongue. I could swallow it, enjoy the bouquet of it, like a fine wine to whet the appetite."

"...that brought me back, reminded me I had a body, that skin contained me, that bones and muscles rode the body underneath me."

"Jason lowered us both into the water. It felt wonderful so warm...Jason moved me gently in the water...The warm water was so warm, so warm."

"He ate those sounds straight from my mouth, as if he were tasting my screams."

"I couldn't see or feel or be. It was neither light nor dark, nor up nor down."

And my absolute personal favorite!

"The room was red. Red as if someone had painted all the walls crimson. But it wasn't an even job of painting. It wasn't just red or crimson, but scarlet, ruby, brick red where it had begun to dry. A color so dark, it was almost black, but it sparkled red like a garnet."

I am almost nostalgic for the early Anita Blake books. Anita wasn't nearly so aggressive, there was a plot (or twenty) and some pretty interesting action scenes. It seems the books now are just Anita being hostile, sex, boring politics, and a hasty mystery wrapup.

Classic Anita Blake fans, the ones turned off by Narcissus in Chains, are probably not going to enjoy this. Newcomers to Anita Blake are going to be completely lost amidst intricate, overly complicated, silly paranormal creature politics. And if you were ever hesitant about the series, I sincerely doubt this book is going to win you over.

[Hilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I looked at him, and he was pale alabaster with that black, black hair, those blue eyes. The folds and hollows of his body exposed to the overhead lights were as beautiful and familiar to me as a favorite path that I could walk forever and never tire of.
I stared at Jean-Claude, and it wasn't the beauty of him that made me love him, it was just-him. It was a love made up of a thousand touches, a million conversations, a trillion shared looks. A love made up of danger shared, enemies conquered, a determination to keep the people that depended on us safe at almost any cost, and a certain knowledge that neither of us would change the other, even if we could. I loved Jean-Claude, all of him, because if I took away the Machiavellian plottings, the labyrinth of his mind, it would lessen him, make him someone else.
I sat on the edge of the tub with my jeans and jogging shoes soaking in the water, looking at him laugh, watching his eyes bleed back to human, and I wanted him, not for sex, though that was in there, but for everything.
-Cerulean Sins, page 143-

[Damecatoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Nothing turns to hate so bitter as what once was love." – Anita Blake in Cerulean Sins.

You tell 'em, Laurell K. Hamilton, cause ooo, were your fans mad at you after that book (see reader reviews at Amazon.com). Well, it started with Narcissus in Chains, but I guess they were willing to allow that one if it were an aberration and not the new norm. Oh, well. Poor kids. I know how it feels. I know what Chri$ Carter did to the X-Files.

I'm reading these books as a lark, so the trashier they get, the more fun for me. And I haven't had to buy them (well, except for two) or wait years for the next one to come out. But you guys, the real fans... I'm sorry. Especially for you Richard fans. And you Dolph fans, too. Dolph really lost his shit there, didn't he?

And I totally agree with those of you that think this whole ardeur (fancy term for her new succubus status) business is just an excuse for Anita to have sex with all the male characters. Remember when she was chaste? Ha ha. Well, now she be getting around, if you know what I mean. Now I see where the book cover designs come in.

About two books ago, someone picked up my current AB installment and asked "what are you reading?" And I laughed and said "no, no, it's not as bad as it looks. it's more like a crime mystery where there are vampires and werewolves involved. the romance is all secondary; I don't know why they try to make it look all sexy." Yeah, well, now I do.

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are only so many times one can read about Jean-Claude’s deep blue eyes before you feel like clawing them out just so that it will be mentioned no more. The same goes for Asher’s beautiful golden head of hair…one more mention of that and I will be sorely tempted to leap into the book armed with a razor to shave it all off. I’m also thinking of buying Anita a chastity belt. That way, maybe she can focus more on the plot rather than trying to have sex with as many guys in as short amount of time as possible. It seems that Anita has decided to stop kicking ass and shooting people to better spend her precious energy on sex. Well done girl, you finally have your priorities figured out.

I don’t want to give up on this series as I’ve been enjoying it so much up until number nine, but if I have to slog through any more plotlines about the goddamn ardeur and the random sex and orgies, my head will explode. I fail to see how introducing the ardeur has added anything relevant to the series. There’s also the repeated descriptions of just about everything, from Asher’s scars, to Dolph‘s appearance, to Asher’s HAIR and Jean-Claude’s deep blue EYES, to Nathaniel freaking lilac EYES, to Micha’s bright green cat EYES, to…dear God, I can’t take anymore eye descriptions. At least Richard’s out of the picture so we don’t have to read about his amazing fluffy brown hair. There’s only Asher’s golden hair, Jean-Claude’s dark curls and Nathaniels long auburn braid. Seriously, what is it with the hair and the eyes?

You would think having read about the triumvirate for so long we’d be over it now, but no. We still have the same descriptions over and over again about how it’s affecting the three of them and nothing ever changes. Do we really need to read the same thing repeatedly, only worded slightly differently each time? I can’t bring myself to do it, so I’m skimming paragraphs and even pages at a time. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up for…maybe I can make you a deal Anita. If you can abstain from sex for the rest of this book, I will finish it but if I come across you jumping anyone else’s bones then the deal is off and I am done with you.

***

Well, I managed to finish the book and although I didn't encounter any more sex scenes, I also didn't encounter anything to make this book less of a failure. The ending seemed pretty rushed and Anita is still dating multiple guys so nothing has improved. I'm not sure whether to give the next book a try or to give up on this series. I can't remember the last time it took me six days to read a book.

[Tilly Slaton · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love the Anita Blake series, this is another book that I really don’t get too excited over. Blood. Gore. Sex. Lies. Deception. It has it all, but I found myself skimming and reading as quickly as possible just to get to the next book. And regardless of how fast I read, I still found myself watching more tv than reading. Heh ... go figure!

Anita Blake; Vampire Hunter and animator. She raises dead for a living, tries to survive vampire politics and dramatic personal relationships while all along investigating wonderfully disgusting murder scenes for the government and avoiding really jealous and pissed off sadistic vampires that arrive unannounced.

I took a sip from my coffee mug with the motto, “If you slip me decaf, I’ll rip your head off.”

Although she is the most blunt character I’ve ever met, her ballsy, rude and arrogant personality had a moment of holy shit surprise! Stuck in the vampire politics, she carefully treads on boiling water. If any of you have read the series up until now, you’ll think this is HILARIOUS!

I opened my mouth to call her a heartless bitch, but it wasn’t what came out. “Did you believe that gifts worthy of such beauty could be hurried? Would you really take some poor substitute in the place of the magnificence we had commission?”

“Ventriloquism,” Jason said, from the other side of Jean-Claude, “it’s the only answer.”

Forced into a new sexual relationship (that’s just going to be unsurprising from hence forth) she continues to make excuses to push others away.

Thankfully, she has her three sweeties, Jean-Claude, Micah and Nathaniel. She has others of course, but those are the only ones that count to me! Richard unworthy of sweetness and has now been utterly cast aside. (By me, not in the book heh)

Bottom line, not her best work, but brilliant nonetheless.

I recommend this book to anyone reading this series, ADULTS ONLY. Strong sexual content and descriptive violence.

Happy reading and now I’m on to Incubus Dreams!

[The Flooze · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ardeur is the most irritating plot device I have ever encountered. Going from an interesting paranormal mystery/romance series, to "oh, I can't control myself and I must have sex with everyone" is just ludicrous.

I agree with those who say that this book degenerates the characters to crappy soft core porn, and I'm not even half way through yet.

Give me vampire politics, assassins, zombies, and hey, even pack rituals. This poor excuse to fill every ten pages with porn is exasperating.

Perhaps if Anita just went with it, I'd be more forgiving. But this book turns her into a selfish, sanctimonious, irritating biznich.

I was almost thrilled when Dolph shook her around some. Although not for the reason he did it, she still needs a good shaking.

Sigh.

[Niina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, first of all I love the series, big fan of Anita Blake!

But this book, dear lord I did not enjoy this, it was a mixed salad of 50 ingredients. It was messy, hard to go with the flow and it left me with the constant 'move on' feeling. Chapter after chapter of the same scene that kept having twist after twist after twist.

I think the main problem is that there are just too many characters, Anita, Jean-Claude, Asher, Micah, Nathaniel, Jason, Richard, Zebrowski, Dolph - and as they are all great it's great to know more of them but as she gives more info and detail on everyone it gets to be too much.

I loved it much more in the early books when we had Anita, Richard and Jean-Claude and extras, now it's a whole freaking theater full of people.

I probably sound harsher than I actually feel but this book left me restless and wanting to skip pages - and to be honest I did skip the last few chapters, cause it just didn't move anywhere, and I love stories that have action instead of 8 main characters in one room battling their minds for chapters upon chapters to no end.

Publisher's Blurb (in italics)

Anita Blake is trying to get her life back to "normal" after a break-up with her werewolf lover. She has settled into a pattern of domesticity, which means that the new man in her life, the leopard shapeshifter Micah, has no problem sharing her with Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City. Things are as peaceful as they ever get for someone who raises the dead, when Jean-Claude receives an unexpected and unwelcome visitor: Musette, the very beautiful, very twisted representative of the European Council of Vampires. Anita soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous game of vampire power politics.

To add to her troubles, she is asked to consult on a series of brutal killings, which seem to be the work of something un-human. The investigation leads her to Cerulean Sins, a vampire-run establishment that deals in erotic videos, videos that cater to very specific tastes. Anita knows one creature of the night who has such interests — Jean-Claude's visitor. But if Anita brings Musette down, the repercussions could cost her everything she holds dear.”

Once a sworn enemy of all monsters, Anita is now the human consort of both Master Vampire Jean Claude and leopard shapeshifter Micah. When a centuries-old vampire hits St. Louis, Anita finds herself needing all the dark forces her passion can muster to save the ones she loves.

Anita Blake returns to find hell hath no fury like a vampire scorned.

Okay now what I did like about this book is the chapters where she goes after the bad guys, on the crime scenes and her reactions to Dolph’s crack down, and Asher, even though he's damaged he's an interesting character. Can't say much more - after this I am actually bit apprehensive about the next two Anita Blake books I have in my shelf "Incubus Dreams" and "Micah and Strange Candy", and I hope to god they are more intack and flowing than this thing.

I know a lot people loved and liked this book, but I just didn't find this one so appealing to me, most due to Belle Morte, I think.

Rating:

☆ ★ ★ ★ ★

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read: July 2006
Re-read: January 2018
Rating: 4/5 stars

As usual there is a lot going on in Anita's world at the start of Cerulean Sins. A representative of Belle Morte's arrives unexpectedly early at Jean-Claude's door. Musette is an evil and devout follower of Belle Morte, and she is out to cause as much trouble as possible for Jean-Claude and Anita. Meanwhile Anita is also called in on two murder cases; one which is set up to look like a ritualistic killing and another which looks like a werewolf attack. On top of this, she is still learning about the ardeur and how it can be used within the triumvirate with Jean-Claude and Richard.

What I liked:
- Seeing Anita in her role as a necromancer raising a zombie. It is nice to get a callback to Anita's roots as a character.
- The vampire politics is always intriguing; Musette was a decent threat to Jean-Claude, and the way in which Belle could possess Musette whenever she wanted to was suitably creepy.
- I also liked the nod/homage to Anne Rice and Claudia with Hamilton's own child vampire Valentina.
- The introduction of The Mother of all Darkness and the threat she represents for the future.
- Anita starting to understand the ardeur a little better, and building stronger bonds with the men in her life; in particular Jason, Asher and Damien.
- Zerbrowski is always a good character, he represents the normal side of the world they inhabit, and I like his interactions with Anita.
- As usual Hamilton drops some hints about the wider implications of what could happen in this world, in this case, what would happen if you could raise a zombie so alive that even it believed it was still among the living?

What I disliked:
- There wasn't much page time on the crime/murder element of the story until it's resolution just before the end of the novel.
- Dolph's massive character shift. It is explainable within the story as we find out that Dolph's son is going to be transformed into a vampire by his vampire lover and he is grieving for him but I feel like he turns on Anita very easily considering their history and how much of a help she has been to him in the past.
- I always dislike Richard whenever he appears in the series, and here is no exception. He acts like a selfish, spoilt, whiny, violent, entitled baby and doesn't care if he endangers Anita or Jean-Claude while he stamps his foot and has his temper tantrums. (Have I mentioned I don't like Richard?)

[B. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some Writing Tips for Laurell K. Hamilton:

1) Try to limit the phrase "it was as if" to 500 uses or fewer per novel.

2) Use pronouns or synonyms to avoid using the same word too many times in the span of 2 sentences.

3) It's OK to use a repetitive adjective to denote intensity once in a while, but don't do it multiple times in every book! It has gotten to the point that I wince every time I see it. "Blue, blue eyes" and "white, white walls" and "pale, pale skin" and "black, black hair" gets really, really effing annoying. Ya dig?

4) It's "all right." Not "alright." Use a dictionary. Or a decent editor.

5) The opposite of 'man' is 'woman,' not 'girl.'

6) Comma splices. Learn what they are so that you can avoid doing them.

7) If you wanted to write smut, you should have done so from the beginning of the series in order to attract the right fan base. There's nothing wrong with that. You had a good series going—not high-brow literature, but fun. You let your readers follow you through TEN books, and then this? THIS? If I'd wanted smut, I would have started reading an erotica series. Instead, I became a fan of the supernatural crime novels, even though I thought Anita's I'm-such-a-bad-ass-watch-me-be-a-bad-ass got really irritating at times. I'm sure some of your fans enjoyed it—and as I've said, there's nothing wrong with it. But from the other reviews I've seen, many of your readers don't appreciate having invested so much time in a series to have it come down to this.

I'll give the next book a chance. MAYBE the one after that, too, if I'm in a charitable mood. But if there isn't even a ghost of a plot brought back soon, I'll drop this series faster than Anita Blake drops her knickers at the sight of anything with a penis and chalk it up to a waste of time for having ever read it.

That said, the first several books WERE enjoyable. I really hope the series returns to that. Soon.

[Myvampfiction · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reviewed by Ciara

*Warning: possible spoilers ahead.*

Sex.

That’s this book in one word, more or less.

This book is, so far, furthest from all the things I loved about the first few books. I became addicted to the ABVH books because it combined crime, detective work and supernatural elements.

Don’t get me wrong, I love sex, and I enjoyed the early days of examples of how awesome Anita’s sex/romantic life, but I enjoyed that as part of the overall books, when it fit in nicely with a decent plot and characters. Now that sex has consumed and taken over the actual plot (this book is basically sex scenes strung together with a confused storyline) I find it hard to imagine myself continuing to read the series.

The book opens with Anita meeting Leo Harlan, an assassin who wants Anita to animate one of his ancestors, apparently simply because Leo is interested in genealogy.

Then, along comes Musette, a decidedly unlikeable vampire acting as a lackey for Belle Morte, the founder of Jean-Claude’s bloodline who wants to test or punish him.

Then, Anita finds out that there have been some brutal rapes and murders, seemingly committed by a shape shifting serial killer. She can’t get involved though, because Lieutanent Dolph doesn’t like the fact that she’s sleeping with the monsters, and their relationship has all but fallen apart.

The ardeur, a device introduced in the last book, forces Anita to crave sex every 12 hours, conveniently removing the need for Hamilton to have a reason for Anita to have sex.

Gone is the Anita from the first books, the complex character who was a vampire executioner but who fell in love with a vampire, a Christian whose natural ability was very unChristain, a strong woman who took a no-bullshit attitude to equally strong men.

Now, she pretty much just hops from bed to bed, and worries more about the implications of dating someone than killing someone.

Having read up to this one in quick succession (I had hoped to be up-to-date by the time book 20 was released in June), the repetition of certain phrases is very noticeable, as it is in her other paranormal series, Merry Gentry. It seems Hamilton just isn’t putting any effort into original turns of phrase when Anita isn’t in bed with a preternatural creature.

I’m hoping that as the series continues, Hamilton takes on the criticism from her numerous fans and makes some attempt to return the books to way they were at first, though with titles like Flirt and Kiss the Dead, I doubt that will happen.

There seems to be a split in ANVH fans, between those who miss the old style and think the books are drowning in sex (not a bad way to go, in fairness!) and those who think the increased emphasis on sex is a natural progression.

I’m somewhere in between. Anita didn’t have any sex at all for the first seven books, and is making up for lost time. Some sex would add to the plot, but it’s gone overboard now.

You may like it though. Maybe the sexy vampires and werewolves were always what you enjoyed. Just for me, as a crime fiction fan, the loss of the detective work is a big one.

[Aimee Convoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for all Hamilton fans!

After reading the whole series i couldnt believe that the last was still as good as the first. I loved this book as it concentrated more on the vampire politics and introduced Belle Morte, and her brand of malevolance into the series, should make the next book a little more interesting as we are allowed to delve more into the council and its strange brand of politics.

It allows us to get past the "anita and Richard" part of the book as richard features very little in this book. However who knows for the future, as we see our heroine jump from lover to lover the door has certainly been left open for Richard. This book also see the development of the mica and asher characters which is interesting in itself.

What was also unique is in this book we get to see a little more of jean claude - her vampire lover- and how he was made, and how he became as powerful, and as sexy, as he is currently.We for the first time are allowed to feel sympathy as some of the past experiance he had at 'court' come to light.

One of the reasons i loved this book is because at the end there were just as many questions as answers.It has to be said out of all of this 'vampire hunter series' the ending of this book was perhaps the most open ended, I cant have been the only one who expected a few more questions answered but then again that is what makes this as a series so compelling.

I really cant wait for the next book to see how anita's relationships turn out. What wil happen betweeen richard, jean claude, asher and mica... who knows we may even get a glimpse of the now domesticated- well partly- edward.

Read this book it really isnt a dissappointment!

[Jeri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I need to take a break from these books for awhile. I'm getting way too caught up in the lives of the characters. I really wanted someone to rip out Richard Zeeman's throat. He is far too whiny for an Alpha Werewolf. Oh well, that is what makes these books such fun. They are books about people who just happen to be werewolves, vampires, regular humans, etc. The emotional drama is the same no matter what type of non human is involved. On to the next one!

[Lisa (Harmonybites) · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's hard to believe, but when Anita stopped being celibate in The Killing Dance my reaction was "finally." I thought Hamilton had overdone the sexual tension leading up to that book. Oh, the good old days! When this was a fun series about Anita the necromancer and vampire hunter with her werewolf on the side. I knew it was a bad, bad thing when the ardeur rose up its ugly head in the previous book. In fact, I thought, "no, Hamilton didn't just do that!" but I thought it an aberration that Anita would fight--not, as another reviewer put it, "the new normal." And this really is the book where the porn overtakes plot and where Anita's previous relationships start going to crap. Dolph her collegue on the police force was once important to Anita, someone she respected. And her friend Ronnie Sims. But after Narcissus in Chains the only thing important to Anita is who she's boinking at any particular moment--but that's OK. It's the ardeur! Not like she has to take responsibility for her choices. I had a friend who actually loved the post-Narcissus in Chains arc. She thought it was all about Anita learning to love. I'm sorry, but I'm not seeing it. A person is about more than having sex--that's true even for a prostitute. And having sex with all comers does not a relationship make.

[MischaS_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jak mi Anita chyběla. :D a jak moc mi zase Richard nechyběl. :D Už se těším na další díly. :)

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this story, because in it we see Anita going after a lycanthrope with a court order of execution for the first time. The fact that Zerbrowski is in it certainly doesn't hurt, either. ;-)

There are actually two storylines in this book: one involves the aforementioned lycanthrope, who is a serial killer killing women in especially gruesome ways. The other, unconnected, is about Musette, Belle Morte's representative, and the vampires she brought with her to visit Jean-Claude, et.al.

This is the first book in which Anita is a Federal Marshal. And Jean-Claude becomes his own sourdre de sang. Richard decides to live, but along the way he's a cruel bastard. I really don't like him. Also, this is the book in which Dolph completely loses it and is put on enforced leave. All of these things together combine into an amazing story for me, so I always feel that it's a five star read despite the below issues.

Interestingly, in Narcissus in Chains Anita learned that Micah had been lying to her by omission in pretty major ways, but though rocked by the news, she never hesitated around him in any way. And in Cerulean Sins, she still doesn't exhibit any signs of holding a grudge. We the readers weren't ever told why this was, and Anita should have held a grudge. Not holding one doesn't fit her character. I find it odd that the NiC revelation was revealed and forgotten.

I have some problems with Cerulean Sins, but they're continuity errors and I love the story enough to forgive them. The biggest continuity error is in the time of events in this story. On page 1, line 1: "It was early September, a busy time of year for raising the dead." In Chapter 2, page 18: "... his deep voice came clear in the still October night." In Chapter 4, page 35: "She was due three months from now, just after Thanksgiving. So what the hell was she doing in town a month and some change before Halloween?"

So is the story happening in September, October, or August? And that last quote is a contradiction in and of itself: How can it be three months until "just after Thanksgiving" but it's only "a month and some change before Halloween"? If you ignore the Thanksgiving reference, this quote puts the time of events back in "early September."

In the final chapter, Chapter 62, the time is again confirmed as September: Page 529, "Summer is over and gone, but autumn is here, and next month is October with the bluest skies of the year."

I don't understand how LKH could confuse her timeline like this, but I blame the editor for not catching this continuity issue and fixing it before it made it into print.

Another continuity issue was that Jamil is now Hati. We have two quotes that say this: on page 270, in Chapter 30, "Jamil being a good Hati..." and in Chapter 47, on page 427, "Jamil and Shang-Da, his Hati and Skoll..." In previous books, Jamil was Sköll and Shang-Da was Hati. Again, I blame the editor for not catching this mistake, though I wonder how LKH could have made it in the first place.

And lastly, on page 59 we are told that Damian is only 600 years old. In previous books he was 1,000. Again, I don't understand how LKH made this mistake but I blame the editor for not catching it.

Because I blame the editor for not correcting the aforementioned issues, I don't let these errors negatively impact my rating for this story. Besides, the story was long and these lines were few and far between, so they were soon forgotten.

My pet peeve reared its ugly head in this book, too: "writhe" was used eight times in its various tenses. In one scene, it was used four times! In close succession! (This was on pages 210-211. Three of the instances were on page 211.)

And finally, in both Narcissus in Chains and Cerulean Sins, the wolf pack clan name has been spelled differently from how it was first introduced, but at least it's been consistent in these two books: "Thronnos Rokke."

Things I liked were included in the first three paragraphs of this review. There were also many lines that made me smile in this text, but I only noted down one of them. I think this is the one I liked the best (the underlined part is for those lines that made me smile, the rest is for context):

1. From Chapter 8, closer to the beginning than the middle (my edition: page 72):

I opened my mouth to call her a heartless bitch, but it wasn't what came out. "Did you believe that gifts worthy of such beauty could be hurried? Would you really take some poor substitute in the place of the magnificence we had commissioned?"
I stopped talking. All of our men were staring at me, except Damian, who was hugging me for all he was worth.
"Ventriloquism," Jason said, from the other side of Jean-Claude, "it's the only answer."
Jean-Claude nodded. "A miracle, indeed." ...

Most recent (penultimate?) reread of Cerulean Sins was from February 19 to 20, 2014.
This current reread took place from July 17 to 18, 2015. :-)

The following spoiler is a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of what happens in the book. I wrote it for myself and I'm going to try to keep spoilers out of it, but I'm going to hide it just in case...


Chapter 1: Anita meets with a potential client.

Chapter 2: Anita talks with some of the witnesses at Lindel Cemetery, where she has a zombie to raise.

Chapter 3: Anita raises a zombie in front of lawyers, the widow, cops and a judge; Asher arrives when all is done.

Chapter 4: Musette has arrived early in town. Anita doesn't understand why they can't punish her for it.

Chapter 5: Anita talks with Asher, Damian and Jason in the parking lot of Circus of the Damned.

Chapter 6: Jean-Claude meets Anita and crew when they get downstairs.

Chapter 7: Musette has gifts for Jean-Claude and Asher.

Chapter 8: Anita is outmaneuvered; Musette claims Asher as her guest gift.

Chapter 9: Anita does not let Musette's insult go unanswered.

Chapter 10: Anita talks with Jean-Claude. They discuss their people and how to make them safe.

Chapter 11: Asher is reluctant. Anita doesn't want him to go.

Chapter 12: Asher disrobes, with help.

Chapter 13: Jean-Claude and Asher die at dawn.

Chapter 14: Asher didn't hold back; Anita succumbs to the effects.

Chapter 15: Jason helps Anita; Dolph and Zerbrowski call, need her at a crime scene.

Chapter 16: At crime scene #1, the cop on duty doesn't want to let Anita through. But she is a federal marshal now, so he can't keep her out.

Chapter 17: Zerbrowski sees how sick Anita is and tries to get her to go home.

Chapter 18: Anita looks over crime scene #1, confirms Detective Reynolds' suppositions.

Chapter 19: Detective Merlioni is the first person Anita sees at crime scene #2.

Chapter 20: Dolph is unprofessional at the second crime scene; Anita is sick.

Chapter 21: Anita comes to in the bathroom with Detective Reynolds. Jason takes her out and home.

Chapter 22: Anita comes to in the bathtub with Micah. She discovers why she's been so sick; they talk about that and Richard.

Chapter 23: Anita's in bed; Micah has to leave, so Nathaniel is brought in to sleep with Anita.

Chapter 24: Jason takes one for the team; he and Anita talk about her relationships.

Chapter 25: Anita takes a shower; Jamil arrives with a very sick Richard.

Chapter 26: Nathaniel helps Anita; they're moving temporarily to the Circus. Zerbrowski is on the phone.

Chapter 27: Caleb took a message from Zerbrowski; he also was told to stay close to Anita today.

Chapter 28: Belle Morte pays Anita another visit.

Chapter 29: "The Mother of all Darkness" is curious.

Chapter 30: Anita and crew are being followed again. She was going to call Bobby Lee for advice, when Richard's hunger overwhelmed her.

Chapter 31: Anita feeds the ardeur with Jean-Claude, then they talk about blood-letting. Asher joins them in the bathroom and the mood is lost.

Chapter 32: Anita talks with Jean-Claude and Asher: "I don't even get an hour to digest that you used vampire wiles on me."

Chapter 33: Nathaniel finds Anita in the hallway outside the bedroom and tells her that the guys who followed them are back.

Chapter 34: Anita strategizes with Bobby Lee; Claudia proves that men see her as just a girl, despite the fact that she is "six-freaking-feet and six-fucking-inches tall."

Chapter 35: Anita and crew corner the bad guys who were following her; the police arrive.

Chapter 36: Anita talks with an unfriendly detective; a clueless detective walks up and spills the beans about the prisoners.

Chapter 37: Anita recognizes two of Heinrick's associates, but the photos aren't of high enough quality for her to place them. The detective in charge won't let her make copies of the photos.

Chapter 38: Jean-Claude calls: the police have taken Jason.

Chapter 39: Dolph shoots himself in the foot, metaphorically speaking.

Chapter 40: Anita talks with Jason on the way back to the Circus; she offends him, too.

Chapter 41: Anita talks with Bobby Lee about Heinrick, mercenaries.

Chapter 42: Jean-Claude and Asher are dressed in their banquet finery. They talk with Anita, apologize.

Chapter 43: Anita talks with Jean-Claude, Asher and Micah. They tell her of a plot they plan to enact.

Chapter 44: Anita wonders why there are plates on the floor in the banquet room. Jean-Claude, then Asher join her. Valentina shares her memory of the Dark.

Chapter 45: Musette's side breaks truce first. Anita evens the playing field so that the guards can take Musette to her room, when Belle Morte manifests.

Chapter 46: Belle Morte tries to control Anita, the leopards, Jean-Claude's vampires.

Chapter 47: Richard found his backbone and he's being a cruel bastard at the worst of times.

Chapter 48: Belle Morte doesn't follow Richard's directions. Jean-Claude becomes sourdre de sang of his own line.

Chapter 49: Belle Morte can save Asher. Richard steps up.

Chapter 50: Anita finds that she can give Asher the power he needs to restore himself. Richard, naturally, doesn't understand.

Chapter 51: Asher is restored; Belle Morte and company leave, but Valentina and Bartolomé stay.

Chapter 52: Zerbrowski calls: he has a fresh murder scene for Anita to come look at.

Chapter 53: At the new murder scene, Anita stalls before investigating the bathtub's contents.

Chapter 54: Anita searches the tub.

Chapter 55: Special Agent Bradford shares a clue. Zerbrowski mobilizes.

Chapter 56: Detective O'Brien tries to play top dog.

Chapter 57: Heinrick answers some questions. Something went very wrong when Mobile Reserve tried to apprehend Van Anders.

Chapter 58: Van Anders escaped; Anita learns that she knows more than the feds.

Chapter 59: Anita gets Richard to agree to let her use werewolves to track Van Anders.

Chapter 60: The wolves lead Anita to Van Anders. He is taken by surprise.

Chapter 61: Anita takes comfort from Micah, talks on the phone with Agent Bradford.

Chapter 62: Denouement.

... I'm learning that you have to make time for what's important. You have to fight to carve little pieces of happiness out of your life, or the everyday emergencies will eat up everything.
When we finish Charlotte's Web Nathaniel want to read Treasure Island. Sounds good to me. [fin]

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm finally waving my white flag. I can't bear to read this garbage any more. Back in '99-'00 I read the Anita Blake series up to that point (Blue Moon?) and enjoyed it. It opened up a new love of Urban Fantasy (which is still my favorite genre) so I continued to read the books as they came out over the years until "Kiss the Dead". I couldn't make it through that pile of shit. Recently I thought maybe I had been right in thinking the beginning books were good....surely I couldn't have been completely wrong? I have read many, many books between then and now so I needed to know if my memory of the beginning of the series was correct. I was half-right. The beginning of the series is exponentially better than #10-#21. Reading through these books has made me realize what an absolutely awful writer LKH is. She needs to stop. No, we need to stop paying her to play out her creepy fantasies on paper.

Anita. I can hardly put into words how truly terrible she is as a character. Although, you can hardly blame the character herself. She didn't even have a chance. She is the embodiment of LKH in this world where she is perfect, the most admired, the sexiest, the smartest (choking on effing laughter), the bravest, the only one with all the answers and most importantly, the most superior. In truth, Anita is dumb as a rock. She is engaging in constant pissing contests, bullying her way into business that isn't hers, seeks reasons to kill/murder, looks down on every single person who grabs her attention and is so completely immature you couldn't possibly have any respect for her. It's impossible to sympathize with her, like her or root for her. It's horrible how transparent LKH is in this series. I'm sure I can't be the only person who feels like they know way too much about LKH.....insecure, lonely, poor fashion sense, sexually repressed and because it's so obvious I need to say it again, insecure.

Women, other than Anita, are either pathetic or batshit crazy. Police are completely unprofessional. The one person who might have been respected by Anita in this series, Dolph, loses his goddamn, bigoted mind in this book, completing the image in Anita's head that she is superior to all. All of Anita's "men" are short, long haired, pretty and most importantly, submissive to her. It's goddamn creepy to be reading someone else's fantasy.....that needs to stay in your head LKH. She has the potential to be creative and write exciting, action-filled books (if not very "deep"). Instead she uses her imagination to create a world where she can live and have the sex life she wants through a self-absorbed, pitiful excuse for a heroine.

I'm actually pissed at myself and insulted by LKH. First, yes, I'm angry with myself for buying these books. I knew by book 9 they were starting to go downhill and that by "Kiss the Dead" they would be unreadable but I bought a few more. I have only myself to blame but it stops now. I won't buy any more, I won't support LKH's Anitaverse so she can take her weird vacation from reality. I'm insulted by LKH because she feels like she can keep churning out this trash like she ever deserved to be on the Best Sellers list. I've read far superior writers who never made it on the list but somehow we've all encouraged poor writing and non-existent editing by buying this waste of paper. We need better standards people!! Do you know how much money these books have made?!?! Over 6 million dollars. For this shit. We have paid over 6 million dollars for the worst that writing has to offer. I'm ashamed. I'm off to cleanse my conscience with a better book.

[Amy Imogene Reads]

Spoilers: Musette, one of Belle Morte's line, comes to town with the child vampires Valentina and Bartholomew. The Mother of All Darkness makes her first unworldly appearance in Anita's dreams and metaphysical weirdness. Anita and Jason have their first romantic encounter. Anita continues to explore the ardeur and its limits. This entire book is 1/3 the Musette storyline, 1/3 Anita being a big ol' gendered hypocrite with Jean Claude and Asher in a very intense way, and 1/3 a murder mystery story that involves shady international black ops guys who are way too interested in recruiting Anita. One of the shady guys as a serial killer shifter and he murders people in St Louis. The Executioner catches him.

Some random notes from my 2024 reread:
This one is always a little slumpy for me. It's the one where we see the true hypocrisy of Anita's selfish nature—she has unreachable, constantly changing standards for her loved ones and even if they bend over backwards for her whims, she holds herself back and punishes them. She's aware of her "holier-than-thou anger," as she puts it, but it's still driving the show and it's causing more pain for Jean Claude and Asher in this book than it's worth. I find it interesting that in this book I'm truly seeing the yin/yang of Anita and Richard. They're both horrible romantic partners who hurt those around them before they look inward to their own problems. Even knowing that Anita resolves her anger, her religious trauma, her misogyny, and her latent homophobia, it's a hard pill to swallow and because we're only in Anita's POV, we have no choice but to ride shotgun to her wrong opinions and her lack of apology for them.

One of the biggest issues I have with this book is that we're staring her latent homophobia right in the face—it was uncomfortable in 2004 when this book was first published, and it's more uncomfortable now in 2024. I think it's part of the reason why I struggle so much with this particular installment and some of the next ones in the early teens. Anita's life outpaces her personal growth and it takes us a longggg time to resolve it.

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this series. I like Anita, Jean-Claude, and even Richard (most of the time)....but sadly....this one landed in my DNF pile. I could hardly believe it. So it's official.....I'm done with the series and I'm not even half way through it yet. I just don't like the direction this series is going. There used to be some substance with the "romance" (those are air quotes) and now .... well, not so much. It is all about the one thing and I feel like the author forces more of "that" in every chance she gets. UGH. I also liked the world the author painted. It was creatively thought out...and now it is all about the romance. There wasn't any newly unveiled piece of her world or any new character development. I was sorely disappointed.

One last thing that is a big thing..... I absolutely HATED the new narrator. She couldn't even do male voices. How did she even get the job? I think if the narrator for this one had been the original one (Kimberly Alexis) I would have stayed with this book...but the new one (name withheld) was butchering any and all male voices if you could even tell them apart from one another.

If you've read this series, tell me please:
Does it get better with a real plot?
and
Did they get the old narrator back?

[Diana Stormblessed · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm calling it. This series is officially dead to me. Hamilton isn't even pretending there's a plot anymore. I stopped reading 45% through and I think there were 2 or 3 chapters that didn't have any sex, sex talk, or general relationship talk in it. Anita has been reduced from a kick as heroine to a whiny inflatable sex doll. Insert penis here. We don't even need a relationship build up cuz it can all be explained by the ardeur. Eye roll. I love a good adult book but I want to read actual characters. This was worse than a cinemax porn plot.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was honestly so utterly bored while reading this. I'm so sad at how this series has become, I used to love it so much.

What baffled me the most was how such a long book has barely anything going on in it.

The only redeeming quality was Jason, I love him so much, I felt like he was voicing my every thought LOL

[Saimi Vasquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anita ahora se encuentra con el desafio de "entrener" a la enviada de Belle Morte, asi que tiene que intentar jugar a la politica de los vampiros sin poder matar a ninguno, lo que para ella no era nada facil, sobre todo porque de eso dependia que su gente se mantuviera a salvo, inclusive "sus vampiros". Pero como podia hacerlo sin derramar sangre? esa era la gran pregunta. Ademas, tenia el tema con los hombres-lobo, su "arduer", un asesino descuartizador y su vida romantica, que nunca seria facil para ella. El problema con manejar tantas cosas a la vez es que tienes que aprender a priorizar, y no siempre sabes cuales son las prioridades.

Aqui el autor intenta mostrarnos como la personalidad de la prota cambia a raiz de sus decisiones, y como solo sus decisiones son las causantes de sus problemas, ahora la curiosidad de saber que va a pasar con el trinvirato y la nueva adicion de Asher es lo que me esta manteniendo en la lectura.
Sin embargo, cada libro se vuelve mas y mas hacia la idea de una prota sobre-natural sin precedentes, que sera la unica que podra controlar a todas las razas, quizas sea porque el tema es demasiado comun, quizas sea porque todavia no veo hasta donde quiere llegar el autor con la historia, pero espero que no sea una de esas sagas infinitas que nunca terminan de dar un cierre.

[Barb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cerulean Sins is the eleventh book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series. In this episode, Ms. Blake is contacted by a man she quickly pegs as a hired assassin who says he wants to hire her for the purpose of raising one of his ancestors from the dead. As you follow the story, you discover that Ms. Blake is more than a “vampire hunter”. She is an animator, macromancer, part shapeshifter, and the girl friend of the Master Vampire. After completing a successful session of “animating” (raising a dead man) to settle an insurance claim between the insurance company and the man’s widow, Ms. Blake becomes involved in trying to find a serial killer. All this at the same time she has major problems going on in her love life and major problems with the international politics of vampires, werewolves, and various “other worldly” creatures.

This is the first of the Anita Blake series I have read. I admit I was quite excited about reading the book as I had heard some good things about some of her earlier books. However, I was extremely disappointed as I began to read the book. Most of the first half of the book was really one long, group sex act. Unfortunately, the sex had little to do with the plot and serves only to fill a good number of pages. The second half of the book did have a little more of a plot with some bit of mystery and some detective work. For me, it was too little to late. If I had not been reviewing the book I would have stopped reading after the first 50 or so pages and tossed it in the trash.

Ms. Hamilton’s writing is quite good and I believe she could have produced an excellent book with the serial killer plot, if she would have gotten down to business and developed the plot, instead of turning out page after dreary page of vampire sex. However, taken as it was written, the characters are ok but the author really didn’t make me care about any of them. Some of the characters had so many problems I should have felt some sympathy for them and should have continued to read with an expectant hope that their problems would come to a positive conclusion. That, however, was not the case. When I finished the book I mentally said, “That’s nice,” but I truly had no vested emotions in any of the characters. Further, I was really disappointed that in something called a “vampire hunter series” the hunter didn’t “hunt” any vampires; instead, she had group sex with them. What is that about?

I really wanted to like this book. I like stories about vampires and other scary stuff. What I didn’t want was a pornographic tale that ran for some 200+ pages of a 400-page book. It is a shame because I believe Ms. Hamilton could have produced a really great book. To say I was let down is an understatement. I am sorry to say that it will likely be a very long time before I read another Laurell Hamilton book.

[Marika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now that I've read all the other books in the series, lovely Mike bought me the latest, "Cerulean Sins" as a Christmas present. I wanted to wait to finish other books before I started this one - but of course I have no will power, and I read it immediately.

If, dear readers, you've read the books leading up to this one, you know that our heroine, Anita Blake, has gone from being celibate to boinking nearly everyone in the books. This story is no exception. I won't divulge who - but I doubt you'd be surprised. Aside from the drastic morality shift, the only two annoyances to the plot are the main character's continuing badly timed guilt, and the increasing predictability of the crimes she investigates. The bad guys get increasingly bad - but she has increasing power to deal with them. Here's the basic equation:

Step One: Bad guys arrive in town and challenge one or all of the triumvirate (Richard/Jean-Claude/Anita). (Usually there is also some really horrendous crime committed - but not always related to the Bad (Supernatural) Guy.)

Step Two: An action, usually unethical/immoral/repugnant is the key to increasing power and thus defeating Bad Guy.

Step Three: Agonize over the decision.

Step Four: Do it anyway.

Step Five: Feel guilty.

Step Six: Beat the Bad Guy, but not before being introduced (somewhere in the plot) to a new imminent Badder Guy, that will probably arrive in the next novel.

Step Seven: Feel a bit more guilty. Think about Richard. Sum up.

I can't complain too much because having a successful formula will keep your fans happy and you employed. I just miss the mysteries being a bit more complicated. Though portions of the book are quite good - the main plot was just to obvious. The character, Anita Blake, seems to have only one weakness now - her own battle with her morality - which seems to get a bit more trite in every succeeding book. The secondary characters hold much of the interest now - particularly Asher, the old lover of Jean Claude. In fact, in several instances it is those characters that propel the story forward - especially Jason in this instance. Jason finally calls Anita on her feelings of guilt and angst - and draws attention to her defense mechanisms that are making her life harder and more complicated than it needs to be. I wouldn't have thought of his character as being the analytical type - but if follows the plot well.

That's it for now. Not exactly a thumbs up - but not a thumbs down either. I still buy the next book, of course, because I'm addicted and hopeful that I'll be surprised. We'll see. . .

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny because in rereading this series, I'm realizing how much of Anita I really dislike. But I still love almost all of the surrounding characters and that keeps this series in my top.

In the 11th installment, Anita finds herself meeting the in-laws, so to speak. Jean-Claude's maker, Belle Morte, has caught wind of Anita and has decided that she wants to know more, thereby sending a surrogate vampire to scope the scene. This of course doesn't go over well with the group and tension grows.

I remember that this one was one of my favorites and I guess it does still hold true. I loved getting to know more about Jean-Claude and Asher's beginnings. Their history is so fascinating that I just gobbled it all up. Another reason I loved this is because of Jason (my absolute favorite character in case you didn't know). For a character who started out as just the resident flirt, this was the first book where we really see that Jason is growing up and thinking toward the future. While his light-heartedness is still there, there's a depth to him that wasn't there before.

But can we just slap Anita for like the billionth time. Her double standards and lily white morals are really hindering this story. I agree with Jean-Claude in this one, apologies can only go so far. At this point, Anita can't hid behind oblivion. She knows the politics and if she doesn't like it, well, then maybe she should be the one to leave. Grow up and get over yourself Anita.

Still love it though.

[MGGMMGGM · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am again disappointed. I don't know what happened to the series after Blue Moon. From a plateau, it went down and fast. I used to love Anita, don't get me wrong I still love the series but I just think that the plot of the series was lost with all erotic scenes and the coming of the ardeur.


I have come to the point where I skip all the sexy scenes to where the action is and I am left with only a few pages to read. I mean that's a great degrade to the previous books that the series had. The sense in the plot seems to go nowhere, the characters just gets bad every time, the ending are flat.


I can still recommend this novel to people who love the supernatural but with caution. I can tolerate erotica at some point but too much of it - that I can't handle. Would still be reading until the end of the series due to curiosity of how the story will progress and what the characters would be like but not as in love with the series like before.


I do hope Hamilton turns the series around. Such a great series to go to waste.

[Kipi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I caved...