Smolder

Laurell K. Hamilton

Mar 2023 · Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 29 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Vampire hunter Anita Blake is no stranger to killing monsters. It’s part of her job as a Preternatural U.S. Marshal, after all. But even her experience isn’t enough to stop something that is bent on destroying everything—and everyone—she loves.
 
Anita Blake is engaged to Jean-Claude, the new vampire king of America. Humans think she’s gone over to the side of the monsters. The vampires fear that their new king has fallen under the spell of the most powerful necromancer in a thousand years.
 
In the midst of wedding preparations—including getting Edward, aka U.S. Marshal Ted Forrester, fitted as best man—Anita gets a call that the local police need her expertise at a brutal murder scene linked to a nationwide slaughter of vampires and humans, dubbed the Sunshine Murders.
 
But there is more than just a murderer to catch: an ancient evil has arrived in St. Louis to challenge Jean-Claude for his crown, his life, Anita, and all they hold dear. Even with Jean-Claude’s new powers as king and Anita’s necromancy, it isn’t enough; they must embrace their triumvirate or allow primeval darkness to spread across the country, possessing first the vampires and then the humans. Evil will triumph unless Jean-Claude and Anita can prove that love conquers all.

Ratings and reviews

This gets 3 stars only because I actually read it all the way through. I was so disappointed. 3/4 of the book is either sex or talking about how everyone is doing great in therapy. The book ends super abruptly! A series like this usually has a story that flows from book to book, but this felt like a TV episode that suddenly ends and then pops up and says "to be continued". I kept reading because the villain sounds interesting, but even after the big scary shows up, they're dealing with personal issues more than dealing with the danger. I really don't know if I'll worry about the next book, even with an interesting bad guy.

The books in this series have been progressively getting worse. This book was 82% talking about how everyone is going to therapy. Don't get me wrong I appreciate that they are all growing emotionally but dang. There isn't even any real resolution to the newest conflict. Heck it's barely even mentioned. Hopefully the next book is better because I would rather not waste another $15.

I used to love the anita blake books but they've just gotten bad. it feels like nothing actually happened in this book but them talking and talking and talking. there's plenty of pages of political correctness and therapy talk to the point that it crowded out having an actual plot. I've been reading these books for almost 17 years, but I think this one may be my last one.

About the author

Laurell K. Hamilton is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and the Merry Gentry, Fey Detective series. A Terrible Fall of Angels, the first book in an exciting new series, features Detective Zaniel Havelock in a world where angels and demons walk among us.

With more than forty novels published, Laurell continues to create groundbreaking fiction inspired by her lifelong love of monster movies, ghost stories, mythology, folklore, and things that go bump in the night. Her love of the macabre, books in general, animals, and nature led her to degrees in English and biology. She is a nonpracticing biologist but uses her science background to add an extra level of realism to her fiction.
 
She currently lives in St. Louis with her family, two spoiled Japanese chins, a house panther, and a house lion. In her free time, Laurell trains in Filipino martial arts with a specialization in blade work, and travels to scuba dive and bird-watch as often as she can.