Laurell K. Hamilton is my only indulgence into literary smut. Addictive in her production of novels with unfortunately similar plot lines, Hamilton has created not one, but two alternate realities that I cannot seem to extract myself from. The exploits of Anita Blake, vampire hunter follow the a fore-said protagonist through her trials as a vamp hunterwith a soft spot for vamps. And shapeshifters. And a few humans too. Not just any soft soft, the soft spot. Anita Blake is a succubus, and throughout her novels has hot, steamy, deliciously violent sex with man after vamp after shifter. And I mean “after” loosely. More often than not the men outnumber the girl. Now, I am clearly not the only female in the country to be turned on by Anita’s wonderfully wet world, as every novel LKH spits out is a New York Times Bestseller. This includes her other, less engaging series, the Merideth Gentry books. Now Merry, like Anita, gets an unfair amount of sex with an unfair number of unfairly attractive men. However, she does not kick nearly as much ass as Anita. Part of that may be because she is a fairly princess- an innately uninspiring position once a girl exceeds the age of six. It also may be due to the fact that the men Merry has collected are all cast from the same overprotective-warrior-man mold. The simple truth is once all of her yummy man meat has handled the situation, there’s just no more ass to kick. That weakness in character development and the monotony of her story line just doesn’t do it for me. I’d do Anita over Merry any day.
Anita’s most recent adventure, Skin Trade, was a long-awaited installment. I’m pretty sure no one could speak to me for two days while I devoured the literary confection. In the end I should have savored every wonderful, bloody chapter, because most of it had the consistency of a sugary cream filling. It read like most Anita novels, but certainly lacked some of the…spark…evident previously. I did enjoy my time with the always charming Edward, however deadly, creepy and insane he may be. He was one of my favorite LKH characters. Until sadly, he too was turned into a creme puff and invaded by emotion some volumes back, never again to be the chillingly cold, calculating killer that I knew and loved. In moments of bone-splitting, gut-spilling action the old Edward was certainly evident, flanked by every woman’s nightmare, Olaf the killer-cum-rapist. In Olaf, LKH lumped together everything a woman fears, and in some sort of cathartic culmination, he falls in love with Anita…in a creepy, I-want-to-tear-your-intestines-out-and-play-with-them kind of way.
Among all these charming men, the one I missed the most was the brilliantly bi-sexual Jean Claude, Master Vampire of St. Louis. Yet another of Anita’s rock hard (abs, or course) lovers, Jean Claude is by far the one I would lay my chastity (don’t laugh) down for any day. It seems that LKH has decided to develop the fringe characters, like Ed and Olaf, and the tortured vamp twins Wicked and Truth, instead of sticking with the big guns: the tormented, immortal pair of Asher and Jean Claude. Although I’m sure they got along quite well by themselves during Anita’s absence from their bed. An overall predictable, uninspiring installment of the Anita saga, Skin Trade had a mediocre plot line that drooped and sagged along the way due to poor character involvement. A reader of Anita novels desires a certain cast of characters, and this one just missed. Certainly worth the $7.99 price tag for a paperback, Skin Trade should be enjoyed while relaxing on the beach and enjoying a mojito. Just watch where that sand ends up.
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