Review written for ClubReading.com by Linda
Anita Blake is a vampire hunter. Ok, she is also licensed to kill them, with a court order of execution. In her world, vampires are simply fact; they run businesses, and have lives just like everyone else. They simply don’t age, and can’t go out in the sun. Besides executing vampires, Anita raises zombies for a living, a difficult job, and rather messy. But if Granddad didn’t sign his will, Anita can raise him, and the courts will accept a signature, assuming the lawyers can agree that he knows what he is doing.
Guilty Pleasures is the first in a series of several books about Anita Blake. I recently finished the series, and can say that each book is good, with the later ones more interesting, and more in depth. But start at the beginning; it will make more sense if you do. I ran through the series of eight or nine books in slightly less than two weeks; they really are that good!
Although I thought that the author’s sense of humor was strictly from a female point of view, these books were strongly recommended to me by several men, so I suppose the humor is not offensive to men. I found Anita Blake to have a witty, slightly cynical, very entertaining outlook on life. In fact, Anita’s discussion of being called a china doll by a “very ex-boyfriend” is what hooked me on the first book.
Especially if you don’t read horror (I don’t!), try these books. If you like crime novels, put Anita Blake next to Kay Scarpetta and Kinsey Millhone, and you will find Anita easily holds her own. In fact, unlike the other two, Anita grows and changes through the series, making the Anita in the first book vastly different from the Anita in the last. It’s a welcome surprise to see an author who is willing to allow a successful character to change and develop.