Book Review: Narcissus in Chains (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #10) by Laurell K. Hamilton

Hamilton’s vampire-hunting Anita Blake faces a plethora of foes in her tenth outing. Just returned to St. Louis after six months away, Anita is still no closer to choosing between her lovers–Jean-Claude, a vampire, and Richard, a werewolf. But she has to rely on both for help after two of the wereleopards that she has been watching are abducted at a seedy club called Narcissus in Chains. Anita and her boyfriends rescue the wereleopards from the sinister people holding them, but Anita is wounded in the fight and put at risk of becoming a wereleopard herself. Richard angrily captures the wereleopard he believes is responsible and threatens to execute him. Anita must now rescue that wereleopard from Richard and the werewolves he leads, even as she mourns the apparent end of her relationship with him. Then she realizes that those who kidnapped the first two wereleopards are targeting other lycanthropes. Maybe she will be next. With plenty of steamy sex and graphic violence, this is engaging reading for vampire cultists.

Alright, I love this series. I have loved that Anita is a kick ass and ask question later kind of girl. I love that she doesn’t give into things easily and she is her own woman. With that said this has so far been my least favorite book in the series. It is not the sex, I have not issues with sex scenes in books. It is how much is going on, how much Anita seems to have no control and some of the reasons for the sex and how the scenes are.

Honestly there does not seem to be a whole lot of plot to this book, there are some bad guys and they are attacking as usual but the bulk of the book is spent fighting the Ardour. Having sex with people or close to sex with people, my least favorite is Micha. Anita was for all purposes raped. She said no. No many times and never actually said yes and they had sex anyways. I mean seriously? COME ON. Just seems very not Anita like to me. Richard needs to just be kicked in the face I am tired of his complaining. Who stands out for me as someone who grew in the right direction in this book? Nathaniel. He seems to be starting to get some back bone and be a bit of a man. Good for him.

Bottom line is I don’t hate the book but it was not my favorite at all either.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Book Review: Prince Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles #11) by Anne Rice

The novel opens with the vampire world in crisis…vampires have been proliferating out of control; burnings have commenced all over the world, huge massacres similar to those carried out by Akasha in The Queen of the Damned… Old vampires, roused from slumber in the earth are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn vampire-mavericks in cities from Paris and Mumbai to Hong Kong, Kyoto, and San Francisco. As the novel moves from present-day New York and the West Coast to ancient Egypt, fourth century Carthage, 14th-century Rome, the Venice of the Renaissance, the worlds and beings of all the Vampire Chronicles—Louis de Pointe du Lac; the eternally young Armand, whose face is that of a Boticelli angel; Mekare and Maharet, Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true Child of the Millennia; along with all the other new seductive, supernatural creatures—come together in this large, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious novel to ultimately rise up and seek out who—or what—the Voice is, and to discover the secret of what it desires and why…

And, at the book’s center, the seemingly absent, curiously missing hero-wanderer, the dazzling, dangerous rebel-outlaw—the great hope of the Undead, the dazzling Prince Lestat

I was excited when I heard that Prince Lestat was going to be published and yet I was also on the fence. The Vampire chronicles were my first big introduction into the world of vampires they got me involved with them and made me enjoy the genre. It was because of them and the bar that was set so high I did not read other vampire novels for a while. The reason I was on the fence however is because the last few chronicle books fell short for me and I feel as if there was some betrayal that happened within them. That aside I have read everything else by Anne Rice so I had to read Prince Lestat.

I liked it. The opening was solid and enjoyable. It was fun checking in with Lestat again and Louis and Armand. I truly enjoyed revisiting characters that I have loved for so many years. However, things started to fall apart. The story being told from so many points of view was just to much. There were to many new people introduced, voices that we did not need to hear and for my personal preference did not want to. I wanted to stay with those I already knew and get more from them.

The book jumps around rapidly from time period to time period from point of view to point of view and really at the end of the day it ended up being to much. I did not hate the book by any means but as much as I wanted to love it I couldn’t and if I am truly honest it was in the end a bit of a struggle to finish. Not the best start to a new year of reading but it could have been worse.

My Gemstone Rating:

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Year in Review & the 2015 Challenges

Happy New year very soon! I am just getting this post going along so I can be ready and prepared for a whole new year. I admit I did not meet all of my goals this year for reading. I do however have a very good reason why. Divorce and a cross country move will do that to you. However there is no reason to be let down and stay in the dumps about it. No 2015 is a new year with new goals.

So here is how this year shook out with the reading challenges:

On goodreads I set out to read 75 books I read 57.

I did not complete my goal of 25 historical fiction books.
I smashed my Witches and Wizards goal of 10 by reading the entire Dresden series.
I completed half of my goal of 10 vampire books by reading 5
I completed 2 of 5 of my net galley challenge
TBR goal was 21 I completed 11
Historical romance was only 3 books completed
8 letters left from the Alphabet soup challenge
5 completed for the read my freebies challenge
7 of 12 done for the British book challenge

All in all could be worse but could be much better. So here we go for the challenges for 2015

Goodreads: 60 books
Historical Fiction Challenge: Victorian reader – 5 books
Witches & Witchcraft Challenge: Maiden: Read 6 – 10 Witchy Books
Fur & Fangs Challenge: 10 books
British Book Challenge: 12 books
Read your Freebies: Coupon Clipper: read 12 ebooks
Historical Romance: 1–6 books
TBR Challenge: 1-10 A Firm Handshake
Alphabet Soup Challenge: A-Z

For links to each sign up page for the challenges please hit the Challenge page!

Here is to a great 2015!

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