Book #50

Guilty Pleasures
by Laurell K. Hamilton

I finally read this one. I tried it a year or two ago and didn't like it; I remember being annoyed by the main character, but I can't really remember why. It was something about how she found the evil vampires attractive, I think. But that's weird, because she doesn't, not really -- not until the end of the book. Eh, I don't know why I didn't like it then; I enjoyed the heck out of it this time. I started reading it this morning when I got up, and read 2/3 of it then; I finished it this afternoon.
I thought it was good. I thought the character was well done; I liked both her attitude and personality, as well as her vocation and her beliefs. I liked most of the vampire stuff, though one thing bothered me that wasn't supposed to: the wind stuff that happened when the Master Vampire lost her temper; I didn't get that, what was happening or why, and that was annoying. Especially when I found out later that Jean-Claude had given Anita the second mark while she was trying to run from the wind stuff. That was just confusing. Otherwise, Nikolaos really pissed me off with her arrogance and her cruelty, but she's supposed to, so that was well-done, I thought. I loved the mystery aspect -- great choice of villain, nice surprise to it without being overly complicated, good explanation of the killings. The final confrontation was okay, though Hamilton overpowered the ultimate vampire too much for the final destruction to be completely credible. But hey, why not? Everybody gets overconfident, and Anita was swinging a really big sword. I was certainly glad when she killed that wench.

Overall, it's a good character, good vampires, well-written. I liked it.