Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache”(Diana Gabaldon). Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling series has captured readers’ wildest imaginations and addicted them to a seductive world where supernatural hungers collide with the desires of the human heart, … desires of the human heart, starring a heroine like no other…
Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy…
“What The Da Vinci Code did for the religious thriller, the Anita Blake series has done for the vampire novel.”—USA Today
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Exploring the world as we know it through the lens of Laurell K. Hamilton will keep you reading from cover to cover. The most creative take on a vampire hunter in a modern world setting with twists and turns around every corner and characters that are so realistic you half expect they are real. The Anita Blake series is an all-time favorite for me and this first book really sets the tone for the universe you are stepping in to. A must read for all vampire and were-animal lovers, a haunting reality you could have never imagined without reading it first!
As the first in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, this definitely remains one of my most favorite books of all time. The series has certainly taken some incredible turns, but the start of the journey will only provide a small glimpse into this complicated world that leaves you breathless with every new book in the series. Enjoy!
I started reading Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series shortly after Guilty Pleasures came out and tore through the first few books in the series. Then I had to wait for each new release and it became harder to keep up with Anita and gang. In fact, I have 3 more recent LKH books gathering dust on my shelves because I’ve let my reading lapse so long! And I’m afraid I’ve forgotten a lot of the characters (there are SO many as the series progresses). What’s a reader to do? Start over, of course!
I’m so glad I decided to re-read Guilty Pleasures and begin the series again. There was a lot of stuff I’d forgotten– primarily just how rigid Anita was and how black-and-white her beliefs were in the good and bad in the world. Later Anita has evolved so much she barely resembles the character in the first book–and that’s a good thing! Anita Blake really was a groundbreaking character and Hamilton’s series paved the path for so much of the vampire fiction that has come out in the last two decades.
Guilty Pleasures introduces us to Anita Blake, vampire hunter, raiser of the undead, badass extraordinaire. She is a deeply conflicted character– at odds with her crazy abilities that let her straddle the worlds of human and supernatural. And she meets her match in Jean Claude, the ultimate vampire. Their love-hate relationship and budding romance was worth re-reading again. These are the characters I fell in love with, who made me really believe something new could be written in vampire fiction. For readers who have never read LKH– you really don’t know what you’ve been missing! This is the series (or certainly one of the early ones) that started it all… and the world building is incredible! LKH is a legend for a reason– and Guilty Pleasures is was started it all.
This was LK Hamilton’s first book in the Anita Blake series, and was my first venture into such a varied paranormal character filled story and with such outstanding sexual partners too. Filled with action, thrills and hot paranormal pleasures. Couldn’t put it down till it was finished
Although LKH’s later books started to fall apart, the beginning of her Anita Blake series remains one of my favorites. LKH is so great at building a plethora of characters that make the stories come to life. The main character is a nice contradiction of hard-criminal investigator and vulnerable female. This story was filled the just the perfect mixture of crime-solving, myths and folklore, character dialogue, and action.
First book in a ground-breaking, awesome series that started my love of paranormal romance way back when…If you start this series, it will become one of your favorite guilty pleasures, too!
I met the author in person. And she is a very nice. A very good imagination.
While the later books in this series get a little too steamy for my taste, this first book is the ultimate urban fantasy and the book that made me what to write in this genre. Highly recoomended.
I enjoyed the book and the next few that came after. But after a while they became more sex than story and was out the story I found them boring. However, this leaves several books at the beginning of the series that are quite enjoyable and very different from anything else out there, if you enjoy rather steamy, weird romances.
Another great series to collect, and yes I have them all! And have read them over many times! A strong kick butt woman with unusual talents, you get your vampires and shape-shifters and zombies too! Lol hot romance and action, very entertaining.
L.K.Hamilton’s books are some of the best I’ve ever read her Guilty pleasures series is to die for. If you haven’t read it yet your missing out on some of the best hots, sexyest, vampire to werewolves Anita Blake is the best. Mrs . Hamilton has other series out that you just can’t put them down just like this one. Can’t wait until the new ones to come out!! Keep up the good work!!!
I love this book! This book is what got me really reading paranormal/horror/romance. It has vampires and vampire hunters, it also has wererats! This is the first book in a series that know have over 20 books, the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Anita Blake is a hard, tough vampire hunter and also an animator which is a person that can raise zombies. She’s tasked by the Master of the City to find out who is killing all the high level vampires, or her best friend will be in danger. Every time a new book in the series comes out I have to reread all of them, that’s how good the books are.
This book starts well; Anita Blake, ace detective is telling a Vamp she isn’t doing business with his kind. She is tough, calm and resourceful, then it turns out she is a Necromancer, even better. Gonna like this thinks I…
Then…
The plot twists and then turns, and suddenly she is on a hen night at a vamp bar. The book dwells on the buffness factor of the Vamps, and then the fang bangers are paraded, and everyone gets hot and sweaty. Apart from the readers, or at least this reader?
Are all vampires perfect human specimens, bulging and indulging, grinding and douching? In this book mainly, yes. And then the queen of them all is a pre-pubescent child starting to sprout breasts, but she is a big nasty of a character.
And then we move onto the Wererats that are sent to Rape her by the Queen … Yadda Yadda Yadda…
If there was an original idea in this book, I am hard-pressed to spot it. This is a book aimed at women, I suspect, rather than men, so….
This is a do not finish, and even perhaps an avoid like the plague.
Although a friend online dropped me a line and said she really enjoyed this book and Anita the hero was a real cool character. Once more a bit of diversity in the readership, which is always a good thing.
Guilty Pleasures by Laura K. Hamilton was an Interesting Urban Fiction Read.
This was my first book by this Author, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it held my attention.
Anita Blake, the h, was an Animator/ Executioner of vampires, with a snarky attitude.
I felt like Anita was more lucky at killing, than experienced.
There were a variety of other characters in this story with unique personalities, which provided satisfying entertainment.
This is not my usual genre, and I’m not really motivated to continue the series.
Hamilton writes some of the best plotted, extremely “steamy” paranormal romance/ adventures I have ever read. I’m alway watching for a new one to be published!
Anita Blake is the best of the best. I have read every book in the series a few times. Recently went through from the first to most recent book in the series again.
The book that got me hooked on all of Laurell K Hamilton work. I can’t remember how many times I’ve read the series. Love this book!
Guilty Pleasures is book one in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton and it is probably one of my favourite series ever! The story focuses on the main character Anita, who is not only a vampire hunter but also a necromancer (a person who can raise the dead). She is asked by a Master Vampire to look into vampire slaying which are happening in the city and although she does it rather reluctantly, she runs headfirst into drama, violence and people trying to kill her.
Anita is a great character to read about, she is strong with a touch of vulnerability and full of sass. You are continuously hoping that she gets her man (or rather creature) as she figures out all the players that want power for either themselves or their Masters. We are also introduced to the enigmatic Jean Claude (one of the master vampires and someone who Anita is going to have a lot to do with in the next couple of books) who Anita has an instant attraction to but is also scared of due to her feelings on vampires.
Ms. Hamilton is also good at making horrible characters really mean and draws you into the paranormal world of vampires, were’s and anything else that goes bump in the proverbial night. You really do feel a part of this world as we go through the Circus of the Damned and through the underground tunnels and into the haunted graveyards.
I loved the relationships that Anita has with Edward, Willy and even Phillip and there are true moments of sadness for Anita as she tries to keep everyone and herself alive. This is a fast-paced, action packed paranormal read and I can’t wait to re-read the rest of this series.
More of my reviews can be found on my blog: http://thehotmesslibrary.blogspot.com
Guilty Pleasures is a great book from the first page to the last—a masterful way to open one of the premiere urban fantasy series—one that helped to establish the now-archetypal tough as nails female investigator/practitioner of supernatural crime. Anita Blake is both an animator—a person cursed with the ability to raise corpses from the grave—and a vampire hunter in an America in which the Supreme Court has just given civil rights to the bloodsucking undead. Now vampires are out of the closet and viewed by many as an exotic tourist attraction—dangerous, but safe—right? Because the Supreme Court wouldn’t have given them rights if they really hurt people, would they? Except that sometimes vampires still kill people and the normal legal authorities can’t handle them. So, judges issue a writ of execution and hunters are set loose to try and kill the rogue before it kills other people. Anita Blake is so successful in this trade that the vampires have nicknamed her the Executioner, but it has come at a heavy cost. Her body is a mass of scars and there is clearly psychological trauma as well.
The novel opens very effectively with a vampire, Willie McCoy, trying to hire Anita to look into the illegal murders of several vampires in St. Louis. Willie is the first person Anita knew as a human before he became a vampire. The difference between live Willie and undead Willie is the vampire scares her. Anita can’t even risk meeting his gaze lest he mesmerize her. Anita refuses to take the job and Willie sadly warns her that her answer will anger powerful vampires setting the stage for the main plot of the story.
The novel kicks into high gear a few chapters later when Anita is dragged to a bachelorette party for her friend, Catherine, at the vampire strip club, Guilty Pleasures. Multiple important elements of the story and the series are introduced in the next few chapters. First, and most important, Hamilton introduces Jean Claude, the sexy master vampire who will play games with Anita for the rest of the series. He is very powerful and clearly enjoys flirting with Anita. She, on the other hand, understands he is a monster but clearly is attracted to him just the same.
We also learn that there is a Master of the City who controls the other vampires and meet two particularly bad undead creatures of the night. Aubrey illegally ensnares Catherine as a lever to be used against Anita. Catherine is now under his complete control and can only be released by his death. Valentine is a vampire who almost killed Anita and her mentor, Edward. They thought he was dead, but he survived with disfiguring holy water scars across his face. Both Aubrey and Valentine are only waiting for Anita to finish her work for the Master of the City before coming after her to kill her. We also learn that the Master of the City is a terrifying thousand-year-old vampire who looks like she’s twelve. She needs Anita to figure out whose killing her vampires but definitely gives the impression that she plans to break Anita rather than let her go afterward. It’s a terrible situation made all the worse by something magical that Jean Claude does to Anita before the Master turns on him in a dominance struggle that he clearly loses.
Anita barely escapes, returning home to find her mentor, the assassin, Edward, waiting for her in her apartment. Edward is the best character in the series—a stone cold killer who started hunting vampires, lycanthropes and other supernatural creatures because mere humans weren’t a big enough challenge. Edward has accepted a contract to kill the Master of the City and wants Anita to tell her where she sleeps during the day but Anita is worried that if she gives him the information, Catherine will suffer.
With this, we have all the pieces in place. Anita is trying to investigate the vampire killings, but the Master is crazy and she and her vampires keep interfering with the task they are forcing Anita to pursue. It took me a while to figure out why, but the death of her vampires, many of them master vampires, has disrupted the Master of the City’s reign and she fears that all of this is a play to dethrone (i.e. kill) her. And Jean Claude’s games with Anita have created a bond between them that is preventing the Master from punishing him in her traditional fashion (locking him in a coffin and letting him go mad from his unsatisfied bloodlust). Add to that her crazed need to dominate and break everyone she meets and Anita is in terrible trouble. What the Master doesn’t understand is that Anita isn’t the sort of person who lays down and dies. When she’s terrified, she strikes back, setting up a phenomenal ending with Anita and Edward going after the Master of the City on her own turf.
It’s just hard to say too much good about this novel. It establishes the urban fantasy reality of the series. Gives us important information on vampires and introduces animators, lycanthropes, and ghouls to the reader. Everything fits together very nicely. And, of course, the ending begs for a sequel without actually giving us a cliffhanger.
This was one of the more influential series that I read regarding vampires in a modern setting. I highly recommend the entire series for those that are world building or just enjoy an alternate history world.