Flirt

Why did I do this to myself? Why return to Anita Blake, when all she does is annoy and frustrate me?

Because I am a fool.

But as foolish as I am, at least I didn't write a novel in which all the male characters tell Anita how hot and desirable and wonderful she is for an entire chapter. Is there a plot? Sure, but it's solved in about two minutes. Truthfully, there are so many problems with this story that it’s hard to know what to complain about most.

-The pages upon pages of descriptions of each man’s hair, eyes, muscles, and dreadful clothing choices?
-The chapter in which nothing happens except Anita and her waiter flirting with each other?
-The way the reader is repeatedly reminded that every single other female character is show more stupider, meaner, and less pretty than Anita?
-How every single time Anita does anything, all the male characters comment on how amazing and astounding it is?
-How Anita Blake uses magic to take away someone’s free will for the rest of his life? And then has sex with him? And then has a long discussion with her other boyfriends about whether she should “keep” him, while the poor dude listens and weeps? And then all her boyfriends comfort her about how hard it must have been on her?
-Or ooh, how ‘bout how we’re supposed to think Anita is oh-so-moral because she refuses to raise zombies that someone wants to have sex with, but then she raises zombies and forces them to kill and eat people? Including their own family members?

This series better end with someone chopping her head off, because at this point Anita Blake is actively evil. show less

The more I think about this book the more it creeps me out.

There will be spoilers.

So it's a typical Anita Blake novel from the recent lot. Jean-Claude is at a distance, Richard is invisible boy and mostly Anita is working with the were-pack of toy boys.

The story starts with an incident that is apparently based on a real-life incident Laurell has with some friends while travelling (only with more clothes, Anita's men seem to favour tank-tops). Recounted by Laurell in an afterword and shown in a cartoon it's vaguely entertaining.

Bracketing this Anita has meets with clients who want her to resurrect their dead spouses, neither for good reasons. I'm not quite sure why Tony Bennington wants his spouse back, he doesn't come across as wanting show more her, just wanting the appearance of her. The other, Ms Natalie Zell wants to punish her husband for dying on her. So when someone kidnaps Anita and some of her harem to force her to resurrect a body, they're not sure. The kidnappers have cut Anita off from her power and Anita has to use one of them to save her men.

So she takes his free will from him. And then debates with her guys about letting him join her harem. She basically rapes him, and then dismisses the consequences as if they didn't exist. This is one of my problems with Anita, her actions have little consequence, she doesn't really regret much about how she treats people, it's her past that matters, her issues that surface again and again.

I'd like to see a book where Jean Claude and Richard do an intervention, force her to think, to actually pay attention to the consequences of her actions rather than drifting through her world collecting power tokens and gaining a lot of power, too much power. She imbalances the power in the world and there's nothing done about that.

And then there's the taster of the next book, where a five-year-old insists on being kissed on the lips, like the big boys do and I'm squicked even more.

Sorry, no, this is it. I have to stop punishing myself like this and declare an end to reading this series. This was a short that I flew through and it's made me quite squicked with the world, I now need to read something exceedingly fluffy to ensure I don't lose the plot entirely. show less

This short story masquerading as a novel apparently exists as an excuse to publish fanfiction about an unremarkable event in the author's life. It was a boring scene. It became cringe-worthy when the author had to retell the actual event in her author's notes. And include comic illustrations from her friend. Maybe ... this belongs on a livejournal, not a published work?

Meanwhile, Anita crosses major, major lines as a character. The fact that she's now perfectly happy to commit mind rape, physical rape, magical enslavement and a particularly violent murder by magic without blinking was an enormous shift in Anita's moral lines. It went unremarked in the text.

These books are getting more awful by the installment, and yet I still keep show more reading the damn things. Every time I wonder why. show less

I swore I'd never read another Laurell K. Hamilton book about 14 books ago. However, I had a long wait at the physical therapist today (snow) and it was sitting there on the receptionist's desk, so I "borrowed" it while waiting.

The fact that I finished it in a waiting room indicates the first problem...though not the largest...I had with it. The inside of the dust jacket says this gobbler was $23.95. The story was less than 160 pages long, with large type. I don't know about you, but that seems a bit steep to me.

The remaining 30+ pages in the volume contained a comic strip (!), an essay on her writing process which I didn't finish 'cause my eyes glazed over, plus an anecdote about a real-life flirt with a waiter that so affected her, show more she had to write this story.

But, assume that money is no object to you.

LKH hasn't changed the formula she perfected over the last 16-18 books. Have a very repetitive plot—in this case serial flirting. Have it result in Anita Blake, apparently more powerful than any Marvel superhero, get into a sticky situation. To get out of it, she needs to either: a) chew someone, b) scr** someone (pardon my French), c) both. She chose 'b' in this case and the only thing I can say in defense of this story is that there's less sex in this than in the one that I threw across the room years ago, where it was ¾ of the book.

This seems like nothing but an attempt on the part of LKH/Berkely Books/Both to cash in on whatever remaining fans she has at 15¢ a page rather than deliver a real novel. If you're one of those die-hards, I guess you'll have to read this because she does start up a bunch of sub-plots with which she'll tantalize you but, if true to her past form, won't ever really resolve. Or...just find something better.

This kind of commercial cash-in really annoys me. In general, people are struggling to make ends meet and looking for inexpensive entertainment. LKH has her millions; give the remaining fans a break. show less

This is another shorter book in the Anita Blake series. It's based on a real-life flirty situation Hamilton had in a restaurant with some friends. I really think she's a much better writer when she works in shorter formats. This book wasn't weighed down with all the extended sex scenes and incessant whining that a lot of the later books have. Some sex actually took place off-camera, so to speak.

I am noticing that certain elements of Hamilton's worldbuilding tend to disappear when it's convenient. Anita had been very concerned about accidental pregnancy after a scare in one book and was demanding all her guys wear condoms along with her being on the pill. But that seems to come and go.

Some of Anita's powers, she either forgets or acts show more like she's just discovered them. Hamilton really needs an editor or superfan to read her books before publication to correct these problems. She's raised an entire cemetery before in this book acts like it's something she _could_ do but hasn't actually done. Some of her powers over vampires come and go as well.

Werelions play a large part are in the book moving the story arc involving them a little further and giving Anita a new man in her life. Her sex life just gets more and more complicated. Soon she'll have a harem to rival any sultan's.

The book was a quick read and Hamilton talks about how she gets her ideas and turns them into books. But frankly, the drawn-out restaurant scene could have been tightened up. It just seemed to be there to give the book its title and add a weak link to what happens later. I thought the whole scene could have been written to better get the point across.

I'm moving on to the next book in the series. show less

I found this book quite enjoyable. One of the things that has recently started to bug me about the Anita books is the over saturation of sex. It has been bordering overboard, just filler. That's not quite accurate, though because the love Laurelle puts into her writing, her spirit is poured into these sequences of the story, and many of them are important parts of the story for her character's development, and for plot. It is just that there is more to Anita than her hungers, than the men she sleeps with. When every few paragraphs Anita starts licking someone the rest of who she is gets lost somewhere in the discarded clothing.
I enjoyed this story more because it was more old school Anita, she actually got to go to work in this show more story...of course she didn't get to accomplish much, but hey I'll take what I can get. This story is very fast paced and kept me interested in that action thriller sort of way. Laurelle introduces a couple new characters that I'm sure we'll be seeing more of, and allows Anita to tap into her continually growing powers to get her out of the sticky situation she got into.
It was a rather short read but, I think that's because it didn't have ten chapters of romance in it. It didn't have room for all that either. This wasn't a romance novel it was a sexy action fantasy thriller just like they used to be.
I just wish they all could be like that, because what I love about Anita isn't how many hot guys she's got in her bed, it's her guns, knives, attitude, power, and honor. I love the Anita that works with the police and wont stop until she solves the case. I love the Anita that out smarts ancient vampires and pisses them off with her cynical sarcasm. I love Anita Blake:Vampire Hunter...and I often miss her, too. show less

Flirt was a surprise Anita book similar to Micah, shorter in length, with a focus on Anita's relationships, not the broader supernatural community. Also, there's a return to Anita's necromancer roots, which was nice.

So what's up is there are two potential clients who want Anita to raise their dead spouse for all the wrong reasons. Anita turns both down and after the second client leaves, she goes out to lunch with Nathaniel, Micah and Jason. And Nathaniel and Anita get their flirt on...with a waiter at the restaurant. But a few days after this, Anita is kidnapped by some werelions who were hired by one of her spurned clients and all hell breaks loose. Anita's lion is in heat...and she's looking for a Rex for her pride. Oh no. You know show more what this means. Another metaphysical emergency where Anita needs to have sex. But it's all good. She didn't have a lion in her harem yet anyway. So now she potentially has two. But are they willing to share? Because I've lost cost of how many men Anita counts on to feed her sexually. I know it's not more than 20. But it is more than 10. o_O

As much as I harp on these books, I still can't help reading them. I think if I were to go cold turkey from LKH books, I'd shrivel up into a little ball and waste away. These books are a part of me.

Er...not quite. But still, you know what I mean, right? Book EIGHTEEN people!! There is no turning back from this series by now. If you are tempted to start this series, and I know you are, stop after Obsidian Butterfly. Which is book 9.

Also another thing I found interesting? When Anita was mentally shuffling through her men, she didn't count Richard among them. Is this a sign of the end of Richard? Please goddess, let it be so!

So what did I think? Flirt was a quick, fun read, that's what. I know, I know. But I'm hopeful.

I should not have to flirt with someone while I'm trying to threaten someone else with a gun; it was too hard to do both.

It sounds like Anita is back. And she's totally kick ass. So there.

However, Flirt is only getting a C from me. The annoying way Anita has of questioning everything still bugs me every time. It wasn't as bad, but now the other characters are doing it too. Ugh. And the new guy, there is some potential. show less