Vampire Hunter Novel - Kiss the Dead - An Anita Blake

PLOT. Where is it? It's like Hamilton was searching for a direction for this series to go, couldn't come up with one so she decided to pick something easy like a RPIT (police/marshal) case to weave her sex scenes around. In the past I have liked the police/marshal books, especially with Edward and gang. Those actually felt like stories. This felt like filler. No depth. No interest.

WRITING. It felt less like a story and more being talk at or lectured.

SEX. All of these books have a lot of sex in it. I have no problem with that. Good HOT sex scenes add to a good book. I didn't find any in this book. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of sex. In fact it was the entire reason for the book. It just wasn't believable. It was just sex for the sake of sex. Example: Anita comes home after a very long, mentally and physically exhausting vampire killing scene then she sees Micah & Nathaniel and then wants nothing more than sex. And really, I feel like I missed a book in here somewhere. When was Anita so into bondage/submission? Where was the lead-up and prep work to this. Yes she was trying some things in that past books for Nathaniel (for his sake only) and now it's all she likes. And Micah? I have always liked his character. But now he is into dominance and FORCE. That does not feel like his character at all, where did that come from? He forces his mouth down on Anita so that she can't scream out her "safe word" to stop when Nathaniel is hurting her. But don't worry; Anita has an orgasm so all is well. WHAT? Anita keeps telling us that her men are great in bed but how but how we to believe that when 5 minutes after have great sex she wants to have sex again with someone else. Is it really believable to want to have sex 5-6 times a day one after another just because you can't help yourself. Her men are just that hot. Isn't love about something other than sex? There is nothing but sex in this book. No depth between the characters. Literally 50% of this book is Anita describing the physical attributes of other characters. Is this a sex/workout book? The sex scenes feel too contrived. She is trying way too hard to move from what she calls "vanilla" sex and it just doesn't seem believable.

Believability. Anita keeps saying that she LOVES all these men but after reading the book I can't find any reason for this. Unless you have read the past books you would have absolutely no idea why she loves any of them. It is like you turned on the TV in the middle of a show and the main character was telling you that she loved everyone but you never once saw it or felt it throughout the story. Very flat - no depth.

Disappointing. Anita's character has turned into a two dimensional bore. With the police she is a tough uncaring bitch. With her men she is a submissive weakling only interested in sex and someone who can't stand up for herself. The kissing scene with Asher was pathetic. He is hurting her and she wants to get away but he is stronger than her. She says that she could get away from him but she would have to hurt him to do it and she loves him too much to hurt him. What like he isn't hurting her? Anita can stop Asher from hurting her by kneeing him in the groin but she doesn't want to do that because she might want to have sex with him soon. WHAT? Seriously? Asher is about to kill Sin but Anita can't do anything because she can't hurt Asher because she loves him. Why does Anita love him, Asher has no redeeming qualities. And what about Sin? Nathaniel here shows more bravery than the wishy-washy Anita. Anita pays lip service to being angry with Asher after this but when she looks at him all she wants to do is have sex with him even after he hurt her.

The rest of the book can be summed up with one word. Angst.

I'm never disappointed with Laurel Hamilton. Each book just keeps you on edge. I can't wait till I see the ending, and then I'm ready for the next adventure. She could never come out with new Anita Blake novels fast enough for me. Love them.

This book is everything I've come to expect from LKH and her work. Bad writing, riddled with grammar, spelling, and stylistic mistakes? Check. Clumsy infodumps masquerading as Anita's inner monologues? Check. Repetitive descriptions of characters focusing on exactly the same details each time? Check. Unsexy sex scenes? Check. 50 Shades-levels of "kink"? Cheeeeeck.

You know that scene in The Simpsons, where Homer is trying to resist the temptations of a beautiful woman, and he's thinking "think unsexy thoughts, think unsexy thoughts"? I think if I ever need to do that, I'll just think of Anita Blake and her (ugh) "sweeties."

The "plot," what little there is of it, gets wrapped up rather unenthusiastically somewhere during the first third of the novel. Then there's a lot of drama concerning this, that, and the other of Anita's harem. In what is the only move I can remotely approve of, Asher gets the boot and he and his drama queeny ways get sent off to another city. Although given that this *is LKH we're talking about, I wouldn't be surprised if that takes another few books to wrap up.

It seems like Anita's metaphysical need of collecting all the supernatural connections she can (STOP THAT THEY ARE NOT POKEMON) overrides everything else, including common sense and plain personal comfort. "I'm told I need one of the gold tigers to be a main sweetheart just for metaphysical reasons." WHY. Why does she need to keep leveling up? She's already one of the biggest, baddest, and strongest metaphysical force out there, especially now that the Big Bad has been done away with. In the hands of a better writer, the last few books of Anita's power rising could be the setup for something different, for Anita taking over entirely, dominating everyone, including Jean-Claude, and doing something with all that power, rather than just... whatever the hell it is she's been doing since Narcissus in Chains.

I just can't do it anymore. When the story went from Anita Blake, the Executioner, to Anita Blake, the nymphomaniac, I hoped that she would pull it together and get back to kicking butt and taking names. I kept getting the books and being disappointed. Its horrid when one of your favorite series goes to crap (Anne Rice anyone?). The more I read, the more I realize that this author apparently has some personal issues with her sexuality and her weight (seriously. half the series describes her as a tiny thing , only to later start throwing in comments everywhere about real women being bigger than a size 5 and having curves). Go to a therapist, please. No one wants their strong female lead to become a constant victim. Not inspiring at all for her to be stuck in some (meta)physical sex gauntlet. I can appreciate a good love scene here and there, but if I wanted porn with no plot I would just get porn. I just can't read any more about small, loose body parts, and screaming, and gouging her lovers, and how she just goes stupid when she sees a naked man. If you're going to put so much sex in your book, at least try to vary things a little. Needless to say, I'm done. Unless I hear that the Executioner is back, I'm not buying another book from her.

I can't help it, I love Anita, her world and the life she lives, and Hamilton doesn't disappoint. Anita is finally starting to wear her life more easily, understanding what will make her, and those around her most comfortable.... And she's actually starting to accept it. The one sad thing is one of my favorite boyfriend/lovers may be leaving, I agree it's the best idea, but it's still sad to see him go.

This book is another disappointment from Hamilton. The plot is derivative. The characters get no better. The little character development you do see is so trite and forced you have to wonder if schizo behavior is becoming the norm. There is less sex, so that is something, but sex and love and relationships are still the main part of the plot.
Where is the necromancy? The detective work? The mystery? I don't mean the mystery of what anita is going to let up into her body this time, I mean real mystery.
I've given the series ages to get better and it just doesn't seem to. It's not even that I mind sex in books, I don't mind kink, I don't even mind of overabundance of sexual partners for Anita. I do mind that some full on romance novels I've been loaned have had more plot, character and depth. I mean, really, she should be ashamed. I can't be any happier that I didn't purchase the last few books and instead borrowed them because it would pain me greatly to know I supported this crap effort that she is now calling writing. If Anita and her world are no longer interesting for Hamilton she really should just put it to bed, it jumped the shark ages ago, it's not improving, the series should be put down.

If you are new to Anita Blake, just stop the second it seems to go south to you...do yourself a favor and don't keep reading hoping for improvement. It will never come.

Another great read in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series. In Kiss the Dead, LKH has brought back in some of us fans favorite characters from the earlier books, the RPIT Squad. She has returned Anita to fighting crime, instead of settling disputes between her multiple lovers. I read the book from front cover to back cover in 24 hrs. While I enjoy reading some of her more 'spicier' scenes, I admit, that in a few of her last books, she paid too much attention to Anita's personal life as plot points, instead of focusing more attention on what Anita does best: solving crimes and fighting off the supernatural bad guys. I'm glad that in Kiss the Dead she's found a nice balance between Anita's personal and professional lives.

Ok- I was really prepared to dislike this book. Or at least be lukewarm about it. I haven't been really excited for and about Anita n Crew for awhile now. The last book I really liked was...I'd have to say Harlequinn. For me, everything since then has just gone down hill.

BUT! Kiss The Dead was a very nice suprise :) It read more like the previous Anita books than any of the "new" ones we've had since Blood Noir. Even better, it was low on angst where Anita is concerned with her life. Not that there wasn't any...After all it IS Anita :) It was more police work than boyfriend drama and even that was low. Except for Asher, of course. However, we finally see Anita and JC smack the baby down and let him know that they are done putting up with his crap! FINALLY!
So for anyone uncertain aboout whether they can really tolerate another angst filled, guilt ridden Anita who doesn't do anything but have sex....Don't give up yet! Try Kiss The Dead. I think you'll be pleasantly suprised, too. :)

I had high hopes for this book, while I still dislike many of the aspects of where she has gone with the characters, LKH seems to be trying to bring back the magic of the earlier books. For instance, a mystery takes up the first portion of the book, and even a mention of the penguin collection and Sigmund! But it all came crashing down once the sex started.

LKH had a real gift for character development...in the earlier books, the writing itself was terrible but the characters were very much alive. This is why so many people love this series...for the characters! I myself am partial to the vamps - she is the vampire hunter, after all. But what has happened in the series is that she's taken on too many characters to give each a true personality. Jean-Claude and the other favorites have been sidelined in favor of newer fetish characters. (Anita and Merry love their one-eyed, damaged men, yes?). Many of the characters have the same voice as Anita herself. I found myself hoping for some of the newer characters to be killed off. Sad, but true. The newer men are just a vehicle for sex.

Ah, yes, the sex. This is what killed the story in Kiss The Dead. It was rolling along smoothly until Anita needed to feed the ardeur. Then a couple of lame plot devices to allow Anita to have sex with the man LKH wanted her to. As much as I despise the ardeur, the sex used to be hot. Now, not so much. I could barely get through that portion of the book...the sex was wooden and technical. No fire. I'm tired of hearing about Anita's magic tightness. Tired of hearing the characters discuss what they are going to do or just did. No one does that! Sex is not fun if you analyze every aspect of it! And when the characters speak and act like Anita herself it's just weird.

The end of the story was rushed. It was as if after writing all the sex scenes, there was a moment of, oh yeah, I need to finish the story! So a quick wrap up was tacked on at the end. LKH really needs to get back to the story....there were many times in the book where something was mentioned (like the new vampire council) where I was left wondering if I missed something. I barely remembered some of the stuff from earlier books, because things that should be important points in the lives of the characters are glossed over in favor of you know what. I would love to see the characters pared down, see Anita raise some zombies and hang out with Jean-Claude. You know, the things that made the books great. The reasons why you can overlook the writing style and dive into the book. LKH, if you are bored with Anita, or can't bring yourself to come up with a good story, please do all the loyal fans a favor a take a break. Write some dirty porn and get all that out of your system, and come back and give Anita a real story.

Read it if you are a loyal fan, but get it from the library.

I wasn't even going to write a review after reading this book. It just seemed pointless, but after a few weeks a friend asked if I had read it and would I recommend she read it. Well - - that started my tantrum, so here I am. I will try to not stomp my feet.

This book actually starts out with some promise. There is a rebel gang of bad vamps in St. Louis (no traveling for a change)and the RPIT is called in. This includes those old favorites, Dolph and Zebrowski. I had actually almost forgotten about them. We also have the return of Larry Kirkland - who was once Anita's protegee'. The bad guys in this are barely bad guys - they are newbie vamps without much power and are petried of Anita due to her reputation as a Vampire Hunter. That is when it all goes to pot.

Larry suddenly hates Anita for being a "monster". This, of course upsets her and she drones on about it. Only Zebrowski understands her - give me a break!!! Our victim is quickly rescued and there appears to be no real threat to St. Louis. This mystery felt contrived - there was no real effort to scare us or to make us think this poor 15 year old girl was going to really suffer.

Anita used to be complex - now she is just a whiner. If a man does not like her, it's because he is jealous of her skills and the number lovers in her bed. She always feels like she has to prove herself and won't shut up about it. I think she has penis envy and wishes she were a man.

Now onto the home life - there is much angst about loving so many men and having sex with them and a teenager and a woman and then how beautiful they all are...blah blah blah. This is the theme of the book - actually the theme of the past 8 books or so.

Ms. Hamilton repeats herself from book to book so much that one could literally take out pages from one book and just keep using those in the next books.

The Good:
Zebrowski and Dolph are back
She mentions her stuffed penguin, Sigmund.

The Bad:
Larry is a hater
Asher is on the outs again with the whole "family"
No sex with JC
No Richard at all

Speaking of sex - she almost kills Nicky during sex. Asher bites her mouth to much, which causes an uproar in the group because then Anita cannot service anybody orally for the night. Really!!!! That is the big concern??? Holy Cow - I almost wanted to poke my eyeballs out with that one. How dare Asher ruin her for everybody for almost a few hours, because as we know, Anita recovers quickly and then her mouth is hard at work again.

I only with Ms. Hamilton's imagination was hard at work.

This book is the end of the line for me. I will no longer put money in LKH's pocket as I feel she is no longer worth reading. The police work exists only to show how much better Anita is than everyone. Completely ridiculous scenes like the oft mentioned hanging upside down by her stilleto and running around an active hostage situation in the same outfit just prove how incredibly out of touch LKH has become. These scenes do not make Anita look tough, manly or even reasonably intelligent, they make her look like an imbecile. Characters are re-written to suit LKH's whim of the moment and things that could have been interesting story development, like Dolph's sudden acceptance of vampires, are treated with a contemptous, vague, hand waving throw away paragraph. Instead we get pages of description, exposition of the same subject repeatedly and blatant info dumps that kill any forward progression in the story. Copy and paste is not an author's friend but it seems like LKH was so desperate to make pages that she repeats the same info, sometimes less than a page or two previously. The main plot of rogue vampires which was supposedly so desperately important is abandoned by LKH in favour of more boring sex scenes and some of the most rubbish, angst ridden pages ever seen in an Anita Blake book. Really? I mean really, really? There is a crisis situation but lets go home, boink four guys, have a pointless argument that sees the ejection of what was once a main character and then go to sleep. And lets not even get into the completely pointless insertion of scenes where Anita's hygiene habits are explored, why? why where these added to the books unless LKH is so desperate to shock her readers that she's willing to let them believe that Anita has all the hygiene habits of a dung beetle? Then as per usual with these books lately the so called plot is wrapped up in a few pages with no tension and no real drama. How can there be tension and drama when LKH herself has said she has a deal with Anita that none of her sweeties will ever be hurt? There was no real threat and because there was no real threat the whole end scene was beyond pointless. Until and if LKH is willing to see her characters hurt the books aren't worth reading. Until and if LKH is willing to admit that Anita isn't the biggest and bestest at everything the books will contiue to spiral into angst ridden cheerleading with the same mechanical sex scenes and contiued character assasinations. As I'd lay good money on LKH never being willing to write a story where Anita doesn't get to show up everyone I can honestly say that I will never again read or buy one of her books. What talent she had as an author is gone, Anita needs to be laid to rest and probably should have been several books ago.

I think this will be the last Anita Blake book I try and read.

I know...I know...at some point we stopped investing in a plot or Anita's role as a US Marshall/Vampire Executioner and started in on the sex and angst train and I actually didn't miss the plots at first because the sex and supernatural mind-games were still interesting, but now enough is definitely enough.

There is an attempt at a plot here in the first part of the book involving a group of teen and children and geeks and "soccer mom" type vamps, but then we just devolve into sex scenes with characters I don't even really much remember, they are so NOT Jean-Claude or Asher or Micah or anyone I care about. Yeah, there is one bit with Anita and Micah and Nathanial that I appreciated, but...none of this holds a candle to the first few books in this series and I can't stand any more Anita angst and one more addition to her harem and who cares about telling a rip-roaring tale when you can just dump them all into a king-sized bed somewhere?

These books started off good, but now I feel like the author is just going through the motions (barely). They could still be good if only she'd invest in a decent plot and drop most of the sex...if she still wants to write the sex, then write it and put it in some supernatural erotica anthology instead. I used to like Anita, but if I have to read one more book where she is worried about being a "monster" and whether she loves some teen-age Blue Tiger guy or whoever, I will toss the book across the room.

This is the last Anita book I will read. Thanks...

Maybe it is time for the Anita Blake books to either take a different turn in the road or Hamilton should consider laying her to rest. It is almost as if the author doesn't want to say goodbye to the characters, because they mean so much to her.
How about a side series with just one of the characters?
Anyway despite being an avid reader of the Blake books I have been underwhelmed with the last few offerings. Some of them have been very short. This story is repetitive and lacks Hamiltons original spark.

Although there are glimpses of the original feisty vampire hunter unfortunately they are lost between the usual 'think, think, think' dilemmas Blake usually has.
You would think by now, book 21 she would have figured out whether she is indeed a monster or just a monster killer. She spreads so much loving around it is a wonder the woman can stand up in the mornings. Although saying that there are less naughty scenes than usual.
Where is Olaf? He is one of the most oddball interesting characters and I believe Skin Trade (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter 17) was one of the best in the series.
I like Hamilton and her creative ideas, so I will still buy her next offering. I just hope she will either clean the slate and start fresh with a new concept or take Anita back to the vampire hunter we love to read about.
AVP-UK

I have been a long time reader of Ms. Hamilton. I agree that her earlier books had more plot, and less sex, but Ms. Hamilton did OK with this book. Is it the same quality as her earlier works, no, but it is better. Have any one of you tried to write a series, keep it fresh, but still have the characters stay...well, in character. It is VERY difficult to write fresh, regardless of how much money is paid either by the publishing companies or the readers. It is getting better, just hang in there. This encouraging note is for both readers and author.

Crap. Just crap. Save your money and go to the Dairy Queen instead. The biggest question I have about the book is how the publisher still lets her submit a steaming load like this. Makes me mad I could have been cleaning the oven instead of wasting my time reading it. Do not buy. Do not borrow. Don't even read it over some guys shoulder on the bus.

I've been an Anita Blake fan since the very first book. Sadly, the series has veered too far from it's early days for my taste. While I liked this book in general, and Hamilton has gotten back to having a real story, I miss the days when I didn't need a score card to keep track of all her men. That being said, I will continue to read these books as long as the author keeps writing them, because despite the flaws, she knows how to hook a reader. Consider me hooked.

I'm not really sure what happened to Laurell K. Hamilton. I used to love her books, Obsidian Butterfly is likely my very favorite of them all.

I remember when I first picked up The Lunatic Cafe. I devoured the book, then went and read the first three books back to back; I hadn't seen anything like it, and I loved everything about it. The mix of Vampires and Werewolves, the tension between Richard and Jean Claude.

It was sexy, it was vibrant, there was a PLOT. Whatever happened between Obsidian Butterfly and Narcissus is a mystery to me, but it changed everything.

The characters are stale, there are so many men and women in her life that I forget who they all are sometimes. In this book I literally fliped over whole chapters that involved sex, I skimmed the numerous descriptions of Nathaniel's violet eyes, Micah's slender body which was tiny and with whom she could share clothes. *YAWN* Does she hit F3 and descriptive line #24 comes out?

At least this time I didn't have to read a post about how she could taste someones pulse like candy in her mouth, but perhaps this was because I didn't bother to read the sex parts.

The Anita Blake series used to be strong, witty, and a good read, now it is just a poor excuse for the author to get her rocks off.

Always exciting and filled with adventure, action, emotion and love. I can not wait for more. I am waiting patiently for her next Meredith Gentry book so I can find out what happen to the twins as I always wait to find out what is happening with Anita and the clan. She has become a part of my family and I love to read or listen to audio about their adventures. Her and Jean Claude are always a pleasure and the relationship between Micah, Nathaniel and herself are beyond words. Her extended family can't help but love them and know that they love and will protect her. It is always a pleasure to pick up one of her books and I usually can't put it down till its read all the way through. I am ready for the next one and read a
lot of her books several times over.

I was so looking forward to reading this book, hoping that the series could be saved, but I give up. The original books were so interesting and imaginative, that I couldn't put them down until the last page. I have read several over and over, loving the characters, as they grew more interesting and entwined, as the books went on. Anita was tough, but vulnerable. Jean Claude's mysterious sex appeal kept you coming back to hopefully learn more of his mystic. Edward was invincible, and would show up when needed. Anita's turmoil between Richard and Jean Claude, kept you reading and reading.
Then, things began to get so repetitive; why read a previous book. Most of the books involved endless recaps of previous characters. I've heard the same description of so many characters from book to book, that I could scream. He was 6'8' and looked like a wrestler (yeah, we all know that) If you read series books, you can recall all this info, that's why you go from one book to the next; you want to see what happens next. We don't need to start all over, with character descriptions (word for word). A short recap from the ending of the previous book, will do.
This book had the start of a good book. We had a mystery unfolding with the young and old vampires not wanting to be part of Jean-Claude's flock, Anita was doing some police work, then if just seemed to get extremely boring. Anita is tired of her job, she goes into great detail describing everything about every lover she has, then has detached sex with them; then on to the next. She toots her horn quite a bit, and we all know she's short (and I really don't care how tall Anita is). It's just getting boring. We finally get back to the mystery of the young vampires at the end of the book, and it gets wrapped up in a few pages.
Anita just isn't interesting anymore....as she said, she likes her life, it's become complacent. Jean-Claude has been stripped of all his appeal, there's just nothing to look forward to.. I'm so disappointed, Ms Hamilton let it come to this. She should of ended this series a long time ago, before she destroyed these amazing characters, and let it become the dribble that it is.

I've read every book in the Anita Blake, vampire hunter, series and can truly say I enjoyed every one. Anita always grew as a character and there were "core" values that ran through all the books, e.g., that Jean-Claude loved Anita more than anyone else. So why in the world, when Asher injures Anita in anger and Lillith, the were doctor, suggests to JC that he take Anita for a bath in his big tub, why, why, why, would JC leave Anita to go off to have sex with Asher because Asher wants him to? Sure, Jean-Claude has announced that Asher has to leave for a month as punishment for hurting Anita and to see if he can become the master in another city, but that was so off character that I'm not sure that Laurell Hamilton even wrote this book.

Then there were all the unresolved plot points, such as, why and what happened to all the various age vampires that the rogue master created that were trying to kill Anita? Why are there, again, police captains who are so incensed by Anita that they blast their careers? Why did she waste so much of the book giving the back stories of the characters? Was this book written as a stand-alone book for people who have not read any of the other books? Did the publisher insist Ms. Hamilton write the book this way?

As a very devoted fan of Laurell Hamilton, I was so disappointed in this book. Something went very wrong here. Let's just hope that Ms.Hamilton can get herself back together and give us another Anita Blake novel in which Anita will exhibit ongoing growth in powers and personality, and that will have a decent plot that will be realistically resolved, and that all the secondary characters will grow and change along with Anita. If she can't write that kind of book anymore, then, please, don't get our hopes up with another painful, pointless book like this one.

The reviews below detail pretty much everything we can say about this book.

I will also add that her muse decided to take either a sabbatical period because after Flirt, Bullet, Hit List and now this one is just not worth your money to buy. I used to be #1 fan, loved cerulean sins, the harlequin, dance macabre.... now it has no inspiration. The events happen without plot. Characters you fall in love with just disappear completely next book.

And the "I do not have room to love another one" is getting realllllllllllllllllllly tiring. Plus it looks like Mrs Hamilton loves her own jokes because we have the same one 3 times in this book! I am not sure how I could finish it... I was hoping till the end but it was useless. From my fav author, she let me down more and more each time after Flirt... But this one is the top of the cake :(

Mrs Hamilton... if you are not inspired by Anita Blake anymore and if just write to pay your bills, turn to another series. Obviously #21 is your limit in this series.

I am now very (VERY) suspicious that #9 merry gentry will be readable... I may wait some reviews before I even buy it.

Mary's Naughty Whispers

I keep coming back for more and keep getting disappointed. This time I saved my money and went to the library for the latest LKH release. I didn't even contemplate Beauty thanks to the reviews on here. I was hoping we'd have a real plot to evolve through the course of the several hundred pages. I think it was resolved by page 100. The rest of the page are dedicated to sex, which I like but don't want 400 pages of his hand went there while i bent my knee here so he could put his face there. I end up skimming through the scenes because I don't need a blow by blow (pardon the pun).

At this point the character development is so shoddy that I don't remember most of the characters mentioned in this story save for the few main ones that were developed in the early books. There was a thread of hope with the turning of Larry Kirkland against Anita but no, they just let that blow off in the breeze. The ending is contrived and over in a few pages. No tension. No real struggle. Nothing.

And I have a real hard time not seeing Anita as a pedophile. Why isn't she in jail for Cynric? Was it really necessary to keep sleeping with him? Why did we need one more thing she can hate herself for and whine about to the reader and everyone else?

Sigh. I know I need to stop reading. I did once before. I skipped a few. LKH is making me want to skip more.

Well, I just finished this book (big, weary, disappointed sigh). Even after reading lots of negative reviews, I had to see for myself.

If you haven't noted in previous books that Anita is small, tiny, short, etc, you will be reminded about 30 times in this latest offering. Also, if she uses the f-bomb once, she uses it about 150 times throughout the book. She often ends sentences by repeating it 3-4 times. She sounds like a kid who just learned how to swear, which was really annoying. Then there was twice where I thought I was having deja vu, because she reuses the same sentence, almost word for word. As with the last several books, the excessive descriptions of everyones' clothing, eyes, and hair were there as well.

There are entirely too many characters to keep up with now. The author keeps trying to make all of them important, which ends up making none of them important. She has stated that she can't just get rid of any of them, because they are so real to her. Ok fine, but there seems to have been no trouble forgetting some past key players, like Cherry and Zane. What the heck happened to them? And where are Requiem, Gregory, Louie, Irving, and some of the others? If they've been mentioned in the last few books, their parts were so minute, I can't recall them. And getting rid of characters can (and has been) done; Haven was disposed of a few books back, and we all survived it. I actually liked him, and his death was brutal and shocking, but man was that some good story-telling! I never saw it coming, and it was like a glimpse back to the Anita from the old days.

Stephen's girlfriend, Vivian, was referred to as Vanessa in this book. Hm, might want to have a talk with that new continuity editor. Dolph is like a dismissable bit player now, and why do all of the other women have to be jealous of Anita? How absurd. I could also have done without the overload of "polyamorous" and "heteroflexible" education as well. Could have figured all of that out on my own, thanks. There is way too much unnecessary filler and way too little actual plot, which sadly, has become expected.

At this point, I wish Belle Morte would come in and give them all a spanking (no sex involved, please), just some good old, ancient vamp butt-kicking. Especially after the ridiculous concerns when Anita's mouth is injured. The men are all supposedly so in love with her, but instead of worrying that she is hurt...well, you gotta read it to believe it. I did a double take.

Why do I keep reading? Same reason most of us do. This series was on the top of my list of all time favorites. Still is, it just ends for me after The Harlequin. That one and all that came before it were so good, I've read them all 3 times. But, sadly, I've sold or given away the books that came after that. It's like a train wreck; I have to keep looking, I have to see what happens next, even if I don't like it. I'm one of the loyal LKH fans who's holding out hope that the author I thought I knew, and know I loved, will make a reappearance.

If you don't like the sex, don't buy the book. If you don't like the vampires, don't buy the book. If you don't like Hamilton's style of writing - DON'T BUY THE BOOK.

If you wanted more police action, a little less PWP (seriously, first third of the book is just police work), and some "real" Anita- Buy this book. Buy it now.

The police stuff was pure Anita. We get more of Zerbrowski, the perfect police partner, and not just for her. The man just GETS it.

There is the usual culmination of wereanimals, though not as all over the place as it has been in the past.

Nicky. No shirt on. Enough said ;)

The end was a little anticlimactic for me. It was abrupt and maybe Hamilton could have added a bit more.

I’ve been a big fan of this series in the past, despite all the ups and downs it went through. However, I can honestly say I’m not a fan of this particular book. At first, I thought “Yes! The Anita Blake I love is back!” since there was a lot police work at the beginning of the book. The first half of the book is dedicated to preturnatural police investigations and action. Dolph and Zerbrowski are back and I honestly thought the book was headed in the right direction until Anita’s lovers made an appearance.

That’s when most of Anita’s internal dialogue switched from killing bad guys to describing her “sweeties.” I’ve come to expect multiple lovers from Anita, and unlike many readers, it really doesn’t bother me (the more, the merrier I guess). What does bother me, however, is the repetition. Each single lover gets several pages of description. After 20+ books, we get it, Anita’s lovers are beautiful, handsome, fit, etc. I don’t need to read the same description multiple times in the same book, except change the hair colour/length and eye colour depending on the man she’s describing. Also, I don’t see the point in describing their workout routines, especially when it’s repeated multiple times in the same book, and why they need to keep fit. Don’t get me wrong, a refresher is definitely okay when it comes to describing physical appearance, however, when I read more or less the same sentence a few chapters later, I feel like that’s not just bad writing, but bad editing too.

Admittedly, Laurell K. Hamilton does know how to write a great sex scene. Even though the sex scenes are often filler, they are pretty intense, steamy and amazing. They never get boring. Variety is the spice of life, especially when it comes to lovers, in Anita’s case. Another positive thing about the book is Zerbrowski, Anita’s police “partner.” Every scene he’s in is great and I really wish we could have seen more of him. The new U.S. Marshall Brice is pretty cool too, especially since he’s homosexual and doesn’t want to sleep with Anita for a change (however, he would like a chance at some of her lovers).

I’m tired of seeing this series going nowhere. I’ve invested so much time (and money!) in the series. I keep buying and reading the books, in hopes that something new will happen. The series has failed to surprise me and really entertain me in these last few books. I fear this review has become a rant so I’m going to cut it short. Am I going to read the next book? Probably. I hate not finishing a series and I would feel even worse it the next book turned out to be amazing.

Well I read Kiss the dead. What to say (it was better than Bullet) that is at least something. The book started out really good with Anita chasing bad vampires who kidnapped a teenage girl to turn her into a vampire. Then Larry Kirkland showed up for the first time in many books and he seems to hate Anita and thinks she is now a monster. This seems to be out of the blue for this character. The last time he was in a book he considered her his friend and they worried about each other. With Dolph dislike for Anita it took place over several books before he just went off the deep end so it was not unexpected, but Kirkland was. Then Anita spends time helping a new marshall with his love life and the fact that he seems to be a homosexual. I am not sure how this helped the story at all. Then she goes home and has sex with Micah and Nathaniel. Then she goes to the circus and has sex with Nicky. Then sex with Dev...So on and So on. The sex was about 40% of the book. I skipped most of it. Boring!!! Then the investigation starts up again and the story get interesting with a bomber trying to kill her and everyone she loves.

In all this did not make me believe that LKH is getting back on track with Anita's character. I love these stories and since the stories take place in my hometown it makes it more interesting for me. She made some mistakes in the book which I found disturbing. For instance Vivian the wereleopard who is engaged to Stephen the werewolf is now being called vanessa.I find this distracting in reading the stories when mistakes like this are made. For one thing these are not my characters so why can I remember their names, ages, years together as a couple but the author is unable to? I hope the next book is better because I do not want to give up on this series as so many others have. Like I said she is one of my favorite female characters. I would like to keep her that way.

I've read every book in the Anita Blake, vampire hunter, series and can truly say I enjoyed every one. Anita always grew as a character and there were "core" values that ran through all the books, e.g., that Jean-Claude loved Anita more than anyone else. So why in the world, when Asher injures Anita in anger and Lillith, the were doctor, suggests to JC that he take Anita for a bath in his big tub, why, why, why, would JC leave Anita to go off to have sex with Asher because Asher wants him to? Sure, Jean-Claude has announced that Asher has to leave for a month as punishment for hurting Anita and to see if he can become the master in another city, but that was so off character that I'm not sure that Laurell Hamilton even wrote this book.

Then there were all the unresolved plot points, such as, why and what happened to all the various age vampires that the rogue master created that were trying to kill Anita? Why are there, again, police captains who are so incensed by Anita that they blast their careers? Why did she waste so much of the book giving the back stories of the characters? Was this book written as a stand-alone book for people who have not read any of the other books? Did the publisher insist Ms. Hamilton write the book this way?

As a very devoted fan of Laurell Hamilton, I was so disappointed in this book. Something went very wrong here. Let's just hope that Ms.Hamilton can get herself back together and give us another Anita Blake novel in which Anita will exhibit ongoing growth in powers and personality, and that will have a decent plot that will be realistically resolved, and that all the secondary characters will grow and change along with Anita. If she can't write that kind of book anymore, then, please, don't get our hopes up with another painful, pointless book like this one.

The reviews below detail pretty much everything we can say about this book.

I will also add that her muse decided to take either a sabbatical period because after Flirt, Bullet, Hit List and now this one is just not worth your money to buy. I used to be #1 fan, loved cerulean sins, the harlequin, dance macabre.... now it has no inspiration. The events happen without plot. Characters you fall in love with just disappear completely next book.

And the "I do not have room to love another one" is getting realllllllllllllllllllly tiring. Plus it looks like Mrs Hamilton loves her own jokes because we have the same one 3 times in this book! I am not sure how I could finish it... I was hoping till the end but it was useless. From my fav author, she let me down more and more each time after Flirt... But this one is the top of the cake :(

Mrs Hamilton... if you are not inspired by Anita Blake anymore and if just write to pay your bills, turn to another series. Obviously #21 is your limit in this series.

I am now very (VERY) suspicious that #9 merry gentry will be readable... I may wait some reviews before I even buy it.

Mary's Naughty Whispers

I keep coming back for more and keep getting disappointed. This time I saved my money and went to the library for the latest LKH release. I didn't even contemplate Beauty thanks to the reviews on here. I was hoping we'd have a real plot to evolve through the course of the several hundred pages. I think it was resolved by page 100. The rest of the page are dedicated to sex, which I like but don't want 400 pages of his hand went there while i bent my knee here so he could put his face there. I end up skimming through the scenes because I don't need a blow by blow (pardon the pun).

At this point the character development is so shoddy that I don't remember most of the characters mentioned in this story save for the few main ones that were developed in the early books. There was a thread of hope with the turning of Larry Kirkland against Anita but no, they just let that blow off in the breeze. The ending is contrived and over in a few pages. No tension. No real struggle. Nothing.

And I have a real hard time not seeing Anita as a pedophile. Why isn't she in jail for Cynric? Was it really necessary to keep sleeping with him? Why did we need one more thing she can hate herself for and whine about to the reader and everyone else?

Sigh. I know I need to stop reading. I did once before. I skipped a few. LKH is making me want to skip more.

Well, I just finished this book (big, weary, disappointed sigh). Even after reading lots of negative reviews, I had to see for myself.

If you haven't noted in previous books that Anita is small, tiny, short, etc, you will be reminded about 30 times in this latest offering. Also, if she uses the f-bomb once, she uses it about 150 times throughout the book. She often ends sentences by repeating it 3-4 times. She sounds like a kid who just learned how to swear, which was really annoying. Then there was twice where I thought I was having deja vu, because she reuses the same sentence, almost word for word. As with the last several books, the excessive descriptions of everyones' clothing, eyes, and hair were there as well.

There are entirely too many characters to keep up with now. The author keeps trying to make all of them important, which ends up making none of them important. She has stated that she can't just get rid of any of them, because they are so real to her. Ok fine, but there seems to have been no trouble forgetting some past key players, like Cherry and Zane. What the heck happened to them? And where are Requiem, Gregory, Louie, Irving, and some of the others? If they've been mentioned in the last few books, their parts were so minute, I can't recall them. And getting rid of characters can (and has been) done; Haven was disposed of a few books back, and we all survived it. I actually liked him, and his death was brutal and shocking, but man was that some good story-telling! I never saw it coming, and it was like a glimpse back to the Anita from the old days.

Stephen's girlfriend, Vivian, was referred to as Vanessa in this book. Hm, might want to have a talk with that new continuity editor. Dolph is like a dismissable bit player now, and why do all of the other women have to be jealous of Anita? How absurd. I could also have done without the overload of "polyamorous" and "heteroflexible" education as well. Could have figured all of that out on my own, thanks. There is way too much unnecessary filler and way too little actual plot, which sadly, has become expected.

At this point, I wish Belle Morte would come in and give them all a spanking (no sex involved, please), just some good old, ancient vamp butt-kicking. Especially after the ridiculous concerns when Anita's mouth is injured. The men are all supposedly so in love with her, but instead of worrying that she is hurt...well, you gotta read it to believe it. I did a double take.

Why do I keep reading? Same reason most of us do. This series was on the top of my list of all time favorites. Still is, it just ends for me after The Harlequin. That one and all that came before it were so good, I've read them all 3 times. But, sadly, I've sold or given away the books that came after that. It's like a train wreck; I have to keep looking, I have to see what happens next, even if I don't like it. I'm one of the loyal LKH fans who's holding out hope that the author I thought I knew, and know I loved, will make a reappearance.

If you don't like the sex, don't buy the book. If you don't like the vampires, don't buy the book. If you don't like Hamilton's style of writing - DON'T BUY THE BOOK.

If you wanted more police action, a little less PWP (seriously, first third of the book is just police work), and some "real" Anita- Buy this book. Buy it now.

The police stuff was pure Anita. We get more of Zerbrowski, the perfect police partner, and not just for her. The man just GETS it.

There is the usual culmination of wereanimals, though not as all over the place as it has been in the past.

Nicky. No shirt on. Enough said ;)

The end was a little anticlimactic for me. It was abrupt and maybe Hamilton could have added a bit more.

I’ve been a big fan of this series in the past, despite all the ups and downs it went through. However, I can honestly say I’m not a fan of this particular book. At first, I thought “Yes! The Anita Blake I love is back!” since there was a lot police work at the beginning of the book. The first half of the book is dedicated to preturnatural police investigations and action. Dolph and Zerbrowski are back and I honestly thought the book was headed in the right direction until Anita’s lovers made an appearance.

That’s when most of Anita’s internal dialogue switched from killing bad guys to describing her “sweeties.” I’ve come to expect multiple lovers from Anita, and unlike many readers, it really doesn’t bother me (the more, the merrier I guess). What does bother me, however, is the repetition. Each single lover gets several pages of description. After 20+ books, we get it, Anita’s lovers are beautiful, handsome, fit, etc. I don’t need to read the same description multiple times in the same book, except change the hair colour/length and eye colour depending on the man she’s describing. Also, I don’t see the point in describing their workout routines, especially when it’s repeated multiple times in the same book, and why they need to keep fit. Don’t get me wrong, a refresher is definitely okay when it comes to describing physical appearance, however, when I read more or less the same sentence a few chapters later, I feel like that’s not just bad writing, but bad editing too.

Admittedly, Laurell K. Hamilton does know how to write a great sex scene. Even though the sex scenes are often filler, they are pretty intense, steamy and amazing. They never get boring. Variety is the spice of life, especially when it comes to lovers, in Anita’s case. Another positive thing about the book is Zerbrowski, Anita’s police “partner.” Every scene he’s in is great and I really wish we could have seen more of him. The new U.S. Marshall Brice is pretty cool too, especially since he’s homosexual and doesn’t want to sleep with Anita for a change (however, he would like a chance at some of her lovers).

I’m tired of seeing this series going nowhere. I’ve invested so much time (and money!) in the series. I keep buying and reading the books, in hopes that something new will happen. The series has failed to surprise me and really entertain me in these last few books. I fear this review has become a rant so I’m going to cut it short. Am I going to read the next book? Probably. I hate not finishing a series and I would feel even worse it the next book turned out to be amazing.

Well I read Kiss the dead. What to say (it was better than Bullet) that is at least something. The book started out really good with Anita chasing bad vampires who kidnapped a teenage girl to turn her into a vampire. Then Larry Kirkland showed up for the first time in many books and he seems to hate Anita and thinks she is now a monster. This seems to be out of the blue for this character. The last time he was in a book he considered her his friend and they worried about each other. With Dolph dislike for Anita it took place over several books before he just went off the deep end so it was not unexpected, but Kirkland was. Then Anita spends time helping a new marshall with his love life and the fact that he seems to be a homosexual. I am not sure how this helped the story at all. Then she goes home and has sex with Micah and Nathaniel. Then she goes to the circus and has sex with Nicky. Then sex with Dev...So on and So on. The sex was about 40% of the book. I skipped most of it. Boring!!! Then the investigation starts up again and the story get interesting with a bomber trying to kill her and everyone she loves.

In all this did not make me believe that LKH is getting back on track with Anita's character. I love these stories and since the stories take place in my hometown it makes it more interesting for me. She made some mistakes in the book which I found disturbing. For instance Vivian the wereleopard who is engaged to Stephen the werewolf is now being called vanessa.I find this distracting in reading the stories when mistakes like this are made. For one thing these are not my characters so why can I remember their names, ages, years together as a couple but the author is unable to? I hope the next book is better because I do not want to give up on this series as so many others have. Like I said she is one of my favorite female characters. I would like to keep her that way.

First off let me say I am a huge fan of Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake series. I have read all of them. I did not really like this book. The cases that Anita covers are usually way more interesting and harder to figure out. The drama and threat of the climatic moment in the past case have raised my blood pressure, this time not so much. And again very sorry and I never thought I would say this but maybe there are just too many men in Anita's life. There defitnely at least for me was way to many rushed sex scenes. I remeber reading the first sex scene in Killing Dance between Jean Claude and Anita and being so very happy, now I kinda wanna skip the sex scenes because there are just so many of them and none really stand out anymore. I am very sad to give this book 3 stars. The plot was very shallow, spending time in Anita's head was just way to boring and the sex scenses were dry and did not stand out.

Seriously I should have just stopped reading this torture chamber. Ugh it was just completely zero plot, wait I made a mistake half a plot cuz the police part took my attention like for three seconds then it was all her freaking relationships. Really the book should have been called Anita deals with her relationships. She finally admits being polyamorous but we already knew it. I am tired of her retarded crap about being the dude in the relationship. Seriously she should just turn herself into a dude and get it over with. The story had no plot, it was lame at best. Dead bodies, as usual, but it felt like the character was disasociated from it. Finally they do something about Asher (he had me up the wall). We did not even get to read about that sex scene (Asher and Jean)! What a let down. The police finally treat her a little bit nicer or with some respect, but really the book was completely dull. I don't think I will be reading this series anymore. I hope Hamilton takes up Merry Gentry series to sort of get out of this corner she backed herself into. Hopefully she won't ruin that seires either. I sincerely hope this review was helpful.

I think that I'm about done with this series too. It is so hard to connect with the main characters, because there doesn't really seem to be any main characters any more! There's way too many people in Anita's life to be able to feel connected with them. Why would Hamilton feel like she needs to add a new man into Anita's life every book? Ever since the Ardeur came into play in Anita's life, I feel that it has ruined the series. Hamilton has dug herself into a hole and I don't see any resolution to any of the relationship problems. 21 books later and the readers still don't know what the eff is going on with any of them. Will anything ever really be resolved?!

Another thing that's bothering me about this book is all the random tangents Hamilton writes. For instance, when a lieutenant was yelling at Anita, she could taste his anger and she realized it was because he was scared and grieving. So, then she went off on a whole paragraph about grief, the stages of grief and so on. which was really unnecessary.

I don't mind all the sex in the book, but the only people I want to hear about are Richard and Jean-Claude ;) and apparently that's never going to happen. I can't stand any one else...

I'm so over it.

I actually returned the book, not even completely read, because it is just that bad.

I used to love the Anita books -eagerly waiting to read each new one as it was published. But the glow faded and I became irritated rather than charmed. I accept that most series slowly erode over time and become repetitious or bland but this is the first time I've ever put a book written by a previously liked author down - a record 15% of the way through and walked away.

Previously, I dealt with increasing continuity errors, weird inexplicable jumps in time with life altering events taking place, repetitive descriptions, poorly written erotica and a hodgepodge of grammatical issues but I kept finding glimmers of hope within the book - be it character interaction or a fun fight scene but no more. I don't even truly have the words or the time to describe how horrific - how cartoon-ish and offensive - I found what little I could stomach to read made me.

Disappointed doesn't even begin to cover how this novel made me feel. I am done with Anita Blake and LKH for good - not even if I could check it out for free from the library.

... it's indifference.

I used to be angry with LKH for what she was doing to her characters but now I'm simply bored. Once you remove the sex, you realize how badly written the books and how smug and insufferable Anita's tone is. Goodness she has experienced so much and learnt so little! Even the more dashing men, JC and Micah, are becoming ciphers. I read the first 50 or so pages and then put it down with a sigh of relief. This is my Sunday, this is not work, I don't have to read it if don't want to... I've found my happy spot of indifference.

I never put spoilers in my reviews.
For adults.
To me, a Master Storyteller is as a Master Bard who uses words rather than music to grasp your imagination and make their vision yours. When we had mostly oral- rather than written- history, Master Storytellers were revered. They traveled from tribe to tribe, settlement to settlement, etc., gathering history-to-be and sharing news, history, tradition, and so on, bringing it to life for their listeners. Today this rare talent is shared in print and has the potential to reach millions.
Ms. Hamilton has that talent and we are, blessed, is the only word that comes to mind, that she shares it with us.
While great, these aren't easy stories, nor for the faint of heart. You don't so much suspend belief as you just believe. They embody life and love and hate and death in a rich tapestry that simply takes you in and makes you lose time. It's no wonder she is one of the top bestselling authors.
Read, believe, and come away richer for the experience.

It's been a while since I've really found anything to unequivocally like about the Anita Blake series, but I have to say that I absolutely adore the narrator for the series, Kimberly Alexis. She's absolutely fabulous and pretty much the only reason I was able to make it through the book as a whole.

One of the biggest problems for the series is that Hamilton is too repetitive, which is also one of the biggest problems for Kiss the Dead. She pelts the reader with description after description of the hair, eyes, and clothes of various characters. Some of this wouldn't be so bad except that Hamilton will re-describe characteristics that she's already described earlier in the book. I felt like screaming every time she beat me over the head with the "natural born tigers have tiger eyes, it's a sign of purity to them" bit, which she re-states over and over and over again. I think I actually screamed "I *got* it, Laurell. I haven't forgotten that!" at one point.

The constant references to Anita as a "guy" was pretty annoying as well. For some reason at least a third to a fourth of the book (if not more) is taken up by Anita and others talking and thinking about how she's presumably one of the only women on earth capable of understanding guys or being able to do "guy code". Women are routinely painted as creatures who must talk about their feelings for a half hour in order to get a point across and men that can't instantly get information from other guys they know are painted up as wimps or lesser. I've ignored this for the most part, but it just seemed a little overly offensive at times in this book. I know that Hamilton doesn't mean for it to come across as such and really only wants to use it to make Anita more special and more tough, but it's really just annoying. Even worse, it's boring. If it was just annoying it could be used to enhance the book, but at this point it's such an over stated and redundant character point that I just felt bored and was tempted to fast forward past this part.

The other downfall of the book was Hamilton's attempts to force the character of Anita into specific situations. I'm guessing that Cynric (now dubbed "Sin") is going to become the latest serious sweetie in a chain of others. Now I'm fully aware of his controversial introduction, but that actually didn't play too much into this. It's just that I can't quite see him as someone Anita is supposedly going to maybe fall in love with. I see Anita liking him and enjoying the sex, but love? Nah. There's actually less romantic tension between them than there is/was with Anita and Jason. I just can't help but get the feeling that Hamilton is trying to push a romance between them and I'm not sure why. There's really no point to it and his character isn't interesting enough (even with the controversy) to where he really needs to be such a central focus.

What makes the above so frustrating is that Hamilton pours over all of this, extending it out for chapters at a time. It made the book tedious, which is a shame: there's some good points to this book that would've really shone if it was about 100 pages shorter. One of the things I enjoyed about Flirt was that it was a novella and as such, cut through all of the nonsense that Hamilton usually tries to fit into her books. We're given some good plot points, such as vampires that want to be "free" of any master, a potential resolution to the Asher drama, and control over the ardeur and new dangers it might hold. It's just that these are mostly and inexplicably moved to the side in favor of dragging out the same tired old relationship dramas, the boring and repetitive praising of Anita, and monotonous sex scenes.

I do have to say that Hamilton does seem to be slowly, very slowly improving, but this isn't enough for me to jump aboard the Anita Blake bandwagon again. However, as long as the marvelous Kimberly Alexis continues to narrate the books, I'll continue to check out the audiobooks from my library. I absolutely love her voice and her reading style. I guess I'll just hope that Hamilton will eventually dig herself out from the rut she's fallen into and will give Alexis a book that will do her voice justice.

Two out of four stars

Mrs. Hamilton's book used to be a must have for me. I mean to the point that I would pre-order them. "..used to be..."

Basically, everyone's already said the same thing. This book is not what it used to be and there's just too much personal life and not nearly enough Mystery!

That's a basic sum up. Here's another: The book starts out with such potential!!! We're finally back in the early days of Anita when it was about the case! For a good half to just over half the book there's all cops and case and action like stuff. Then the, now necessary, sex happens. I love sex as much as the next person but there's nothing to it anymore. The ardeur, the vampire control, the something is happening. . .Gone. The sex did have one revealing thing happen that doesn't get explained beyond "Belle Morte did that too." Okaaaaaayyy. . . After/during the sex something with Asher goes down and then with approximately 5 pages left the ending suddenly happens, everything's crappily summed up and THE END! The end was ridiculously anti-climatic and it Didn't Even Need Anita There. (Emphasis implied by CAPS.) Seriously?! SERIOUSLY?! She wasn't even needed?! A jump, a shot, the end! Wow. . .just. . wow. . .

What happened to Anita?! What happened to "The Executioner"?! Honestly. . .with the way the books have been lagging to the point that Anita didn't even solve the mystery in the last book or other (someone told her the answer and all was well) this series should probably just end. The writing has changed so much it's like a new person all together is behind the books and Mrs. Hamilton just "John Hancock's" it and done.

Also, who says: "So not." / "So too."????? Two men, admittedly one is 18, saying valley girl shit from the 90's. REALLY?! Who talks like that??? It was "so" this and "so" that the whole book. Excuse me but I didn't know I was reading a teen book. Another writing annoyance is the tendency for Anita to have a paragraph of thought and then another person looks at her or asks a question and then that whole entire paragraph is repeated. Really, now, that's just lazy writing with filler. Mrs. Hamilton, I follow you on twitter and I know you have a life but really. . .maybe writing should have more to it than you're giving it right now. Even your Merry Gentry books are suffering. A lot.

The issues people have brought up are pretty much dead on. I thought we were over this "Am I a monster?" b-s. "I don't want to be a girl.", "can I love the monsters and stay loyal to the popo?" Wasn't all this already covered?? Honestly, wasn't it?

Does anyone remember the oooold vampire that was small and looked like a prehistoric man with the forehead? That fight he kinda just gives up a bit and lets himself be defeated. That's pretty much the best foreshadowing in all her writing of where her books were gonna go. The Mother of All Freaking Darkness was gulped down-THE END. A basic Goddess-gone-THE END. I repeat - Now this ridiculously anti-climatic ending that Didn't Even Need Anita There. THE END! (Emphasis again implied by CAPS.)

Just. . .don't bother. The series is over. Poorly. It's sad but it's easier to move on now.

I am going to preface this whole review by stating that when this series started I loved it. I started reading them a couple years ago, I think at that point she was probably about 15 books in. I am at the same point now with Anita as I was with Sookie when I read the last book in that series. It's about time to start thinking about writing a new series. Or in this case, finish the Merry Gentry series!

This book, for me, was just an extension of the same old stuff that has been in the last couple books. I remember thinking this of the last one after I read it. There wasn't much actual story going on, there was a little RPIT story line. It was just enough to give the book a synopsis and wrap it all up in the normal Anita stuff. I miss when the books were actually classified as Horror instead of bordering on Erotica. I miss the books like Blue Moon, this is where the series turned from being just Horror and she had the just the right balance of love scenes in with an actual good story line.

Another problem I have had with this series from the beginning is the description and I touched on this a little in my short review of Beauty on Goodreads. I realize that this series was started in the early 90's, but there is a point when you take a series this far that you just have to modernize a little. I also realize that they are vampires and that they don't change styles that much, but it's super weird to me that the vampires wear leather, thigh high boots and frilly shirts. I am a woman who likes long hair on some men, but the long hair on the men in this series is bordering on bizarre! And I am going to say thing again here, we have been reading these books for a long time now. We know what these people look like, we don't need a 3 page, very detailed description of Nathaniel's hair, Asher's scars, Nikki's skater cut that covers his missing eye, how short Micah is, Jean Claude's curls or Claudia's height in every single book. We know that Micah is short and that Nikki is tall and muscular... I am also tired of the pages of weapon description and how she straps on all her gear and how she doesn't like to have to look for a gun if she needs one, we know all this already.

I also have to talk about the love scenes. They aren't sexy for me anymore...at all. She tipped the scale between sexy and over the top, for me anyway, about 6 books ago. I do not enjoy reading the love scenes anymore. It may just be my personal opinion, but they aren't the least bit erotic or sensual and they haven't been for a long time. Too much of a "good thing" is just too much and not good anymore. I don't want to go into any more detail about them than this.

My point is this, if you took out all the things we already know and the not so sexy love scenes, it would cut the story down to what I think would be a decent story. It would have to be built upon to make it more than a short story, but then it would be a great book. There were so many good characters left out of this book and a good new one (Brice) introduced that was just kinda dropped part way through. It's like Asher throws a little fit and at that point the story turns into the Anita / too many men drama and then there is only a little time to wrap up the good part of the story. I felt that the ending was rushed and seemed choppy since the last few chapters were really short. The end chapter was a wrap up chapter, which I don't like. I would rather have a cliff hanger, I think. I still wasn't even clear what they ended up doing with Asher!

So, for me, this wasn't a read again book. It's more of a "need to read because I have read 20 and I can't stop now" book! I would recommend this for someone who truly enjoys this series. Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion and I know that there are lots of readers out there who loved this book. I just happen to not like the direction that she has taken the series.

I just finished the book and as I did with the last two, decided to borrow from the library instead of buying. I've enjoyed this series for a long time and want to see where it all ends up after all these years. But I haven't liked the books enough over the last few years to want to pay for them or really read them again. With Kiss the Dead I was happy to see that at least half the book was dedicated to Anita in her role as a vampire hunter, working with the police and there being an actual story beyond all the sex. There also seemed to be much less talk between Anita and her men which has been so tedious in other books. The constant arguing, heart to heart discussions about every stupid feeling or insecurity and that everything has to be explained to Anita when it comes to matters of the heart. What does drive me crazy is the stupid terminology she uses when talking about the men. Her honey bunches, sweeties...etc. Or the baby talk between them. I love you. I love you more. I love you the mostest. Gag. I so wish there could be some major plot twist that would eliminate all these lovers and get back to the central relationship between Anita and Jean Claude. I can't even keep up with them all anymore. And now she's adding women to the mix? At the end of this book.....spoiler alert......I wish the bomb had gone off. Or that out of no where the ardeur would burn out. When a character becomes all powerful or the object of everybody's admiration and lust, where else is there to go with the story? There's no vulnerability or sexual tension to keep things interesting. Some of my favorite books in the series were back when she was torn between Jean Claude and Richard. For me this book was probably closer to two and a half stars but it was an improvement over some of the later installments.

In this book Anita is working again as an U.S Marshall and the Executioner with St. Louis police department and a SWAT team trying to catch a rebel group or kiss of vampires. This vampire kiss is also targeting Anita and her loved ones and she has conflict of interest between duty and protecting her "people". It's great to see how she and Dolph trust each other again and her bantering "guy" frienship with Zerbrowski. There is also a lot happeninng relationshipwise in her life.

This book had me staying up till three in the morning with only the occasional snack breaks in between. I waited for a month because of the bad ratings hoping the price would go down so it would be worth the risk. I couldn't resist anymore after reading some of the reviews people had written.

No, they weren't the praises but actually the bad reviews that made the difference. Somebody remarked how the series had worsened since the early books and many people agreed in their own reviews.

I think the opposite. To me the series has gotten better since the beginning. The first book I read from LKH was actually Narcissus in Chains. It gripped my imagination. After reading it I bought the earlier books and was disappointed by them. They were okay but only Obsidian Butterfly was great. If I had read Guilty Pleasures first I wouldn't be fan of the series and LKH wouldn't be one of my favourite authors. Every book from LKH since Obsidian Butterfly has made stay up later than I should just to know what happens next.

I don't read this series just for the interesting plot but also to see how Anita grows emotionally in each book. When You think how judgemental and afraid of emotions and differences Anita was in the beginning and see her now I at least am amazed. Yes there is a lot of sex in this series but often it highlights Anita's emotional growth or beginning a change in her personal life that doesn't actually all happen in one particular book but during several books. I don't know why LKH writes most of Anita's epiphanies happen during sex but hey that works for me. They have to happen sometime otherwise You wouldn't be interested in the characters if their personalities stayed exactly the same without learning from past experiences.

LKH is one of my favourite and most trusted authors. The difference between the rating and how I actually felt about the book is enormous. It made me question how I check the rating before trying books from new authors. So now on sample chapters are my new best friends ;)

In book 21 Anita Blake has to save a fifteen-year-old girl from some rogue vampires who have abducted her. Turns out, the group of vampires consist of teenagers, grandmas and soccer moms. All these vampires want is freedom from the dictatorial Jean-Claude, who drains their energy in order to grow his hair. Yes, that's right: to grow his hair.

I wasn't expecting much after reading some of the reviews here, but the mistakes in this book made me cringe. For example, in the first couple chapters Anita is interrogating a vampire. In order to appear friendlier she has taken the handcuffs off the vamp, Barney. A few pages later she doesn't have keys to take the broken handcuffs off his wrists so she has to borrow a set of keys from another officer. Wait... she said repeatedly she took the cuffs off, but she doesn't have a key? I can get over this (maybe she borrowed the keys the first time she uncuffed him, or she really had someone else take the cuffs off), but why would there be broken cuffs on his wrists if she had already taken them off? There are a couple more mistakes like this throughout the book.

Another annoyance comes from the repetition throughout the book. Some things are explained several time within consecutive chapters. I can't really speak for anyone else, but I think most people are capable of remembering what they read ten pages ago. So I don't need a second explanation of the preternatural football league.
Certain words are repeated over and over, to the point that it becomes a joke. (I don't think I will be using yummy anytime soon.) Also, I don't really like cursing, although I will do it under certain circumstances. In my opinion, it does not make a person though when they go around cursing at anything and everything. Unfortunately, LKH and Anita appear to have a different opinion on that topic.

I could overlook all these small, annoying mistakes, if there had actually been some tension and excitement in the book. But here the book fails miserably. At no point does the reader feel that Anita or anyone she loves is really in danger. Furthermore, the majority of the book seems to be completely unrelated to the plot. None of the sex scenes are plot-related. These scenes are also repetitive and the partners are completely interchangeable. The confrontation between Anita and the two police officers seems like just another point in the series where Anita has to justify her way of life to completely unimportant characters and the reader. The Arnet scenes are absurd and unnecessary. Also the whole Asher fight was useless for the plot. Unfortunately these things take up more than half of the book.

*Spoilers* (if you haven't read any of the other reviews)

Character development is also close to non-existent. The recurring theme whether Anita is a monster or not, is completely overdone at this point. Now it is simply repetitive whining, which is just tiring to read. The fact that Asher wants someone to love just him isn't new either, and not all that unreasonable. If I remember correctly this point was brought up more than ten books ago. The fact that Asher is sent away instead of helped or talked to in a constructive way, just shows that LKH has no idea how to write growth of character. The same can be seen in the character changes of Larry and Dolph. Both have a complete turnaround of attitude, but this all takes place off screen.
In my opinion, Anita actually goes through reverse character development. She began as such a kick-ass woman who had strong morals she stuck too. How did we go from that to a woman who starts crying after calling her boyfriends? How did Anita become a thirty-year-old, who honestly believes that eighteen-year-old boys give good advice about how to live your life? I don't even want to get into the whole Cynric situation. It's just...blech!

*End Spoilers*

On the positive side, I found it to be a fast read, didn't take me more than a day. I'm not kidding myself, I will read the next one. I tend to finish what I start, but I sure hope the series will finish sooner rather than later.

reason is i think she had some very interesting ideas to write potentially outstanding stories with. somewhere she veered off that track. I have no issues with sex in a book, but the writing of it needs to be really good and she just doesnt have the ability to write good sex scenes. I find them super awkward and worthy of a lot of eye rolls. in fact the way she uses words during her scene can conjure up some really unsexy things. Then to make matters worse these scenes can go on for like 3 chapters. So first off she needs to edit herself better...for her less is more here.
Which leads me to her fixation to tell in monotonous detail all you ever didn't need to know about guns and gear. Again less is more here. Maybe she is trying to fill a page quota...or maybe the stories have just run out for her.
the other annoying thing is LHK trying too hard to portray Anita Blake as sexy and macho... she relentlessly beats you over the head with it. what ever happened to subtly?
I would like to see her get back to Animators inc. and raise some zombies. I also think the polyamorus stuff is fine, in fact i find myself more interested in the relationship between these other characters than i am in Anita Blake at this point... she just gets in the way- maybe LKH needs to write a spin off from one of their perspectives. you have to wonder what's going on when the main character is getting in the way. i really want LKH to get out of whatever funk she is in and go back to interesting story telling. i still want to believe the potential that she still had like 10 or so books back is still there...somewhere.

on a side note, i ordered the uk version just because it had a much nicer cover. i could read it in public. why are there such cheezy book covers in the US?

I found the Anita Blake series about five years ago, and devoured them wholeheartedly. I loved the detective novel flavor they had, and I enjoyed the idea of vampires and shapeshifters in modern day St. Louis. I own all the books.
"Kiss the Dead" was the last straw for me. I am sick of reading over and over again about everyone's hairstyles. I am bored to death with Anita repeating the same exhausted phrases - for example, the look a man gets when he knows he's going to have sex - in her earlier books, one of the worst offenders was shifters who could "bench press a Toyota."
This book lacked a plot; it started out with one, and the police scenes were actually pretty interesting, but then the book devolved into the same "let's have sex and then I'll hem and haw about having sex." None of the sex is plot-driven. Each scene feels like vanilla porn with dead-eyed actors, and you wish someone would just cop to having a headache.
I don't care anymore who Anita chooses to sleep with. Several books back, I might have been sad to see a major character leave St. Louis, as happens in this novel, but no one stands out enough among her laboriously coiffed harem for me to care anymore. Even Nathaniel and Micah are little more than stuffed kitties to people Anita's California King bed. Anita constantly takes actions that she would find inexcusable in any other person, but she surrounds herself with lackeys whose free will she's sucked away and lets them lick her high-heeled boots until the guilt she's righteously feeling is assuaged.
The only way the Anita Blake series can be saved is for Hamilton to take a major turn. Jean Claude is ostensibly the head of the vampire council, though he's not seen actually doing any work, and Anita is seen by the vampires as a tool of his will. I can't see any interesting things happening if JC and Anita maintain their position at the top of the power struggle among the vampires.
I feel like there's no reconciling the Anita who began the series and the Anita in this latest book. It's extremely disappointing.

As of early June, this book is #24 in the store books, and #27 in the store Kindle. So whatever these mixed reviews are saying, it's worth bearing in mind the context of the extreme popularity of book twentysomething in a series.

I will say straight up that this is not the book to start with if you have not read the Anita Blake series. It presupposes familiarity with the characters and the world Laurell has built over 20 books.

As a long time visitor to her world, I quite liked it. I hope Laurell continues to put more attention into the "problem to be solved" (crime or whatever the problem is) aspect of her stories because when she puts attention on it, she is fantastic. She is also great at the little side stories - like a brilliant one where someone has to go to the morgue to stake someone, but it turns out the vampire was actually a doctor who took his regular daily kip in a closet at the hospital and an anti vampire person had laid him out in the morgue to get him wrongly executed. This sort of thing is dearly missed.

Another plus: Richard is not actually in the book. This merits an extra star all on its' own.

Asher is the new Richard, so hopefully he'll go away as well.

It is obvious that Laurell is finding her way between exploring all the sexual/relationship issues that have been fuelling her books since Blue Moon and actual other story. In the meantime, a new focus has been developing: Hair. I noticed a book or two back, paragraphs being devoted to peoples' hair cuts/hair styles and what there hair issues were and how they were dealing with them. This Area of Concern has been developed further in this book, to even being a plot point!

She has said she has an issue around managing a cast of so many characters, all living in the same city, and I am glad that she has resolved it by not having all the characters be there in the few days each book seems to cover.

So having said all that, this is a pretty good little visit into Anita's world for a couple of days - so 3 stars, but Richard isn't there so that's 4.

Your loyal readers have sat through one boring book after another. You say your characters write themselves, then they must love for you to not sell copies.

You want angst? You want to love the characters again?

Remove the tie between Jean Claude and Anita!

I don't care how, but get back to Anita having a life outside of the SEX! I like the sex scenes if I am reading erotica. This is labeled Fantasy/Supernatural/Mystery.

Either write the sex scenes the way you would do Eating Scenes (you know they happen but don't really need to read a dozen pages about it) or remove the link between Anita and Jean Claude.

I stopped buying your books ages ago. I pick it up at the library, it's just not worth the money.

Its done. I have read all of the books and keep hoping that they will get better. Unlike many readers I really dont mind the sex as long as there is some plot. This book had nothing that even faintly resembled a plot. I had to practically force myself to read it. The beginning of the book was horendous. I swear I read a line once and then again a few pages later. In every book Hamilton describes her men the same way. Does she just copy and paste the words from one manuscript to the other? Knowing me I will read any future books hoping against hope that they will be somwhat more readable. This one is the last one I purchase. No more wasting good money on garbage.

I just finished Kiss the Dead on my Kindle. Gladly it was not as expensive as the hardcover, which has been different for AB novels in the past.

First, let me say I have read every single Anita Blake (and Merry Gentry) book. I used to enjoy them immensely. Magic, humor, sex, violence, everything was there.

After a while, I found myself gasping incredulously at some things that happened (Anita+Damian together still creeps me out). After that, I only kept reading because after so many books, I felt I 'knew' these characters and wanted to know what they were up to. I don't enjoy the books anymore, sadly, and find myself skipping parts.

Kiss the Dead started promising with Anita being a bad-ass marshall interrogating a vampire. However, it didn't last very long. I wish Anita would spend more time crime solving and less time worrying about the possibly-hurt feelings of her men =(
At three occassions in Kiss the Dead do we read Anita's thoughts on (one of) her men, only to have these thoughts repeated the next page.

Also, if I read any character comment on either Anita or Meredith 'so wet, yet so tight' one more time, I am honestly going to vomit.

Nothing frickin happened!!! I take that back... one of the main characters got sent away, and a new agent was introduced. But other than that, nothing really happened. Anita got ruffed up a little, they went supposedly hunting vamps, which at the end of the book, most of'em were given up any way. There was no real fight scene. At least not one where your heart is racing, and you are rushing to turn the page to see what happens.

Hell, the exchange between Anita and her partner was more exciting that any of the fight scenes. After Hit List, I was excited...but I guess every book in the series can't be a home run. I think I am going to sit this series down, until she decides to end it, and then finish reading it. Waiting a whole year for a overpriced book, that did more describing of places, clothes, eyes, etc is so not worth the wait.

Hamilton, you have broken my heart...I loved Anita.

It's been over a year since I last read this entire series. When I really like a series, I like to reread the books when a new book is released. I've read the following series four times each: Anita Blake, The Sookie Stackhouse/ True Blood, and Twilight. I've learned, unfortunately, that the fourth time through makes me start to dislike the characters.
Twilight is only a truly "awesome" series if you are not much of a reader. Charlaine Harris, the author of the Sookie books, is a lazy writer. I notice things like whether Maxine Fortenbury (sp?)is Hoyt's mama in one book and his grandma in the next book. How hard is it to keep a story board that keeps track of familial ties that are so integral to the series, and to southerners in general? Repetitive dialog ...lazy. My problem with the fourth reading of all of these books has been that the characters never evolve.
I did not reread the Anita Blake series this time. In fact, I waited quite awhile to even read this book. I skipped the last book, because the reviewers here assured me that I wouldn't miss it. Some things in this book confused me, like 'who is Jade again?' I will probably read the previous book just to fill in the holes.

What did I think of Kiss the Dead? The first half was all one crime scene, in one night, one location, while Anita said over and over how much of a super cop she was, because even though she's a very short woman (5'3" mentioned one thousand times already), enjoys an eyebrow-lifting sex life, shows up at the crime scene/hostage crisis in stilettos...she's always heavily armed, speaks to men like a man, will kill anyone (scheduling a crisis of conscience later), etc., omg.
PLEASE! Do we have to suffer through this psychological meltdown crap in every book? Sure, I was glad to read that Anita seems to be happier with her love life. When did that epiphany occur? She still has so many issues that it's hypocritical to suggest to Asher that he needs therapy.
The last half of the book was rushed. The ending left me feeling cheated. Even the sex was relatively tame. What was the point of the book?
No one grew up at all. With so many living with so many others, they should be maturing at a faster rate, not slower.
I like Edward/Ted, but not all that much, so I wasn't one of the reviewers who missed him in this book. Richard was also absent, but he's the most immaturely irritating character, so that was good.
Did I like anything about it? Yeah, one of the men is getting kicked to the curb. Ugh! I'm giving up on this author until I see at least four stars on her next book. Why can't she write more Merideth Gentry books? I've only read them twice and they have less whining.

You know, I almost forgot to review this book -- that's how forgettable it was. I finished it today, after months and months of stalling, and even though it wasn't anything fancy or new, I know I'll still read the next one.

The books are what they are. This one has *a lot* of police procedural and preachy lawmaker/law enforcement rhetoric. I had to take a break for a little bit after it got to be too much for me. I would much rather just have her go back to really long bedroom scenes and lots of men. Speaking of the men, when the police talk finally ended and she went home, we didn't really get a reprieve. Yes, there was lots of sexy time, but it was overshadowed by some serious man drama. Everyone is having their feelings hurt. Everyone wants more of Anita, or more love, or more attention. It got really old pretty quickly, especially when it felt almost like filler.

The main story revolves around a group of vampires that are against Jean Claude's rule as master. See? That was straight forward, right? I actually had to think about what the story was, though, because there is so much extraneous junk going on that there wasn't a lot of time actually spent on that. Of course, Anita is the center of everything, so she keeps getting pulled into crazy situations.

I wish this series would decide if it was erotica or police procedural, because the balance was *way* off in this one.

I have been a huge fan of Laurell K Hamilton for years, and have verosiously read all of her works. I have to say this book disappointed me greatly, but then again so did her one before this (Hit List) Her writing has seemed to have deteriorated since Flirt. She has become lazy. Her books, once so well thought out and constructed have now become short works that she doesn't seem to have the energy to finsih and instead of completing the tale she started she ends it just as it climaxs and sums everything up in a short synopsis. sorry to say if she doesn't redeem herself in her next work I am going to have to leave the wonderful world of Anita Blake behind.

The Good: It's an Anita book. They were my introduction to the world of less uptight paranormal and I'll probably continue to read them to the end of the series, despite their declining quality. (I may not rush out and get them ASAP anymore though) The one thing I do really love about Kiss the Dead is that it seems like Anita has FINALLY accepted her life completely - which means no more post-coital guilt at every turn.

The Bad: I'm skimming the sex scenes. There, I said it. It's not that I don't appreciate a hot scene, but honestly, things are just getting repetitive. And overly descriptive. Because, really, how many times do readers need to be told in deep detail about all of the characters physical attributes during the course of a series? Sadly, I'm starting to wonder if this series is actually going anywhere. Like, does Hamilton have an endgame in mind? Or is this series going to continue indefinitely? It feels like the latter, based on the very limited plot progression over the last couple of books.

Imagine a train derailing and crashing in very, very slow motion... and then backing up, and crashing again. And again. And again. And again.

That's what it feels like reading "Kiss the Dead" (or more appropriately, "Kiss of Death"), the 22nd Anita Blake novel. It starts off with some promising ideas... only for Laurell K. Hamilton to get bored with all those moral issues and police problems, and devote most of the book to sex'n'wangst. Again.

A bunch of new vampires have appeared in St. Louis -- ordinary, non-goth, non-French vampires, made by the rogue Master Benjamin. Anita (who is dressed like a hooker, naturally) joins up with RPIT to track these vampires down, only to discover that they consider her a horrible monster and would rather die than be blood-oathed to Jean-Claude.

Now pretty much forget that, because nothing interesting happens in that subplot for the rest of the story.

Instead, Anita goes home and spends time with her various boytoys, including the underage Cynric and brainwashed "bride" Nicky. Asher has a massive tantrum because he doesn't like Anita and Jean-Claude having sex with random other people, and Anita's marathon sexathon with Nicky has dire consequences.

For the first few chapters, Laurell K. Hamilton seems to be making some effort to go back to when the Anita Blake series was semi-decent. She brings back RPIT and classic characters like Dolph, Zerbrowski and Larry Kirkland, and there's an actual problem with rogue vampires that has some potential moral ambiguity.

Only... Hamilton isn't really interested in that. So after a few chapters, she tosses that to the wayside, and devotes the rest of the book to four things: sex, whining, praising Anita, and sneering at "haters" (such as Kirkland, who is now inexplicably a "hater") who are just jealous of her vast harem of effeminate imaginary men.

So the rest of the book is a soupy mass of sex, sulking and long hackneyed lectures, with the occasional almost-action scene tossed in like a consolation prize. The only reason it isn't hideously boring is because it's so BAD -- there are so many silly, bizarre moments, like a vampire being exiled because he lightly injured Anita's lip. Why? Because for the next day, she can't give any of her boytoys oral sex! THE HORROR!

Anita continues to be an absurdist parody of a strong, sexual woman, flashing her thong at the entire police station and dressing like a hooker during official police business. She's also supposedly a wonderful person despite having a pedophilic relationship with a new teenage concubine and a man she brainwashed into subservience. What a saint.

The other characters are slowly becoming ghostly shadows of their former selves -- there are so many one-note characters that you can't keep track of that they all sort of blend together. The few that do stand out are the "haters" like Asher and Larry Kirkland, who just suddenly become evil meanies who dare to say mean things about poor Anita.

"Kiss the Dead" starts off with some promise, but it all gets thrown down the toilet as Hamilton falls back on what she likes best. Total trainwreck.

Sadly there are no negative stars! Hamilton was my favorite writer what happened? This book could almost entirely be cut and pasted from previous books. Has anyone else noticed the annoying habit of her characters giving long winded explanations of things they are aware of. Even the sex has tedious to read all that "well I was a good girl once" self loathing. Save your money and your walls from the banging your head against them you will inevitably do because you WASTED yet another few hours reading what you hoped would be the Hamilton of old. Try J R Ward or J D Robb they both have long running series that are still good.

I could have gone without reading and still been ok. Yes there was sex scene's, when isn't there in the book, but they are starting to get old and repetitive. I didn't start to read the book for the steamy erotica, though it was a plus. I fell in love with the book because of the plot, and the murder and the way Anita seemed to fight tooth and nail for her beliefs.

It just felt bland, especially the ending. It seemed like two pages of a conflict that got resolves so easily. I was sooo frustrated with the books, I really do wish Hamilton would go back to how the series started or end it.

Yes there is some background on Sin, Yes Asher starts making problems, but the way it was written I was not as excited as I could have been for it, it actually started to bore me, a thought that I never thought would come to be when reading one of Hamilton's works.

This book was worth the money for my collection but I probably won't re-read it.

Kiss the Dead (Anita Blake #21) by Laurell K. Hamilton
* This book is from a friend's personal library*

In the latest installment of the Anita Blake series Anita is called in to help find a missing teenage girl. She is working alongside SWAT and her old friend Zerbrowski while heading into a vampire den. They didn't realize that they were walking into a trap set specifically for Anita.

After a hard day of vampire executions, all Anita wants to do is go home to her sweeties and wash all the vampire goo off her. What she finds is trouble brewing with Asher, he is feeling sorry for himself and starting fights with the others, including Anita. She doesn't have time for his drama, especially when her sweetie is being held hostage by a fanatic with a bomb.

I have developed a love/hate relationship with this series. I remember when my brother gave me the first book in the series to read, I was hooked. I devoured all of the books up through Obsidian Butterfly and loved them. My love/hate relationship started with Narcissus in Chains when things started to really change for Anita and her men. The books started to contain a whole lot more sex and less content, yet I keep reading them.

Anita is still wrestling with her polyamorous lifestyle but she is finally becoming more comfortable with her numerous sweeties. They have all settled into a routine and everyone, but Asher, seems to be learning to share. Cin is still trying to get Anita to see him as an adult not a child because she is still struggling with his age.

To me this story seemed to drag through three quarters of the book and then the actual climax covered the last 25 or so pages. It was full of "fluff" to fill the pages and really wasn't needed; the story is a good story if you take out the extras. I think the ending made me want to throw the book, you had all the buildup and then BAM the story is over.

I did enjoy the fact that Anita is spending more time doing police work and seems to be getting back to her "roots" so to speak. There was a lot less sex in the book, don't get me wrong I don't mind sex in books but sometimes it overpowered her stories. I also love the fact that we got to see Micah, Nathanial, Jason and Jean Claude along with some of the other well-loved characters. I would've loved to see more old school, bad a$$ Anita raise some zombies but at least she is back to working with her friends at the police station and FBI.

Overall this was not my favorite story in the Anita Blake series but it is closer to the early stories than some of the others. I give Kiss the Dead 3 Flaming Hearts.

After reading the first two chapters of this "so called" Anita Blake story, I finally gave up. No storyline, no character worth reading about. Just a very dismal thought and very uninteresting plot. Please, LKH, go back to your old story lines and start telling us good stories again. Stop with self loathing of Anita and please don't worry about finishing your writing contract up. If you would concentrate on writing good stories, people would buy your books again. As for me, I'm finished with your books.

A wait of a year or longer is agony. The only surcease comes from reading randomly through the series once again because each one is a nation within the world of Anita Blake. I have read 1000s of books. I recall only a few dozen. These are the works of Laurell K Hamilton and Charlaine Harris. Each perfect. With only one more from Ms. Harris, I can only hope Ms. Hamilton can sustain her creation more readily. There are still so many nations to explore, so much for Anita to realize, so many dead to kiss and capture, to enrapture, save and absolve.

Am I the only one who thinks that LKH tends to take the easy way out? This book follows right after Anita just sucked the power from The Mother of All Darkness, and there isn't a single draw back, repercussion, power increase, learning curve, or even a SINGLE MENTION of how it is affecting Anita. She got the Ardeur from Bella Morte, the black starry eyed power from Itzpapalotl, and countless other powers from other entities, yet when she sucks down the biggest baddest of them all, she gets...nothing? After Mommy Dearest told her how the power would consume her (paraphrasing here), and then there is nothing.

Also, WTF is going on with Anita's Necromancy. The first few books were all about it, and how the big bad vampires feared her ability to become a true master of the dead, then the books turned into non-stop sex scenes, with self-doubt, recrimination, and all sorts of self destructive behavior thrown in for good measure. With all the boosts to her power base, there is no mention of how her necromancy has grown. The only thing she ever does is "release the tight fisted grip inside of me holding it in" to scan a room for vampires? There was a vampire in this book about to kill his wife and children, and all she did was persuade him to lower his gun for a moment and tell SWAT where in the room he was? How about she unleash her necro power and force that undead out into the yard, on his knees with his hands behind his back? I would have much more into the scene if she had actually used this inborn power the way she use to be capable of.

I am glad that Anita has started, only after almost 10 years, to accept that she has the need for multiple lovers, and can love them differently. However, I am tired of hearing her always question her feelings and perceptions about her love life.

The lack of power boost from killing mommy dearest, and the lack of any growth to her necromancing abilities is what really killed this book for me.

Overall, It was definately better then the last 2, but still not nearly as good as her earlier books.

Let me preface by saying I've read every Anita Blake novel and have been a loyal fan for several years. But this book bored me to tears! As a previous reviewer so aptly stated, WE KNOW Anita is a big ball of fire in a nice curvy petite package! We KNOW this, quit banging us all over the head with it! Please quit repeating yourself M.s Hamilton, PLEASE I'm begging you!

I'm more a fan of the supernatural side of the story and not so much a fan of the also repetitive sex scenes that are "same scene, different partner(s)" or in many cases, "same scene, same partner(s)" but I just skim those to get back to the meat of the story. With this book I swear I skimmed at least 75% of it and this makes me very sad. Has Anita just run her course? Some one big in this storyline needs to bite the big one, pun intended. I'm kind of tired of Jean-Claude personally,oh, AND Asher if the truth be told. And all the other perfect men now that I think about it.

Can we get some Anita Blake unplugged where she maybe decides to work for the real bad guys? In the beginning, the vampires were the "bad guys" but since have lost that edge of reckless unpredictability that we loved so much. I'm tired of reading pages and pages about vampire and were-animal politics people, who's with me? This formula franchise has got to shake it up, burn that formula and give us something we weren't expecting. The big cast of main characters needs to get shaken up in a major way or maybe wipe them all out and start over. I'm no author, but I know that what we have now is no longer working. I miss the surprises and excitement! Take us through Anita's mid-life crisis Ms. Hamilton! I'll keep reading for now, but you've got to get it together!

There is so many opinions about her work that it stumps me exactly how to rate this book. So I will just give my view and hope you agree. I have read this whole series and as you can see I bought this last one also. Is it the best book or worse book,no. I enjoyed the book even if it explained a character again. If you are in doubt wait for the next print or read more reviews. For me I now own this book and will reread it again as I have the other books.

i read alot of negative reviews and nearly didint buy. in this case im glad i lisened to the posistve. i have been one of the diheartened with the last few books. i actually didnt buy the last couple.but am glad ibrought this. i enjoyed the first dozen books because there was around 80% action and 20% sex but the last 4 or so have been theother way. whilst i enjoy sex in a book not so much where that is all there is and no plot. so congrats on going back to the old. i hope that the coming books are the same.

this book once again gave me a glimer of hope that JKH is finally back on track and i will buy the next one. keep up with more plot and less sex and you will stii have faithful reader

I keep hoping that these books will be great again, especially knowing that next years Sookie book by Charlain Harris will be the last. I desperately need Anita to be awesome again. But alas, she's not yet. I borrowed someone's copy, the same as I have done for the last 3 or 4 in this series, no way would I pay money for the new Anita's and I have to say I could have just not bothered to read it and been just as satisfied. I so used to love these books. It's a shame it really is. I want Anita to evolve already to a place where she can be the person she always was, except now have some sex every once in a while. I am A ok with a female (or male!) character getting some action in a book, but not ok with it being the main plot point. I guess sex sells though, that's why the fifty shades of grey books sell so well, so maybe I need to give up all hope that we will ever get back to the good in this series Laurell could really take some pointers from Charlain Harris, Charlaine, at least, has mastered the art of making her story sexy and fun but still having plenty of juicy plot that makes the story fantastic. All Laurell can come up with any more is a kind of soft core porn with some barely there plot to support the sex hijinks.

I am probably not in the target market as my wife reads these books and I just started just to see what they were all about.

The early novels were great, crafted, well plotted out and had a decent enough story even though as I said I am no way anywhere near the target audience.

Then she becomes a succubus and suddenly she has become a sex addict, I mean it is about 5 years books time and she has come from a young woman with firm morals to a raging slut who not only holds a Federal Badge but she also strips on the weekend at Guilty Pleasures and Anita whines that the higher ups in the police are trying to keep her out. I wonder why?

I am just wondering if she caught some odd undead STD and it is making her act this way or that in the next book she is back in her flat and the whole book series has been a dream.

Hey it worked for Dallas when they brough Patrick Duffy back.

But after jumping though this so called novel in a vain hope I would find some plot I will get the next one for my wife second hand if she insisst on having it.

I appreciated the first few books in the series, and I have a hard time disengaging from a series once I have started. But this is it; sorry if this contains spoilers.

I read the whole book on a single flight. The story is superficial, which is a shame - since the premise of vampires desiring their freedom is quite interesting, and could be spun into a complex story. But no: sex scenes spanning multiple chapters (which I wouldn't even mind if they were hot). She's even trying to give it a little lesbian spin now. It's not even the repetitive writing style (at several points in the book, she reiterates not just history, but it seems as if whole note blocks were duplicated between chapters even for new developments); every book had that one phrase which she was just so fond of at the time, which just totally did it for her, or against which she couldn't shield ...

But the character development hasn't just stopped; it is rolling backwards. All cops are good; except, of course, those that are competing with Anita for her men. And, sure, they'll flirt with each other in the middle of an eff'ing murder investigation on the way to the crime scene. Sure, one runs into a hostage situation with the big baddies while wearing heels and hose. A lover injuring several people because of jealousy? Main concern of all involved is the ability to give oral. And, wow, Miss Hamilton learned a new word: "polyamory". She just should research it better.

Anita's openness to (physical or psychological) torture has never been my favorite; yet in this book, the author crosses a line. Not just does she justify it (by afterward depicting the victim in a bad light), but she even manages to vilify the one character who calls her on it - and has more marshals and cops lined up to learn the True Way from Anita! Way to go; what is this, Guantanamo fan lit?

The same continues with her casual attitude towards killing of whomever; injured someone because she can't control her own strength? Let's call them sissy!

In this "alternate reality", apparently even the law makers have been completely sucked into ignoring the US constitution; now even in the case of "true" humans, hey, if they were killed on active warrant, let's kill them all, there'll be no investigation ever, not even to figure out if they were connected to the warrant, because they'll just take the shooters word for it. Seriously?

All the other reviews list even more issues with the story, the writing, the characters, the background, the cop/military worship, the bad sex, the ethics, and just about everything else, so I won't bother to repeat them. Unfortunately, they are all true. What a disaster.

When I read in the dedication that LKH had finally hired a continuity editor I did a happy dance. "Finally!" I said to myself, "no more distracting errors!" I was so wrong. Vivian is called Vanessa now. And one of the leopards had a baby, those take 9 months to make and someone should tell that to the author so she can stop messing with the timelines. Then Zeke becomes Harold and then Zeke again. A number of new characters are introduced and we're expected to remember them so pay attention! Or not.
Was it in book 20 that Richard came around and accepted his kinkyness? Well, now he's back with the normals and we don't know why. We don't see Jason at all, or Zane (maybe he is Zeke?) or Cherry, or Edward.
*sigh* it began so well, I was fooled for a little bit thinking that this was going to be the book that turns everything around. There was no plot whatsoever and things were not answered.

**Spoiler Alert**
There's a scene where Anita "calls" the underused and pu**y-whipped Jean-Claude (he was so awesome 10 books ago) and tells him the problem, something about sensing a link to Jean-Claude's line. He says he has an idea and cuts Anita off. She whines and that's it. We never got to learn why Anita was sensing Belle's line with those vampires or what was Jean-Claude's brilliant idea.
Then she's bothered that she's not bothered as usual, and has a moral crisis about Sin's age that lasts two pages. The rest of the book she's either wrapped in happy "goodness" or whining about having so many men. Honestly? I think Asher should have killed Sin, he's already being banished right? So make it for something good. And then Anita should have drained Nicky. Done, two -three- less men to deal with. But that's just me I guess, since the author cares so much about Anita and has promised her no more death we are screwed, we just gonna have to keep picking up the books hoping something changes, we are such hopeful fools.

I am an avid LKH fan, or I was. I recently finished reading kiss the dead after putting it off for over a year because I didn't want to pay close to 15$ for the book on my ereader. I wish I had never read this. It was boring! She spent over half the time reiterating what she just said, and Anita spoke the audience way too much. "will Asher ever get better without counselling? I don't know, but now he is chasing Nathaniel." that is not a direct quote but it is similar in style to what was written. Also Hamilton had LARRY betray Anita!!!! what? The Larry we watched grow into a Marshall would not have done that! just no.

Over 100 pages before we get a glimpse at people we knew and liked. And the beginning of the book is set in an interrogation room for a case that we know nothing about. It would have taken three pages max, have anita wake up to a phone call about and have to say good-bye to one sweetie at minimum, and then start in with the interrogation room. That would not have been perfect, but would have helped the book seem like it isn't starting in the middle of the story. I feel like this will be my last foray into reading Hamilton's work, because in all honesty, the writing has gotten lazy, boring, and pointed. SHe made several comments on politics that made me feel uncomfortable, I read paranormal romance to escape politics. If Anita has so much trouble being with Sin (and calling him Sin) then send him away! Don't spend so much time lamenting on the fact that it makes her feel weird. And honestly enough with all the nicknames. It is fine to have nicknames, but don't switch between the nickname and the real name so often, it's confusing and just doesn't work.

If you want to read an Anita Blake book, revisit the old ones, this one sucked, and advanced the total plot not at all...

This review isn't for Hamilton fans, its aimed at those who may be tempted to take some of reviewers words at face value when they compare Hamilton's books to those of Briggs or Andrews.Its been awhile since I've read anything of Laurell Hamilton's so when the library had Kiss the dead, I thought I would try again. If you enjoy emo porn, this would be a great read for you. Briggs and Ilona Andrews are favorite authors of mine and I found this book annoying. For example: A situation arose which necessitated Anita to warn one of her lovers of impending doom. It took 5 pages of mutual semi pornographic angst before she got around to mentioning that they were in such grave danger that she had interrupted a swat team arrest to warn them. That's just.... annoying. Couldn't tell you how it ended.

I have really enjoyed the Anita Blake series so far, though like most readers I enjoyed the earlier books better because they weren't so bogged down by the sex. This book just did nothing for me. I reread the entire series so I'd remember all that was going on in the previous books and I felt like this book went to Anita doing police work, Anita having sex, repeat. What bothered me most is there was no real case, she just killed some vamps and was done with it. Sex time. At least in the previous books there was a reason for all the madness-they were chasing someone, there was a crisis, the world would end if they didn't fix it. I don't know, this one just totally fell flat for me. I also found the fact that she thanked her continuity editor hilarious considering the fact that she then proceeded to refer to "Vivian" as "Vanessa." Seriously??

The first half of this book was AWESOME! It had a lot of the elements like the first few books did in the series. It was more mystery oriented with Anita at a crime scene. I was really excited until I got to the 50% mark. Then I wasn't so excited anymore. I was just pissed. I actually don't have beef with all of the sex in her books. I like reading about the dynamics of her love life and how she has to feed the ardeur. But I hate that she completely sacrificed the story for pointless sex in the entire last 50% of this book. It was ridiculous. I'm really missing Jean-Claude and Richard. I'm tired of Nathaniel and the rest of her "partners", even Micah, whom I've never really liked at all. But to completely trash a really good story the way she did makes me want to quit the series completely. It's extremely frustrating.

I want to start by saying that this book may not be exactly a 5 star novel. BUT compared to the past few LKH books, this one is so much better that it deserves the extra star.

There is ACTUAL PLOT in this book! The case and scenario is original and not something thats been done before really in the series. Sure some part felt a little re-used but when you're 20 books in thats kind of unavoidable. There was not pages wasted explaining each man, and although most of the main men in her life are on page, it doesn't feel cluttered like the last few books have. The men who are there on page have a reason for being on page. For example Alex, Ethan, Crispin, Jason, and several of her other lovers do not appear on page at all this book. Dev, Nicky and Sin do get more pages than usual. It works. It makes sense and doesn't feel like people were left out for convenience, but that there was actual reasons why we didn't see them.

Dolph and Zebrowski are on page a lot! Thats always a plus.

THERE ARE ONLY THREE SEX SCENES IN THE ENTIRE BOOK!!! Any LKH fan knows that ever since Anita became a succubus, the amount of sex has taken over the books. Not the case here. The first 70% of the book has no sex in it at all. The last 30% or so does feature three sex scenes- but only one of them is overly long, the rest are pretty short and to the point.

Some issues that have needed to be addressed (like Asher being a growing problem) is finally addressed.

Overall, I have been reading LKH for 7 or 8 years now. I have personally been greatly disappointed with the amount of sex and (recently) the amount of tigers that have taken over the entire books. I am sad that the wereleopards around much (Where are Cherry and Zane???) but overall I really have to say that this book has been a positive and enjoyable change of pace from the last few.

I almost didn't buy it because of other bad review from long time fans. Now after finishing it, I just don't understand what people are complaining about so much. Is it Circus Of The Damned? No. But its definitely more close to the Anita books that we all know and love and than the last few that were so poor. I would say if you are hesitating about buying it, to get it, because I felt like it was really good.

Am I monster because I would prefer to read about Anita killing something instead of her relationship problems? Like the last couple of books, lots of relationship babble and moaning about "am I a monster?" I'm happy to read about the monster, I'm bored with the moaning about her confused love life. Anita has lots of skills and abilities, why does LKH feel it necessary to throw in a new metaphysical skill each book? While sucking down someone's anger, she slips and takes too much. Later in the book she has sex and, oops, she killed someone. How does she get over it? Has sex with someone else. In other words, there's really nothing new in this book, the plot is incidental to the moaning and the sex. I miss the first six books. There was an actual, vital, interesting plot and the love/sex stuff was embroidery upon it. Now it has reversed, and I'm finding the sex/love stuff not as interesting as the hunt to kill something. Does that make me a monster?

My review is only for the first half of the book, that's all I could get through. The major issue is that it presents nothing new. It's Anita on an uninspired case rescuing innocent people.

It raises the issue of some vampires rebelling against Jean Claud starting a new council in America, but that is the only new information that affects the main plot. It was the only semi-interesting thing that happened in the whole first half. I found myself skipping over Nathaniel and Micah's part because it was boring, we've seen it all before. Maybe I'll skim the rest to see if it picks up, but I don't have much hope.

OK, so this book is SLOW...by the time you get to the last third, you're thinking that you just started, because that's when the plot starts to pick up. then, poof, the book is over.

lots of sex, less plot. if you take the amorous encounters out (and the run-up and wind-down from them), the book would be less than 100 pages, or that's the impression it gave me.

I am definitely NOT a hater of this series, up to OBSIDIAN BUTTERFLY I give them all 4.9 to 5 stars. NARCISSUS gets 4. after that it really falls off, probably averaging 3 for me.

Not sure what changed in 2002, but not nearly as good since. unfortunately, the editor didn't do LKH any favors on this one either. it's been years since I finished one of the books in this series and was immediately dying (ha ha) in anticipation of the next one.

Characters are the most important thing to me in a book, and even more so in a series. I have loved watching Anita and her lovers and colleagues grow through the series. There is also non-stop action, intense suspense, and tender romance in a unique world view. If you like these things, you may enjoy this book and series as much as I have.

---Having read the last ten "Anita Blake" novels, ending with "Kiss the Dead," I was motivated enough (through weariness, nostalgia--for the earlier books in the series, and anger) to actually write reviews for several of them...I believe the dismal results displayed in books number 10+ in the series arise from the efforts of an older writer, with 70's-era feminist beliefs, who is trying to appeal to a much younger audience; LH should take a page from Charlaine Harris (herself an older, very popular "multi-genre" writer): 1)Characters' personalities should not radically change, just to accomodate new plot twists 2) Stop the "Anita" worshipping by characters---the reader should be able to figure out how "smart, brave, cool, popular," etc. the heroine is without having EVERY secondary character in the book STATING how "smart, brave, cool, etc." she is 3) NO gratuitous sex scenes (we KNOW how it works----really!!) It's pretty sad when reviewer after reviewer is saying the same thing: your sex scenes s***. ---And (real major)....4) Child molestation is illegal, immoral and disgusting---it's illegal, immoral and disgusting whether the perpetrator is male or female, and certainly should NOT be used as a "plot device".....Oh, and a small #5): Black leather "biker" jackets on women over 40: big no-no, LH (VERY aging).....You've done well enough as a writer to retire in style (perhaps it's time....)

While there are people on here who enjoyed the book, I must say I did not. I couldn't take one more detail of her men. Ive been reading the series since it started and you can tell when she went down hill fast. Number ten was the last good storyline. I gave Ms. Hamilton a myriad of opportunities to do Anita justice but she has failed. I will not spend another dime on her horribly written, poorly edited books. I don't mind the sex but Im sorry, Anita has turned into a giant S@*#. Where is the plot? Personally I could only take so much of Anitas obsession with blue, Cynrics hair, JCs eyes, get over it already and write a good book. Maybe Ms. Hamilton should have put this series on hold as well.

Awful book. Made me sick to read it. Really sick. My stomach hurt.

All of the problems with this novel have been pointed out by other reviewers, so I'll address what upset me the most: the character portrayals, especially of Asher.

Poor, poor Asher.

He gets singled out for being a bad sport, basically because 1) he lightly hurt Anita and 2) he has a bad attitude -- he whines too much.

Well, 1) Anita gets hurt during sex play all the time and 2) Anita herself whines all the time and has a bad attitude.

The way the author portrays her characters just makes my skin crawl.

More generally, this book is just a total mess in every way: characterizaton, writing, nonexistent plot, repeated phrases, everything.

Just shaking my head over here.

I think after having read the comments of various series long fans, such as myself, that I am glad I haven't wasted the money/time on this book.

I also think, after having read the last couple of books, that the VAMPIRE HUNTER should be removed and changed to VAMPIRE/MONSTER F*ER. You get where I am going. Because let's face it, she spends far more time screwing them than hunting or killing them.

And if I read one more line about how things low in her body tightened, I am going to have to recommend a colonoscopy because it sounds like she's a bit backed up!

I want to start by saying that the Anita Blake series has been one of my favorit reads for a while now. I buy them as soon as they come out and usually anticipate the release of each new installment, but for the last 4 books or so i feel we've been in the same plotless novel. Instead of a lot of sex and her life being a added feature of these books they've become the center. As a result,the books are more like a collection of raunchy blogsthat merely mention a mystery. I seem to recall that the first 5 books had no sex in them. They were also the best. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with erotica but Laurel K Hamilton needs to find some balance. Maybe Charlaine Harris or JR Ward could give her some pointers.

I'm a bit torn in two directions in regards to Kiss the Dead. I do think that LHK is starting to get back on track and is bringing back the Anita we all love from the beginning of the series; before it turning pretty much into all sex all the time type of series. The main story line of this book was very interesting, and I do see that some of the sex needed to happen (like between her and Nicky) to further the story and add new information about the arduer and being a "Bride." But I really don't see the need to have such in depth play by play writing on all the other times Anita hooked up with her sweeties. It got to the point where I was skimming through those parts in search of the next scene where she was needed for something life threatening.

In addition to that there are now even more little story lines going on (like with Arnet's jealously/ire/and possible insanity?) and there are still ones going on from a few books back that have gotten very tiring to read about (such as Anita's issues about having sex with Cynric...which looks like it will continue for yet another book). Makes you want to shake Anita and tell her to get over it already and make up your mind!

I really enjoyed Hit List and thought things with Anita were getting back to normal. But now I wonder if every book from here on out is going to focus more about the sex versus the actual problem at hand in Anita's work life. Anyway despite my annoyance with some of this book I will still undoubtedly be purchasing the next one in this series because I just can't seem to give up on Anita and the hopes that things will get better for the series.

I miss the way Anita used to be. I miss the way the characters used to be.In this book, Hamilton basically turns every scene into a sex scene with one of her five boyfriends. Anita used to be thought of as a virgin before she got with Jean-Claude…now she's a whore, and in this book Anita even wears her hoochie clothes to business purposes. I don't have a problem with the sex scenes as long as Anita has to do it every chapter… It's pathetic!

Anita is always worrying whether or not she is a monster, and she still hasn't accepted the fact that she's definiely a monster! I enjoy the fact that characters can change, but LKH has made Anita the biggest changing character in the book.

Oh, and get this… JC has updated his power. He can now control the length of hair vampires get simply because Anita likes it long. JC used to be one of my favorite characters, and now LKH makes him seem like a big joke compared to Anita. Personally, I think JC and Anita should be together since he's been there from the begjnning, but obviously LKH has no purpose for him and Anita anymore which is sad because Anita says she loves Nathaniel and Micah who are characters Anita descibes as "childish" in the first books they were introduced. Pathetic!

I suggest you to simply stop reading these books before you get this one. It will ruin your series, and thoughts about Anita. I know myself, I'm done!

If it was up to me this book would get no star. First to kick off this very short review I would just like to point out the fact that we all read for different reasons, okay? Some of us read for fun, some for deep thought, whatever. Point is some of us enjoyed it and some of us didn't. We're all entitled to our own opinions. If you like the book so damn much then why read the bad reviews and talk crap about the bad reviews? If you hated the book then why read the good reviews and talk crap about those? Whether we liked the book or not we all have one thing in common, and that's the fact that at some point we fell in love with the series. Isn't that more important than this rivalry we all seem to have against each other? I'm glad that there are people out there that are still with it and have no intention of quitting. That's great. As a writer myself I wouldn't want another writer to suffer on account of no fans. I'd rather she have at least one than none at all. But me personally, I am done.

I got this book for my birthday and decided to read it. At first I was BAFFLED. Police work? Really? Is LKH finally hearing us? Of course there were some stints along the way, like the slutacious outfit on police duty (isn't there a rule about how you dress on the job somewhere . . . Plus, how is anyone supposed to take her seriously or stop treating her like a slutmaniac when she dresses like that for work . . . ?) and the fact that suddenly characters were all better at the snap of a finger (personally I think that they are that way to fit Anita, as if the world is custom made for her alone . . . ) . . . but things can't be perfect. I still couldn't believe my eyes, so I decided to read the reviews, the good and the bad, to see what other people said. You know, to be on the safe side . . .

All I wish is that I read the reviews before asking for this book. Luckily I only got as far as the 14th page. I'm just not going to fall for it again. I fell for it with Bullet and Flirt, and I refuse to do it again. I'm not going to tell anyone to not read the book. By all means, read at your own discretion. But if you are like me and the others who rated one to two star then you will be HIGHLY disappointed. Literally close to tears typing this because I ADORE Nathaniel and Micah and JC and Richard and all the others, it's Anita I've grown to hate and this warped world in which a writer is killing her characters to, like I mentioned before, better fit Anita, as if the world is custom made for her alone. Maybe in her world things work like that, but in a believable world that ain't so.

Also, I just have one question: if there are any people out there in a polyamorous relationship, is sex seriously that frequent? I mean, are there really orgies every damn night or all day going on? Can one person, or a bunch truly have that much sex in a day? In a week? I don't think so, because polyamorous or not, sex doesn't make a relationship work. And I personally would hate sharing the person I loved and would have walked away a long as time ago, like Richard should have done. You can't make a person change their morals and beliefs and sexual preferences in a night, things just don't happen that way. Isn't that what real people do?

If you don't want to see LKH drag the rest of the characters down into the same dark abyss that Anita fell into, then be forewarned!

Laurel K. Hamilton delivered another stunning and highly entertaining read in the Anita Black series. Sex does sell... but Laurel manages to mix in action, horror, crime fighting, and supernatural/paranormal style that grabs your attention and takes you on a ride.

Sadly disappointing. As a true Anita Blake fan, I have to say this was the worst book in this series so far. No plot, too much time spent reviewing characters from previous books, lots of filler with meaningless sex. Yes, we get it, Anita is tough and she is in control. The first half of the book was promising, but in the second half, Anita just moves from sex scene to sex scene with a myriad of boy toys. Gone is the exciting vampire killing necromancer with the hair-raising, crime-solving situations replaced with boring mechanical sex. I am no prude, but the advent of the ardeur was the slow demise of the exciting plots we loved to devour. What has happened to Jean-Claude and Richard and the believable, complicated relationships? The author is groping for a story and just never delivers.

I love all of Laurell K Hamilton books, great author and she keeps you guessing about exactly what Anita is human or not as while as how many true loves she has in her life. Great story line and I have alot of people I know already reading this authors books!!!

Highly disappointing I have been a fan of this series since the begining and to be honest I just want to take the book back and get a refund I am that disappointed. It felt like I was waiting and waiting for the story to start that never got started. Page after page of repeated things I have read in all her other books. What made it most disappointing is that fact that things that anita would normally do she didn't just blowed alot of thing off like "I have a happy life I am not going to add drama" there was pratically no new information about all the new character introduced into the series as of late leaving reader still clueless about these characters. All I can tell you about this book is that Anita now doesn't mind screwing in front of anyone, she doesn't mind being naked and police work is not the highest thing on her priority list. Oh and lets not forget she loves the same sex over and over with many different me. I typically like the sex scene but not when there is no story to go with them. I am hoping the next book is better and more like the Anita we have come to love. I also hope that we learn more about the charaters but as for this book don't bother to read it you wont miss much.

I cannot put into words how disappointed I am in this book. When I started the book, I just thought it was slow starting. Little did I know, the book didn't actually "start" until chapter 29. I felt that LKH used recaps and meaningless details (nothing that helped the plot evolve) to fill 220 pages, and then she realized that she needed to finish the book. So she did... Very quickly in 139 pages. The constant recaps drive me insane! This is the 21st book in the series. The only people reading this series now are probably Anita fans. I'm sure they know what is going on with the characters enough not to be reminded in every single paragraph. The word "yummy" is used more times than I care to count. The English language is full of wonderful words that can be used to describe things. While reading this book and going through recaps constantly, I thought to myself, "I believe anyone who has ever read an Anita book could have wrote this." I wish I had the hours back that I wasted reading it.

I have been a fan of both of Ms. Hamilton series. I have always thought that it was entertaining, feminist trash. It was kind of subversive to have a female character that not only kicked ass but also broke the monogamous conventions imposed on females so I was willing to overlook the subtle and not so subtle racist subtext. However, the last books have been utterly atrocious. Anita Blake has morphed into Sara Palin who loves to watch the Duke shoot Indians. Now, it's yay for torture (Larry has become the liberal "who's afraid to get his hands dirty"). Now, we are being exposed to the ignorant blabbering about US geopolitics while the character has boring and repetitive sex. Ms. Hamilton sorely needs to be educated about the colonial and imperialist politics of her country and possibly find another lover. From entertaining trash the books have become right wing trash.

Kiss the dead
I really wasn't going to read anymore of this plotless mindless vampire hunter ?? series but like any addict when I saw the book marked down half price in a large department store ( that should tell you how well sales are going)I thought why not torture myself just one more time.In the beginning I loved the gutsy killer that Anita was, but as the series spiraled into total mindless sex and almost with no way to keep track of just who she was F%^&*ing or which animal group they belonged to I lost interest. So it was a pleasant surprise to me that there was no sex until half way through the book and then it all came slamming down again the plot disappeared out the window along with tying any of the ends up that were left hanging, we just bounced from one sex scene to the next.Hard to believe there is still another 4 books to come.

Laurel, we're your fans are you listening? What's happening? Where's the great stories we anxiously wait for? Surely you know there is something missing here like a plot? JC has been absent from the scene for a while now. We love JC. Kiss of Death would be a better title for this one. I certainly won't pay new release prices again. I'm sad and mad. Sad you've obviously lost interest in this series and mad I've been fooled once again in anticipating and buying another novel. You owe your fans an explanation. We need to know if we're through with you. I don't want to be. Make me a believer. Right now, simply disappointed - again.

Another great Anita Blake novel. Ms. Hamilton keeps the surprises coming in this next installment with Marshall Anita Blake. I don't want to give any of the tidbits away so no spoiler alert here. The main character is still charming and a funny smart aleck as always I love this character!

This was the worst book in this series. I get really excited when a new one of her books is released and was so disappointed this time. The book was boring! There was no plot or interpersonal relationsips. Just sex for the sake of sex. The parts of the book with sex did not add to the plot or character development. I hate her "relationship" with Sin. If she doesn't like the fact that she is a child molster then maybe she should quit having sex with him. I missed Edward in this book as well as Richard, Micha, and all her other "true" lovers. This was a totally different book than any of the others. I may not read the next book if it takes such a wide departure from her precious books.

It seems that for the past few installments of her popular "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" series, Laurell K. Hamilton has been not-so-covertly foreshadowing the demise of her beloved paranormal heroine; sadly, "Kiss The Dead" contains more blatant forewarning than its predecessors. Is Anita going to hang up her gear for a life of 'domestic bliss'? Only LKH knows for sure. While foretelling the possible end, book 21 in the series delivers more of the usual: blood, guts, and mystery peppered with sex and relationship drama. The sex is less prominent than in past novels - which will elate some die-hards while disappointing others - and familiar (male) faces are strangely absent or appear only in a diminished capacity. Case in point, Richard is absent entirely here. Anita's newest lovers seem to play the greatest roles as far as personal drama goes, but these are names you may not recognize - Mephistopheles, Nicky, Cynric. With Anita's bed so overloaded these days, who can remember when and where these characters came into being? Certainly not I. Sadly, while this is a perfectly predictable installment to the series, it's presented poorly with a plot that suffers from massive black-holes and editing that is nothing less than atrocious. Overall, it just leaves the reader to question LKH's remaining passion for Anita and why she continues to drag onward if she has lost interest. To quote a beloved pop culture icon, isn't it better to burn out than to fade away?

Wow, where to start. Lets start with the relationships, Hamilton keeps us on our toes by bringing new issues in for Blake's lovers to fight about. Its impressive how unlike other authors who are content (chicken) with mere love triangles, Hamilton throws us a love dodecahedron. I especially like how things are never too good to be true for Blake's love life, and at least one, or two, or eight of her partners have emotional problems to resolve. It really keeps the story following.

Next lets talk about he plot...

...

...

...

Obviously wanting to avoid melodrama, Hamilton goes back to Anita's roots, and brings out her executioner badge. Of course sticking with a popular theme of he series, Anita must question whether it is she who is in fact the monster. Hamilton also keeps us well informed of latest supernatural legislation, because even by book 21 there are still things about the world us readers are desperate to know

Of course I have to talk about the sex. I thought I knew it all. Hamilton, like Anita, always has a few more tricks up her sleeve. I confess I'm surprised Anita hasn't accidentally bonked a good-guy to death as yet, but what a way to keep a series alive. OOPS spoilers.

AAARRGGGG forget it.

I think the saddest thing about this series is that Kiss the Dead could easily be a book from an entirely different series. I tried my best to find good things to pull from this novel, but after making fun of the 'plot' and the sex, I found there actually wasn't anything else. I guess I could consider the 'themes' or the 'psychology' or the 'character development' but after a while I would get sick of adding sarcasm quotes.

Kiss the Dead even lacks the camp flare that some its predecessors could claim. Hamilton appears to have made some attempt to reduce the annoying conflicts that permeate earlier books, but can't seem to resist populating Antia's world with sexist cops, jealous biatchs, and frenemies who turn on her just to give Anita an excuse to rationalize. There is no real tension because we want most of the characters to die bloody deaths, and we already have a pretty good idea that any character development of Anita's will involve a heavy dose of self-righteousness and sex likely at the same time.

It crosses my cynical mind that Hamilton may be training us to enjoy her erotica by producing cardboard alternatives plotlines, more likely however Anita Blake novels have devolved so much as to just become collections of scenes Hamilton thinks might be interesting. In fact I would argue that almost every scene of Kiss the Dead could be treated as a short story (not necessarily good short stories) but in the sense they don't really build on each other.

My fingers are still crossed for an epic finale to the series where Anita becomes monogamous again, not by choice but because someone with taste slaughters all her lovers. Its not he usually them of fan-fiction is it? Maybe I could start a new trend...

I read this copy from the library. I liked that we get to see Anita working with the police again, but there's too much that apparently happened that we didn't get to see. We didn't 'see' the reunion/coming to terms with Dolph - suddenly they're good buddies working together again. And the last time she worked with SWAT, didn't they have issues with her and not trust her? Now they're all for having her with them over anyone else. And when did Larry decide she wasn't one of the good guys?

I don't mind the sex scenes, although really, how many ways can you do it? They get a little repetitive, and I get tired of Anita's issues. I thought she'd settled her mind about that a few books back - if her life worked, she wouldn't poke at it or rock the boat. Now she's doing it again!

It was an okay book, better than some of the 'middle' books, not as good as others. All in all I'm glad I didn't pay $12 for the locked kindle edition! Unlocked, I might have taken a chance, but I'm just tired of paying out the nose for locked up book files I can't put on a different reader without re-buying them.

Finally got through this book. I love the Anita Blake series. While this particular book #21 in the series I believe, was as spicy as the rest it still had that non-stop action that Hamilton has in all her Anita Blake books.

Kiss The Dead brings to light more of the powers and monsters that are out in the world and crossing Anita's path. This books also has Anita questioning how can she "love" so many people and if it is true love or not.

Without giving away too much story, I am sad to see Asher continue to shall we say, "not play nice." For someone of Ashers powers his insecurities come full circle to bite him in the ass. Jean-Claudeand Anita even Asher himself are all tired of Asher's full out right demands that someone love him fully and completely.

The shower scene with Anita and Nicky was downright, HOT, especially since Anita didn't feed the ardeur, she simply enjoyed sex for the sake of enjoying good sex. What does that say about Anita? Is she finally coming to terms with the fact that it's ok to make love to someone and actually enjoy it?

By the end of this novel, I am awaiting the release of the new Anita Blake in July, 2013.

I've read all the books of the serie so far but won't make the same mistake. It was the last one. I think most of the reviews offer a good summary of my opinion on this book. So, so disappointed! Please Ms Hamilton, stop the carnage, it's time to go back to basics. Why not with the adventures of Meredith Gentry? This subject will maybe more inspiring. Just an idea...

This novel is well-written and enjoyable if you enjoy hard-core erotica with a bit of plot. If you have been following this series and have enjoyed the direction that the series has taken after book seven or eight, you will enjoy this one. If you are one of the many fans who enjoyed the earlier books but have been complaining about the amount of sex and the scarcity of hard-boiled detective action in the later entries of the series, you probably won't enjoy this one; there is a bit of police work and action here, but most of the plot centers around Anita's sex life and very little of it has to do with anything else. I enjoy this series no matter which direction it takes, but anyone who hasn't been happy with the trajectory of the series will find this one a real disappointment.

As with her last, ohhh, five or six Anita Blake novels, "Kiss the Dead" is nothing more than a short story in plot fleshed out (pun intended) with about four chapters of NOTHING but sex. If that's what floats your boat, the actual PLOT is neither here nor there. And in this case, Hamilton couldn't even be bothered bringing what little plot there is to an actual conclusion.

Just go back and re-read the first eight or nine novels for the 50th time.

Mrs. Hamilton I truly hope that reading these reviews on your books does not discourage you from continuing to write about the ever fascinating, on the edge of my seat as my eyes are flying across the pages, stories of my favorite vampire Hunter who I secretly live vicariously through. I truly have no idea why anyone would find this series unappealing to read in any way. I have been reading Anita for 16years and the only part of these books that make me sad is when I reach the end and I have to wait so long for another. This is a wildly imaginative series that takes you for the most exciting ride of your life. The sex scenes are sizzling hot and weather anyone admits it or not they definitely appeal to the voyeur in US all. You keep writing and giving us what we want because trust me when I tell you that there are plenty of people reading your books and loving them.

This did not have alot going on. I love the sex scenes don't get me wrong but I also like a great storyline to go with it. This one was just bad. Plus this book made me hate Asher because he has been such a jealous man. I hate her hating the fact that she keeps talking about having too many men in her life it become very old. Ive gotten use to skimming past the descriptions because it takes up almost two pages to describe one of her men. My favorite is still Micah tho.

I do like that she appears to be getting back to showing more of Marshall Blake at work with this one and that, while Blake is generally up to her short skirt hem in alligators trying to drain the swamp, she isn't careening from emotional crisis to emotional crisis like she has in a couple of others.

I have always been easily fallen into "character" when I read Laurell K. Hamilton's books. This one I bought on my kindle and I have my kindle read it to me and I read it I feel like I'm in the book that our worlds are entwined. Sometimes our normal world needs a little spice and she deffinetly brings it again and again. :)

This one a more story and sex scenes were fine but characters of Anita remains questionable. Guess she's to compromise every single one of her convictions. Now she's remaining a Mrs Robinson with Cynric?! REALLY?! She was forced to be a child molester by having sex with him when he was 16 and she'd then continue to have a sexual relationship with him? NOT REALISTIC AND FAAAAR FROM OKAY. Way too far Hamilton, way too far. Makes me wonder about her

I love the Anita Blake series some more than others. This one was not bad. The ending was a bit anti climatic but it was okay. It was nice to read more of Nicky and other shifters instead of all vampire. Glad to see they finally stood up to Asher and his
manipulations, I don't like Asher's character. Happy reading.

As I was preparing my review for Kiss the Dead I was shocked at how much I actually missed the series. There are times when I go back and read the first seven books or so and all I can think about is how amazing this would be as an HBO series. I could just see the distain on Anita's face the first time she meets Jean Claude, or the scattered blood as she calls up another zombie earning her title Necromancer.

Then I look at what the series has become and I honestly don't understand why people keep giving her five stars. I understand that as an author she can twist her characters anyway she wants, I understand that if you have the least bit of morals you will prude-ly turn away during the harem scenes. I even can admit that most of us readers are jealous... who isn't jealous of a woman who holds Jean Claude's heart even after all the other guys have had a go with her? I want Jean Claude. But all that aside I think the series has twisted into something more erotic, more bestial, and a little over the top.

One reviewer got me thinking when they asked if Anita was a man would this be alright? And the glaring answer is no... no it wouldn't be all right. We hate the men who have five and seven wives, we scorn the men and call them sexual predators when they prey on young 18 year olds let alone 16 year olds even if it's legal in that state. What's worse? We have tons of LKH fans screaming that all this is ok when if you think about it Anita really is a sexual predator... really...

So the story? Everyone is excited because RPIT's back! Woo! Well the reunion was alright but to me it felt forced, unnatural and a sad way of trying to gather back fans into the fold of Anita's super cootch.

I also couldn't believe most of the problems like Jean Claude's hair, or Dolph's magical acceptance, or Asher hurting her or Anita not wanting to hurt Asher or Sin or any number of things. It makes no sense anymore. I think she should have just created a new female character in the Anitaverse and then did an off shoot series that is more paranormal erotica... leave the guns, the brains and dead to Anita and therefore prevent ruining her. If you still love this series and are so happy about the way it's turning out... why? Honestly why? I love ménage books, I read all different kinds of erotic romance but this isn't it and it's not good writing. What is making you stay with Anita even though she was hijacked, lobotomized and turned into a sexual pervert? There is no other word to describe consensual sex with a minor.

I have been and avid reader and even stood in line for two hours, while 8 months pregnant to get an autograph. Her books were great and had a few bad smut novels out and finally thought she got her game back but this one.... good lawd.

Too much time is spent going over the history of her umpteen million lovers and describing the same characteristics over and over again. It was getting frustrating to the point where I was skipping over all that to get to the plot of the book.

It took me MONTHS to read this book and forced it was, when I usually cannot put down the writings and finish in a few days.

It was just the same thing over and over again. Cops have a p*ssing match, sex with a bunch of people, internal conflict with so many lovers... blah blah blah.

But once you get past all the crap, there is a story and it's good but short.

If you have been reading the Anita Blake series this long you know the characters and you know the scores so I wont go into synopsis here and jump right in.

Things I'm not liking AT ALL: My biggest dislike about KISS THE DEAD is the fact that Anita even though she is not Bi and has always been extremely uncomfortable about it (and still says she is very uncomfortable with it) talks about that fact that she now has another woman in HER bed. Laurell has changed her way to much and I'm really not liking that she changed her despite her feelings yet again. All the men are getting a little ridiculous. The heard needs to be culled and even Anita thinks so, although I have to admit that I do appreciate that the whole book wasn't filled with orgy scenes.HATE her relationship with Sin, He should NOT be one of her lovers its just disturbing.

Things I enjoyed: LOVED that we get Anita back in the field again like book 20. Very much enjoyed Zerbrowski and watching Anita and him interact in the field and in their lunch scene. They had me cracking up and smiling. Love her relationship with Nathaniel and Micah.

Other thoughts: Asher, Wow I really hope that Jean Claude sends him away like he said as he really needs to get over himself and his issues. There is no excuse for his behavior. Wish we had more Jean-Claude scenes (not sex scenes just in general like they used to be together). The ending, How are her colleagues going to treat her now seeing her fall apart? Will they see her as more human or will they see her as weak where they saw her as nothing but strong before?!?

The Anita Blake series to me is one of those series I'm so invested in that I cant imagine not getting the next book even if its filled with nothing but orgy scenes and horrific writing because I have to know what happens next. Its hard to rate this far into the series after so many bad books so I'm going with the middle ground.

Anita Blake and Laurell K. Hamilton only get better and better with each book that comes out. I never know what she's gonna come up with next but know i'm gonna love it. If your an Anita fan, I recommend the read.

When I started reading this series from Laurell K. Hamilton I was addicted. The way she made characters almost tangible was captivating. Unfortunately for the last several books in this series there has been a study decline in the quality of writing. This book appears to be the culmination of "crappy"...or at least I hope so.

I was inundated with random ramblings that did nothing to facilitate further development of the plot and characters.

Luckily this book was free for me, although I still kinda want my money back.

For those of you reading this review. I won't recommend not purchasing this item, but I will say if you choose to do so, be prepared to be underwhelmed.

I've read all of the Anita Blake books and they seem to just get better with each new release. Kiss the dead certainly did not disappoint. I love to see how each character gets more and more developed as the story progresses from book to book. I think it's also interesting to see Anita's attitude towards work and her lovers change. While I don't really believe that she will ever give up solving monster crimes, especially considering they are often focused on her or her men, it looks like a change is coming.

Laurell must have gotten together with Charlaine to work out how to disappoint their faithful readers. Won't be buying either of their series until after I check it out from the library and decide whether it is worth paying money for. Hardly a plot and what there was wasn't explored in depth. There were a few paragraphs that were duplicated word for word in this book a few chapters apart. Does the publisher require a minimum number of words or what??? Don't waste your money and line her or her publisher's pockets. Check it out from the library if you must read it.

I am an Anita Blake fan 100% all the way. I have all 21 books. That being said, Kiss the Dead left much to be desired in my opinion. I was looking forward to so much...

I wanted to discover more about the bond with Truth.I wanted to dive into that story with the mermaids. I wanted some trouble with the Dragon or Belle Morte or more trouble from the Lover of Death or something to go down with an ancient master vamp. I wanted new magic from the triumvirates. I wanted their position as head of the new vampire council to be challenged. I just couldnt wait to find out where this book was going to take me.

What I got was a misunderstanding with an elusive non violent master vampire and the discovery that Anita is falling in love with one of her lovers.

The story was fine. I believe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadnt had any expectations.

This was a terrible book. Calling it a book is being generous. It's interesting in that it's the narration of a criminally insane woman as she commits crimes and twists every conversation in her favor. What's not good and a bit creepy is the author intended to write her Mary Sue as a heroine. I really don't see how anyone known for their opinion can say they like it without a monetary reward for doing so. I'm really not kidding.

She is back! I was worried because the book before this was not my favorite. Loved Kiss the Dead. In the story Anita is chasing a group of just turned vamps that had a young girl hostage and killed a couple of cops. She is back with the swat team working the cases. Killing, shooting, running ...putting the fear of actually death into people who were suppose to be beyond it. Anita is the bogey man of the vamps. So this story is Anita following a case and also trying to get her life in perspective. So Micah, Nathaniel, Nicki, Dev, Sin and a couple more I may be forgetting are all there. So we get some good glimpses of home life at the Anita house and at the Circus of the Damned, were John Claude, Asher and a few more, that you will remember join in the drama.

The Anita Blake stories are the only ones where you pick up new terms like Polyamorous and hetroflexiable. LOL Words that fit her life style. This book brings back all the things that you love about Anita. She is a strong, smart kick ass female that has lots of sexy boyfriends. Loved it! The sex scenes were awesome and the story was great. I loved that we got glimpses of some of my favorites, and some that may become new favorites. I can't wait for the next one!!

I've been a long time reader of this series and I just want to say I am so disappointed in the direction the last 5 books have taken. Anita cannot save everyone and all the different characters are freakin' confusing. So tired of all the sex scenes - Hamilton needs to get Anita back to solving mysteries and raising the dead!

I have been and avid reader and even stood in line for two hours, while 8 months pregnant to get an autograph. Her books were great and had a few bad smut novels out and finally thought she got her game back but this one.... good lawd.

Too much time is spent going over the history of her umpteen million lovers and describing the same characteristics over and over again. It was getting frustrating to the point where I was skipping over all that to get to the plot of the book.

It took me MONTHS to read this book and forced it was, when I usually cannot put down the writings and finish in a few days.

It was just the same thing over and over again. Cops have a p*ssing match, sex with a bunch of people, internal conflict with so many lovers... blah blah blah.

But once you get past all the crap, there is a story and it's good but short.

If you have been reading the Anita Blake series this long you know the characters and you know the scores so I wont go into synopsis here and jump right in.

Things I'm not liking AT ALL: My biggest dislike about KISS THE DEAD is the fact that Anita even though she is not Bi and has always been extremely uncomfortable about it (and still says she is very uncomfortable with it) talks about that fact that she now has another woman in HER bed. Laurell has changed her way to much and I'm really not liking that she changed her despite her feelings yet again. All the men are getting a little ridiculous. The heard needs to be culled and even Anita thinks so, although I have to admit that I do appreciate that the whole book wasn't filled with orgy scenes.HATE her relationship with Sin, He should NOT be one of her lovers its just disturbing.

Things I enjoyed: LOVED that we get Anita back in the field again like book 20. Very much enjoyed Zerbrowski and watching Anita and him interact in the field and in their lunch scene. They had me cracking up and smiling. Love her relationship with Nathaniel and Micah.

Other thoughts: Asher, Wow I really hope that Jean Claude sends him away like he said as he really needs to get over himself and his issues. There is no excuse for his behavior. Wish we had more Jean-Claude scenes (not sex scenes just in general like they used to be together). The ending, How are her colleagues going to treat her now seeing her fall apart? Will they see her as more human or will they see her as weak where they saw her as nothing but strong before?!?

The Anita Blake series to me is one of those series I'm so invested in that I cant imagine not getting the next book even if its filled with nothing but orgy scenes and horrific writing because I have to know what happens next. Its hard to rate this far into the series after so many bad books so I'm going with the middle ground.

Anita Blake and Laurell K. Hamilton only get better and better with each book that comes out. I never know what she's gonna come up with next but know i'm gonna love it. If your an Anita fan, I recommend the read.

When I started reading this series from Laurell K. Hamilton I was addicted. The way she made characters almost tangible was captivating. Unfortunately for the last several books in this series there has been a study decline in the quality of writing. This book appears to be the culmination of "crappy"...or at least I hope so.

I was inundated with random ramblings that did nothing to facilitate further development of the plot and characters.

Luckily this book was free for me, although I still kinda want my money back.

For those of you reading this review. I won't recommend not purchasing this item, but I will say if you choose to do so, be prepared to be underwhelmed.

I've read all of the Anita Blake books and they seem to just get better with each new release. Kiss the dead certainly did not disappoint. I love to see how each character gets more and more developed as the story progresses from book to book. I think it's also interesting to see Anita's attitude towards work and her lovers change. While I don't really believe that she will ever give up solving monster crimes, especially considering they are often focused on her or her men, it looks like a change is coming.

Laurell must have gotten together with Charlaine to work out how to disappoint their faithful readers. Won't be buying either of their series until after I check it out from the library and decide whether it is worth paying money for. Hardly a plot and what there was wasn't explored in depth. There were a few paragraphs that were duplicated word for word in this book a few chapters apart. Does the publisher require a minimum number of words or what??? Don't waste your money and line her or her publisher's pockets. Check it out from the library if you must read it.

I am an Anita Blake fan 100% all the way. I have all 21 books. That being said, Kiss the Dead left much to be desired in my opinion. I was looking forward to so much...

I wanted to discover more about the bond with Truth.I wanted to dive into that story with the mermaids. I wanted some trouble with the Dragon or Belle Morte or more trouble from the Lover of Death or something to go down with an ancient master vamp. I wanted new magic from the triumvirates. I wanted their position as head of the new vampire council to be challenged. I just couldnt wait to find out where this book was going to take me.

What I got was a misunderstanding with an elusive non violent master vampire and the discovery that Anita is falling in love with one of her lovers.

The story was fine. I believe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadnt had any expectations.

This was a terrible book. Calling it a book is being generous. It's interesting in that it's the narration of a criminally insane woman as she commits crimes and twists every conversation in her favor. What's not good and a bit creepy is the author intended to write her Mary Sue as a heroine. I really don't see how anyone known for their opinion can say they like it without a monetary reward for doing so. I'm really not kidding.

She is back! I was worried because the book before this was not my favorite. Loved Kiss the Dead. In the story Anita is chasing a group of just turned vamps that had a young girl hostage and killed a couple of cops. She is back with the swat team working the cases. Killing, shooting, running ...putting the fear of actually death into people who were suppose to be beyond it. Anita is the bogey man of the vamps. So this story is Anita following a case and also trying to get her life in perspective. So Micah, Nathaniel, Nicki, Dev, Sin and a couple more I may be forgetting are all there. So we get some good glimpses of home life at the Anita house and at the Circus of the Damned, were John Claude, Asher and a few more, that you will remember join in the drama.

The Anita Blake stories are the only ones where you pick up new terms like Polyamorous and hetroflexiable. LOL Words that fit her life style. This book brings back all the things that you love about Anita. She is a strong, smart kick ass female that has lots of sexy boyfriends. Loved it! The sex scenes were awesome and the story was great. I loved that we got glimpses of some of my favorites, and some that may become new favorites. I can't wait for the next one!!

I've been a long time reader of this series and I just want to say I am so disappointed in the direction the last 5 books have taken. Anita cannot save everyone and all the different characters are freakin' confusing. So tired of all the sex scenes - Hamilton needs to get Anita back to solving mysteries and raising the dead!

I have read every book in the ABVH series. Thank goodness I came to the series only a few years ago, so most of my readings are from library copies. While at the library, I requested books similar to the Sookie Stackhouse novels and was given the names of several promising series, one of which was LKH's, ABVH. The librarian warned me that somewhere in the middle of the series the books became "weird." Weird, indeed! Even after the series became plot less, meandering, badly written porn, I enjoyed reading the snarky comments on these discussion lists. It usually takes me about two days to read a novel of this size, but I just could not trudge through this novel in that amount of time. It took me twice that long to finish. The whine, angst, pedophilia, bad porn, and non-sequiturs in Kiss the Dead have finished this series for me. I believe this soul killing last entry in the ABVH series is the last one I'll read.

Laurell K. Hamilton hits another out of the park. If you enjoy vampire books, then you will love and enjoy the Anita Blake series. Kiss The Dead is just as good as the first one. I have no idea how she is able to keep coming up with stories for Anita, but very glad that she does.

I eagerly await each new Laurell K. Hamilton book, whether her vampire hunter series or the fairies. Anita Blake has so many people in her life now it must be hard for Hamilton to include all of the characters in the books, but she gives it a good try. I would actually prefer the books be longer so as to update us on what everyone is doing, as I feel connected to each and every one of them.

You know from back in the day when the books were mysteries with kinky sex and monsters thrown in for fun? This read like it was written by a sex addict with ADHD. Plot summary: kidnapped girl, really old vampire who - oh look penis!

To add insult to injury, there is plenty of verbiage about Anita examining her life and her current mores but, despite pages of this, there's no thoughtful resolution to anything. Just plenty of trite and superficial glossing over inconvenient issues. Back in the day, LKH spent several novels developing Dolph's hatred for the monsters and now we waive the magic therapy wand and he's suddenly okay? It was just insulting to me as a reader.

Ms. Hamilton, if the series is boring you, please do your readers a favor and end it rather than attempt to drive us off one bad book at a time!

This is one of the best Anita story. I love her relationship with Edward. I know that Otto's obession with Anita will come down to a life or death match between the 3 of them. I enjoy her sweeties and boyfriends and how she has learned to deal with them.
She is maturing and becoming more interesting and more human all the time.

This book starts out with getting back to were we met Anita (being one tough chick) but doesn't hold that the whole way through. The description of the book is about all you get of that story arc I would have loved more about who the protagonists are. And it would be great to have more about Anita's suspicions or lack of reservations with her new coworker. I get that sex is an important part of Anita's life but since the author keeps saying the ardeur is manageable it would be awesome to see more ass kicking and way less hand holding. Hopefully each book will keep gaining back it's original flavor that I fell in love with.

I've read some of these Anita Blake novels and they weren't too bad, this one is dreadful, where is the storyline, its just porn with a few pages of story in between. She is either having sex, thinking about it or talking about, apparently she has sex with dozens of "boyfriends" casually. So boring to have to read this rubbish, obviously the author thinks she will sell more books if she just writes about non stop sex. I now don't even like the character of Anita Blake anymore, shes just a slutty nympho, big yawn.

I have read all of the books that Laurell Hamilton has written. I have in the past enjoyed the Anita Blake the most. I eagerly waited for this latest installment and I was greatly disappointed. This book lacks so much, I do not know where to start. I do not usually write bad reviews, but I enjoy Anita so much that I am hoping that Laurell will see all that we write and will realize that quality is so much better that quantity. I hope that future books will improve, if not then Anita and I will have to part ways...

The Anita Blake books have really bombed. What started out as one of the best series in the publishing world has turned into nothing but relationships and sex, sex, and more sex. At one time I could not wait for the next book to come out but that has changed. Now they just make me tired.

I have loved the Anits Blake series from the beginning but I think it has gone on for way to long. Other the the main character the rest are impossible to keep track of, and due to the length of time in between books the insignificant ones are forgetter. In this book here jean Claude and Richard are having sex with envy ( who is she - I know she is some were cat Anita has tied to herself but WTF). I could accept Asher but another women is something else so much for undying love. This book tries to cover to much, the series has just gone to far and to long. We need another series from lkh.

I have read all her books, and this is significantly more poorly written, conceived, and edited than before. Bad high school homework writing, during a lunchbreak. Really bad. Baaaaaaaad. I am at a loss for words. Ugh.

I loved the Anita Blake series back when there were only about 5 books out. Even went to a book signing to have them signed. After that you could just insert a new name and number to a book, but it was the same SEX, Sex, Tiny drop of something called a plot, Sex, Angst, sex Maybe add another drop of plot, and end with Sex.

LKH is not true to the character that she started with. Her editors should have nailed her down and said this. You have to be true to your characters. Anita goes from basically a virgin to a Ho in less time than it takes one of her bullets to travel a yard.

She needs to try to salvage this series as she has lost so many loyal customers.

This was absolutely the worst book in the series to date. It was 95% empty description and 5% plot. There was no growth from the last book, none of the story lines from the previous book continued, and you really didn't get a chance to find out more about any of the characters that appeared in the last book. It was all someone called me a monster again blah blah blah and hurt my feelings; and ohh how can I mess up my love life this time blah blah blah.The storyline in this book was so thin that it might as well have been non exist. And to top it off even the sex scenes were boring. This book is finally the one to turn me away from this series, I say save your money .If you really want to read this one, borrow it from a friend or your local library but it really was not worth it.

I've read every Anita Blake book (minus the anthologies and Beauty) and, like most of you I enjoyed the first 9, and what the heck, I'll be a little generous here and say that I even enjoyed it up to 12. 13-16 were tolerable (barely) and I definitely had to take a break in reading them all. 17 (Skin Trade) was one of my favorites because of the completely new environment and people, and also because we saw a somewhat return to the old Anita. Somewhat. All the cops asking/discriminating in regards to her sex life was rather irritating, though I understand how it was LKH trying to be realistic. Also not huge on the random orgy and pickup of a new guy.
Anyways, this isn't Skin Trade, so I'll get on with it.
Kiss Of Death was.... Different. As in, it didn't quite feel like Hamilton was writing it or paying very close attention to it. There were a number of repetitive descriptions in KOD, which was HIGHLY annoying after the second time. Also, for those of you (and I'm assuming that's most) who've invested quite a bit of time in the series know that Hamilton has a unique, shall we say, writing style. Every author has a different "voice" when they write and I couldn't really hear it in this one.
As many reviewers are already complaining, there ARE sex scenes. Get over it already. Quit your whining- THERE AREN'T THAT MANY. For real- there's only like 3 or so. That's practically a record for Hamilton nowadays.
Also, on an EXTREMELY happy note- no sex scenes for the ENTIRE first hundred pages. It's all her at a crime scene/work. It feels like more sex scenes because they're slightly condensed to the next hundred pages or so, which perhaps was not the smartest move by LKH.

GOOD NEWS: Hamilton's FINALLY listened to the reviews of the past 7 books. She's starting to clean it up and get back to the olden days, when Anita was just a badass girl doing her thing. It starts here. It's going to be a long, tough road, but we'll get there- we just got to stick it out- and keep pushing Hamilton in the right direction.
*Spoiler time*
Anita is a badass- we've always known that. Always. But there's something wrong with our dear Hunter- it seems she's feeling more and more like a monster as the days pass. It's a major theme throughout the book, and it's brought up quite a few times- Zebrowski, Larry, even by herself. LKH drops lots of hints about perhaps having Anita hang up the badge. *gasp* I know, but think about it. Would what she does normally in the preternatural world not be nearly the same as what she does as a Marshall, just minus the law?
Also, here's a new spin- What would happen if Anita and all them went off the reservation? Started being law breakers in the truest sense of the word? What if Zebrowski, Dolph, Larry, and all of the "good guys" had to come after her? SO MANY HINTS WERE DROPPED!!!!!
Also, I sense an impending break/possible bitterness between her and Larry. You'll find out what I mean if you read it.
Now, why do I keep saying this is the beginning of a truly new chapter in the series?
Anita's cutting down on lovers.
Yeah, you heard that right. Asher is being sent to "check out" a new city where he could be the master. There's some drama there. She's having issues with love and Cynrics age, not to mention there's a pretty large undercurrent in her love life right now that follows the "how much is too much?" thing. She's having severe issues on dividing her heart and time, which is about when you should be screaming "IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!"

*End spoiler*
Don't let these people rating it tell you it's not worth it; don't get it. Sure it has it's problems, but don't all books?
BUY THIS. See beyond just this book or the series so far- look into the future of the series like I did. This is where this series starts heading up again- I PROMISE. This is a new, beautiful beginning for Hamilton, AND Anita.
I truly can't wait to see where it takes us.