Guilty Pleasures (#1 in Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Aside from the friends I've made blogging, I don't have very many friends who enjoy reading.  In fact, none of them read like I do.  So, when one of these friends recommends a book to me, I simply must check it out!

One of my good friend, lent me her copy of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels.  The first one, which is called Guilty Pleasures.

From Amazon (because Goodreads had an awful description):

Anita Blake may be small and young, but vampires call her the Executioner. Anita is a necromancer and vampire hunter in a time when vampires are protected by law--as long as they don't get too nasty. Now someone's killing innocent vampires and Anita agrees--with a bit of vampiric arm-twisting--to help figure out who and why. Trust is a luxury Anita can't afford when her allies aren't human. The city's most powerful vampire, Nikolaos, is 1,000 years old and looks like a 10-year-old girl. The second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude, is interested in more than just Anita's professional talents, but the feisty necromancer isn't playing along--yet. This popular series has a wild energy and humor, and some very appealing characters--both dead and alive.

Image from Goodreads

My thoughts:

I have read A LOT of books.  My friends know that.  So I've become a bit more picky with my choosing and thoughts.  However, at the same time they are picky too, since they don't get the chance to read as often as I do.  Normally, I'm not a vampire fan when it comes to books (or even movies really) (aside from Twilight of course :)).  I read the first four in the Vampire Diaries by LJ Smith a couple of years ago, and thought they were okay, but honestly, I got bored with them way fast, because the characters were completely unlikeable, I felt.

That was not the case with Laurell K. Hamilton's book.  I loved her characters!  Anita, the main character of the series, is such a sarcastic person, which is something I've always enjoyed in characters.  She says the darnest things, including quoting random Dr. Seuss quotes; which is just hilarious!

Because of the character, Anita, I can already tell I will continue reading the series in the future!

Now what I wasn't a huge fan of, were sort points of the story, that felt a little inconsistent.  I don't know how to explain it, but what I thought was that there were a few points in the story where I thought to myself, "And that was necessary, why???"

My overall rating:

I definitely enjoyed it!  I don't plan on rereading it; however, because characters are such an important part of stories I read, I know I will continue reading the series in the future!  I will say, I can already tell this is going to be a gruesome series!  My friend warned me that there is sex throughout (it hasn't occurred yet in the series), but there was some gruesome violence in this one; including shooting zombies, vampires, pulling out throats, stabbing, etc.  A lot of blood!!!  Which isn't usually my cup of tea, if you know what I mean...

But I'm looking forward to hearing more of Anita's sarcasm!



More later! :)

The Romance Bookie :)