Beauty

[dwg.livejournal.com]

It's only taken a small eternity for the Amazon page to be updated with some kind of information as to what this even is - and the publication date has changed from April 24 to May 8:

The steamy outtake that takes readers even further into Laurell K. Hamilton’s bestselling novel, Kiss the Dead.

You’d think I’d get used to seeing such a beautiful man and knowing he was mine, but it never grew old, as if his beauty and the fact that he was mine, and I was his, would forever surprise me.

With a vampire like Jean Claude around, it’s far too easy for Anita Blake to doubt her own appearance—and the hold it has on those who love her. But one hot tub and two incredibly sexy men—Jean Claude and Asher—will make her feel like the most lusted-after woman alive…or undead. Not bad for a mere human…

“Hamilton remains one of the most inventive and exciting writers in the paranormal field.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Includes an excerpt of Kiss the Dead, the new Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novel.

[source]

I'm starting to wonder if this is what we get instead of the first chapter posted free on LKH's website? Given the revised drop date, Beauty comes out one month before Kiss the Dead. There has been zero chatter about what Beauty even is -- the closest I've found was just a couple of days ago over at the forum, and even then the mod couldn't actually confirm what the book was about unless she got word from Laurell herself. This whole thing strikes me as incredibly weird.

That said, yes I am going to try to get my hands on this as soon as possible. For science or great justice or something.

Comments

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

So much WTF. First of all, I'm sorry, but that's an ugly cover. Although I think it's appropriate that whereas most UF covers have women in active, or at least upright poses, Anita always appears to sprawled on the floor nowadays. But yeah, ugly cover.

Second - who cares? I mean, there's usually a good reason scenes get cut from books. Either they're not good enough or they're good but don't serve the plot. In both cases, I have no interest in reading something deemed not right for the final book.

THAT SAID. It gives me a tiny, fragile glimmer of hope that this is apparently a big old sex scene and somebody decided to slice it from the book. Maybe that means KtD has actually been, you know, edited for content? I still maintain this is just going to be Anita wangsting over being half-Mexican and not blonde and skinny, and JC and Asher being all, "no, no, you are the most super speshul snowflake ever and we'd take you over a million blonde soccer moms and whatever." So, yeah...I look forward to your thoughts.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

There's been at least two rounds of edits? This is one more than usual. I'm honestly shocked by this. But I'm also a bit antsy because usually we would have a chapter of KtD up on her website by now. The book is due out in about eight weeks, and aside from hunting down a blurb there's been mum. It seems like a really weird way to promote an upcoming title.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

The fact that there's obviously been some real editing makes my little heart pitter-patter. I don't except the old Anita, but maybe we'll get a less sucky Anita?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Hit List was definitely less horrible than previous efforts and less awful than it could have been, so there's...some vague spark of hope in there. Baby steps, right? Even if people have been saying that it's a "return to form" since Skin Trade.