{Review} Kiss the Dead

After reading Bullet, I wasn’t sure I’d pick up another Anita Blake book.  It was bad.  Really bad.  Had no ending or climax, the conflict just sort of went away.  However, since I’m an author myself and know how hard it is to write these damn things, and LKH was the whole inspiration for me to take a crack at writing myself, I decided I was a fan, darn it, and fans stick out the rough spots. 

So, I got my hands on her latest Anita Blake novel, Kiss the Dead.

Here’s the skinny, courtesy of Goodreads:

When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she’s faced with something she’s never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people—kids, grandparents, soccer moms—all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there’s one martyr, there will be more…

But even vampires have monsters that they’re afraid of. And Anita is one of them…

Cover

All of the Anita Blake covers have that NY best seller look to them, don’t they?  I love the colors in this one and the dark feel of it, the man looming in the background and the woman laying beneath the jagged edges.  The whole thing is bold and eye-catching, just how I like them.

Review

I liked this book.  Enjoyed it.  Laughed.  Teared a little–yeah, I did, I’m not afraid to admit it.  I was so afraid of being disappointed like I was with Bullet, but it appears as though that was just one blip in LKH’s massive lineup of books.  I originally rated this a three, but I think that’s because I have an issue with the ending, and that one little piece frustrated me at first, and if I’d given myself some time to think about it, I would have rated it differently. 

The more I thought about the story, the characters and the growth of Anita herself, I rethought my rating and gave it a four.  It’s well written.  It’s entertaining, and we got much more actual police work and relationships than just naked screwing of everything that moves.  Not that I have a problem with that in the slightest, there just needs to be a balance, and in this one, there was.

What I really like about this book, is that I get a sense that LKH is figuring herself out while Anita’s doing the same.  I think that’s really neat, how her thought processes have changed and her overall outlook on life, what’s important and such.  It made me think more about my own life and those of my characters.  I like it when a book can do that.

SPOILER ALERT

My one little niggle, as I said earlier, came at the end.  What first drew me to LKH’s writing is that she wasn’t afraid to get messy, to kill people off, to do her worst to her characters and make everyone that much stronger for it. 

This ending was waaaay too tidy for my liking.  There is an enormous cast of lovers, and I was sure this book might see a few leave the series during the climax. 

Nope. Everything worked out perfectly without a single hair harmed on a single head.

Has LKH lost a bit of her grit because she’s too attached to Anita’s lovers?  All thirty or forty of them?  That’s just me, though, and you all know how cruel of an author I can be.  I expected a bit of harsh reality for Anita because of the buildup.  Oh well, maybe next time.  🙂

Overall, I’d recommend this book to PNR & UF lovers, especially those who like crime fiction.

{Review} The Good, the Bad, and the Undead #TuesdayTurns

I haven’t turned as many pages this week as I normally do, what with being obsessed with a new WIP of my own, so this is going to be a partial review. I’ve been slowly trying to read Kim Harrison’s second in The Hallows series, trying being the key word there.

Here’s the particulars on this one courtesy of Goodreads.

Back of the Book:

It’s a tough life for witch Rachel Morgan, sexy, independent bounty hunter, prowling the darkest shadows of downtown Cincinnati for criminal creatures of the night.

She can handle the leather-clad vamps and even tangle with a cunning demon or two. But a serial killer who feeds on the experts in the most dangerous kind of black magic is definitely pressing the limits.

Confronting an ancient, implacable evil is more than just child’s play – and this time, Rachel will be lucky to escape with her very soul.

Cover:

I actually like the cover on this one.  A little intrigue.  Come nice color contrast.  Nice, bold fonts.  Some sexy to tie it all together.  The blurb on the back is well done, too, and would most definitely make me pick it up to flip through at the very least.

Review:

Although I liked the cover, once I opened it, the disappointment began.  There was actually stuff happening this time, a little action, a foot chase, all things that should row my boat, but by chapter two I was bored out of my mind.  Jenks didn’t even make enough of an appearance to add some punch, only doing the same old pixie tricks he pulled in the last book.

The new character, the FIB guy, what’s his name?  Oh yeah, he’s as unmemorable as the rest of the characters that I can’t, for the life of me, remember his name.  The interactions with the vampire chick were consistently awkward like the first book.  I’m about 1/3 through and there’s no sign of the only one who intrigues me: Trent. 

Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m going to finish this book.  The pace and characters are just not for me, I guess.

I’m not going to give it a rating.  I’ll consider it if I actually finish the book, but for now I’ll take my mother’s advice and keep my mouth shut star-wise unless I have something nice to say.

For now, my recommendation is to skip this one unless you like weird and awkward with not a very exciting storyline.