Cerulean Sins

I was binge-reading Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series back in 2009, so this was my second time reading Cerulean Sins. It’s my first time reviewing the book, though. It’s been so long since I read this series that it feels like I’m reading it for the first time.

Storyline/My Thoughts: Anita Blake is trying to get her life back to normal, as much as she can, with a vampire boyfriend and a leopard shifter as her Nimar-Raj. Her werewolf boyfriend broke up with her because he couldn’t stand what she could accept, and he couldn’t. (If you read the previous books, then you’ll understand when I say this, I was not a fan of Richard, her werewolf boyfriend. He got on my nerves.) I’m glad Anita is no longer with him. This book also made me realize that Anita is better off without Richard, but she has further lover drama in this book. Poor Anita! She went from not having a love life to having too much.

Cerulean Sins has Anita dealing with vampire politics, something she never wanted to be a part of, but dating the Master of the City is inevitable. Musette, who is a part of the European Vampire Council, has come three months early to St. Louis, so now Jean Claude, Anita, Asher, etc., have to cater to her. Unfortunately, Musette has something up her sleeve thanks to Belle Morte (Jean Claude’s maker). It’s not a friendly visit, and poor Anita is caught in the crossfire of it all. Anita will find out right away that Belle Morte is not someone to mess with, and she is up to something horrible.

On top of the vampire politics, Anita has to solve some gruesome murders. You would think Anita would be used to looking over gruesome cases, but these take a lot out of her. Laurell K. Hamilton had me cringing with the details to understand why Anita was bothered by the scenes. One of many reasons I love Laurel K. Hamilton is how detailed she gets with scenes. I love her writing style, even if she has me cringing due to the gruesome scenes.

This book has quite a bit of steamy moments between Anita and Jean Claude and several other characters. Anita’s ardeur shows up several times in this book, and some of it due to Belle Morte. If you are not a fan of a lot of steamy menage-a-trois moments, then this book may bother you.

The one thing that bothered me was how some scenes dragged on that could’ve been shorter. The first time I read this book, it didn’t bother me because I was binge-reading the series. This time though, I’m trying to read the series slowly and savor the storylines. It’s been so long since I read this series, so it’s like I’m reading it for the first time. Some of the steamy moments could have been shorter. Don’t get me wrong; I loved the steamy scenes. One particular scene was when Jason was involved. He finally didn’t feel left out. There were also scenes with Richard that drove me crazy. I know we needed drama, and he definitely brings it. (He drives me crazy.)

Overall, this book gets four stars from me, and I can’t wait to dive back into the next book. I know the books are going to get steamier because LKH knows how to write steamy scenes. I know more drama is coming for Anita, Jean Claude, Asher, Micah, etc. It’s going to be crazy, but I’m looking forward to rereading it.

Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, and I would recommend reading in order.

Steaminess: Hot! Laurell K. Hamilton writes some very steamy scenes.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of PNR/UF that has vampires, shifters, necromancy, steamy scenes, and suspense, then you’ll enjoy this book/series.

This series went off the rails with this book. It starts out well, with Anita agreeing to raise a dead man for a contract killer but quickly devolves into several hundred pages of vampire politics and sex that frankly bored me to tears. It felt like we’d seen the politics before and there was nothing new in them. And the sex did nothing to advance the plot while do everything to finish demolishing one of the things that made Anita Blake such an interesting person. Sex and the relationships she wanted to go with it were very important to her through most of this series—so much so that it was a driving force / obstacle in her love triangle with Jean Claude and Richard. But Hamilton apparently wants to write big sex scenes and since this is a first-person narrative, that means she has had to fundamentally change Anita’s personality. To justify this Hamilton introduced the ardeur—a vampiric need to feed through sex—but I don’t believe that it improved the storyline at all. What’s more, Anita’s need for sex takes up a ton of pages that would have been far better spent developing a more traditional Anita Blake mystery.

That being said, there are some good things about this book. About halfway through the novel, the emphasis returns to plot and the story improves rapidly. There is a new vampire threat in the person of the vampire who made Jean Claude and there is a new serial killer in town that proved to be an interesting challenge.

Even better, Anita’s relationship with policeman, Dolph, finally collapses as his personal problems combined with Anita’s intimacy with a growing number of “monsters” drive him into a breakdown. I’ve always liked Dolph and watching Anita and Detective Zebrowski work their way through this Dolph problem was often touching. The serial killer and Dolph storylines save the novel.

This is a book in a large collection and eachca

Disappointed… so not like her usual writing. I wanted to like it, but I couldn’t even finish this one.

All the books in this series are awesome!

This series is not my cup of tea. The first one was iffy at best, and they’ve gone so far downhill that I DNF and am giving up on the series. I appreciate that Anita is growing and changing as a character, but I don’t like who she’s become. I’m not a fan of harem or reverse harem stories and that’s what this is. Often the sex with multiple partners overshadows the plot, rather than advancing it. Even more frequently, it just feels like gratuitous sex for the sake of sex.

Definitely an adult book, as are all the books in the Anita Blake series. Very steamy. Take an adventure on the wild side with Shifters, Vampires and the rest of the crew. The further you get in the series, the better it gets!

I had mixed feelings about this book. It is superbly written, and the reader is excellent. However, much of the plot revolves around sexual and romantic entanglements. the main character has gone way beyond a menage a trois, and seems to translate most of her relationships with others into steamy sex scenes. Character costume seems to also be a major focus. In spite of all this, the plot moves along rapidly. If you enjoy steamy sex scenes, this will be an enjoyable book. If you prefer such interactions to be with the curtain drawn, then expect to do a lot of fast skipping through this book — except, if you do, you will miss parts of the plot.

Could not put it down

Love Anita Blake and Laurell K Hamilton. I’ve read this series many times and it never gets old. I just love a strong female character.