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Hello!

I am brand new to the Anita Blake novels, and I have not yet read any of LKH's other works, and at this point, I'm not sure I'm going to. I was introduced to the AB novels by a friend, and from the very first page, I was completely sucked in. Luckily, my friend had every single novel up through Incubus Dreams so over the last couple of months, I've read them all back to back. Now I'm up to Chapter 63 in ID, and I'm having a hard time finishing it.

Bear with me, I have a lot to rant about.

When the novels started out, I was surprised that I'd never heard of them before, loving the Vampire genre as it were. Never had a thing for Werewolves much, but surprisingly, as I read, I found myself really loving the wereanimals more than the Vamps. Then I started to see a few cracks.

(Spoilers throughout.)



"Breath" and "Breathe" are not interchangable. "Breath" is a noun. "Breathe" is a verb. The first time I noticed this, I thought, "Ah, typo. You don't see that too often in books." The twentieth time I saw it, I got annoyed. Then there are the apostrophes in the wrong places. Ugh.

LKH seems to use the same expressions and terms over and over. Example: "I nodded, realized he/she couldn't see it..." with the telephone. After about the tenth time, I was yelling, "ENOUGH ALREADY!" Same with clothing and weapons. I don't need to know exactly what she's wearing down to her socks every time she leaves the house. And I know what her weapons are, can she just put them on without details and get on with it? Not to mention when she describes down to undies what every single man in the room is wearing as well. I. Don't. Care! Maybe if it's important to the plot (The instance where Anita had to fight with that dress every time she wanted to get the gun out of the stomach holster was rather amusing) but otherwise, spare me, please!

Does LKH have an editor? I'm not asking rhetorically...does she have an editor? Because if she does, she should fire her/him and get a good one.





I know I'm supposed to love Jean-Claude, I do. But I find him so boring I want to cry every time the plot switches to him. I don't find him sexy, I don't find him interesting...the only thing I find him is extremely, laughably feminine. I don't think he and Anita have any kind of chemistry, and no real connection, save for maybe a mentor/student kind of thing.

And Richard. *holds head* Oh, Richard. How did he turn from such a nice, strong, sexy man into a sniveling, cruel, pathetic creature? I loved Richard. Now I hate him.

I know that LKH fancies herself to be Anita, but has LKH never heard the term "Mary Sue"? Does Anita have to be the best at every. single. thing? Pretty soon she's going to be so powerful the entire world will just fall at her feet. And she'll probably fuck all of them, too. Except the icky girls...LKH seems to have some sort of homophobic thing going on at times. Other times she doesn't. I'm so confuuuused!





For the most part, I have loved these stories, grammar errors and crappy characterization aside. Because LKH knows how to weave one hell of a tale.

Until the ardeur.

In theory, I was okay with the ardeur. But when you've got former Ms. No Sex USA suddenly fucking, like, ten guys in one day? Uh, no. What the hell happened? Anita has got to get a grip on this or this series is done. (If it isn't already.) Are we really expected to believe that all these men would be willing to put up with Anita's shit because she's just sooooooooo desirable? Puh-leeze. I don't have a problem with the pomme de sang idea...it's the feeding it every two hours with everyone and their dog...or should I say leopard that is just ridiculous. She's fucking people we hadn't even heard of until the last book! What the hell!?





The one character that LKH has managed to make me love unconditionally is Nathaniel. I haven't had this big a crush on a book character in years. Which is why, in Incubus Dreams I was so happy that Anita finally consummated with him. The problem is this: when I initially read that part, I admit, I skipped ahead. I'd fallen so hard for Nathaniel that I just had to know if they finally had sex with each other or not. And I read where they did (the first time) and was really excited, because it really came across that Anita was really falling for Nathaniel and I was happy about that. But then, when I went back and read it in context with everything else that was going on...oh man. Talk about ruining something that could have been so beautiful. Not only does she fuck...oh, let me see...like, four guys before Nathaniel, then she turns and fucks Richard and Jean-Claude right after! Now I know we're talking about my own expectations, here, but damn, that sucked. It's like LKH is so busy trying to get to the next shocking thing that she doesn't slow down and let any real relationships build between the characters. And that is so disappointing. I know fanfic writers who are better than that.



*Breathes* Sorry for my excessively long post, but I'd been needing to vent for ages, and I couldn't really vent to the person who loaned me the books, because she's an avid supporter of LKH's work. But I am very happy to find this community, and I know y'all understand. :)