The book belongs to urban fantasy genre; it was written long before the term was created. So humans did something really stupid (in my opinion formed after I finished reading) and legalized vampires despite the fact that these creatures need to kill people to exist - as everybody knows. To justify this I can only say that this is not the first time the humanity acted like complete retards - we can all give countless real-life modern examples. Anita Blake was a reanimator meaning she could raise zombies. This skill often comes handy as dead people can tell interesting tales. She also did not belong to vampire fan club; Bella Swan she was not. One day the master vampire of her city offered her a job she could not refuse; it was all about the right motivation obviously. It seemed somebody was killing innocent (huh???) vampires and Anita was to investigate or lose her life as well as get her friend killed. As the title implies Anita had some experience of dealing with annoying bloodsuckers so when they finally got on her nerves she realized it was time to quit acting stupid and start kicking some undead butts. Some long-awaited action finally came. I was very surprised by some things about the book. Unlike what reviewers said it did not suck outright. In fact it was decent enough. I also found Kate Daniels' granny: Anita. For those unfamiliar with the latter lady let me just say that Kate was heavily influenced by her and the influence is quite clear. Anita even possesses trademarked Kate's sarcastic humor. To be fair I have to say Kate Daniels writing is better. Thus on the negative side the writing is not great (but passable) and there are plot holes and just illogical and just stupid things aplenty; Anita's IQ drops to single digit range sometimes. On the positive side any relative of the current Queen of urban fantasy deserves respect. I was never bored reading the book. It night shock somebody, but I will give this novel the same rating as I gave to Kate Daniels #1: 3 stars. I have to say that there are 3 stars and there are 3 stars. This rating can mean "Nice, but I am not reading the next book" and also "I am mildly curious what comes next". This time I use the second meaning and will continue with the series.

(This is a massive pan. Just a heads-up.)I've finally given up on this series, though I'm embarrassed to say it took me about ten books to get there. This is another of those books where I loved the premise, but the execution made me gag. Anita is insufferable, self-centered and judgmental, and her self-justification for her transformation from noli me tangere virgin to super-slut is laughable. (God apparently told her directly that it was okay. Whatever.)The appeal for me was always Richard the werewolf and Jean-Claude the vampire, whose relationship was obviously the true love story about to happen, but in later books they don't even appear. Contract problems? Scheduling conflicts with other projects? Why on earth would the author replace the most compelling characters with a series of beta males who Anita can control like she controls every other aspect of this world?Well, obviously, because this is Hamilton's fantasy, isn't it? Right down to the creation of a character that is the male version of Anita, so she can make love to herself. Yuck.

I finally got around to reading Guilty Pleasures, the first Anita Blake book, and can at least see why they're not in the Romance section: it's gory and the author doesn't seem to like vampires at all.I know Hamilton's very well established and has a huge fan base, and I know there are lots of other people who don't like her books, so I feel pretty confident I'm not going to get lynched by saying I'm glad I only spent $2 on this book.I really didn't like it. This is partly because I was so often confused, partly because I was very bored, and partly because there's simply no one to like in this book. I didn't like Anita, I was very distracted by the way she dresses and the things she thinks about; I didn't like any of the humans or other characters; the vampires were portrayed in the non-romantic cliche way (as opposed to the romantic cliche), and I didn't like all the guns. The plot is slow and dull and Anita misses some glaringly obvious things - and doesn't ask very good questions. There were many scenes where I kept thinking "What the hell is going on?" It often didn't make much sense to me at all and seemed to contradict itself, and I am not a stupid person. It's like, during the rewrite stage, things got cut out that should have stayed. Also, what the hell is a "hubba hubba" motion with your hand supposed to look like?? I have never skimmed a book like I did with Guilty Pleasures. Jean-Claude was intriguing but hardly in it at all, and I didn't start properly reading it again until the end. I don't like skimming, I never usually do it, and it's a very bad sign if I do. It gets two stars for Jean-Claude and the interesting thing about not being able to properly envision or understand a character until you get to see their eyes.