In Laurell K. Hamilton’s New York Times bestselling novels, Anita Blake, vampire hunter and animator, takes a bite out of crime-of the supernatural kind. But even someone who deals with death on a daily basis can be unnerved by its power…

When Branson, Missouri, is hit with a death wave-four unsolved murders-it doesn’t take an expert to realize that all is not well. But luckily for the locals, Anita is an expert-in just the kinds of preternatural goings-on that have everyone spooked. And she’s got an “in” with just the kind of creature who can make sense of the slayings: a sexy master vampire known as Jean Claude.

Anita is up to her ass in alligators again as she likes to say when she heads down to Branson for what should be a complex Zombie raising and turns into a lot more. I liked this installment of the Anita Blake series better then the last one there was a lot of action and not as much fussing this time around.

Oh do not get me wrong Anita is still complaining and still dating both Richard and Jean Claude but she seems to be coming to terms with it more. I also am enjoying the relationship play between her and Larry her new protege. All in all this is one of my favorite in the series so far and I am enjoying watching Anita evolve. I do hope she picks a suitor soon though because the werewolf vs. vampire triangle still makes me think of Twilight (and yes I know this one came first).

Anita is up to her ass in alligators again as she likes to say when she heads down to Branson for what should be a complex Zombie raising and turns into a lot more. I liked this installment of the Anita Blake series better then the last one there was a lot of action and not as much fussing this time around.

Oh do not get me wrong Anita is still complaining and still dating both Richard and Jean Claude but she seems to be coming to terms with it more. I also am enjoying the relationship play between her and Larry her new protege. All in all this is one of my favorite in the series so far and I am enjoying watching Anita evolve. I do hope she picks a suitor soon though because the werewolf vs. vampire triangle still makes me think of Twilight (and yes I know this one came first)

My Gemstone Rating:

First time in trade paperback: the third novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

In Circus of the Damned-now in trade paperback for the first time-a rogue master vampire hits town, and Anita gets caught in the middle of an undead turf war. Jean-Claude, the Master Vamp of the city, wants her for his own-but his enemies have other plans. And to make matters worse, Anita takes a hit to the heart when she meets a stunningly handsome junior high science teacher named Richard Zeeman. They’re two humans caught in the crossfire-or so Anita thinks.

Time to wade into the alligators with Anita Blake again, well she calls them alligators, Monsters the usual. Me personally I like Vampires most of them anyways. She can however keep the lamia and all other snake like things. Overall the book is what I am coming to expect a lot of action and Anita getting into a lot of fights, a lot of trouble and some people being dead. Edward makes an appearance again and you know for a killer I like him rather a lot. So why only 3 gems? I am so tired of Anita’s whining about Jean Claude. I mean seriously, okay I understand on some levels I do, but cripes. Even when it could have been life or death when another much more powerful and evil Vampire was going to take her and the whole city. I mean seriously already enough! So yes okay that is my biggest complaint and the level of the fuss really for me distracted from the rest. I will however be reading the next book…she has to stop fussing sometime right?

My Gemstone Rating:

Harold Gaynor offers Anita Blake a million dollars to raise a 300-year-old zombie. Knowing it means a human sacrifice will be necessary, Anita turns him down. But when dead bodies start turning up, she realizes that someone else has raised Harold’s zombie–and that the zombie is a killer. Anita pits her power against the zombie and the voodoo priestess who controls it.

In The Laughing Corpse Anita will learn that there are some secrets better left buried-and some people better off dead..

So we see an increase to 4 gems from the second Anita Blake book for me that will please a friend of mine.

Anita spends the whole of the book swimming in Alligators as she says and the danger is ramped up even more. This time however the danger does not come from Vampires, granted Jean Claude could be a danger but he is far to cute and rather fancies her so don’t think we have to much to worry about there at the moment. No the danger is from Vodoo and Zombies! Now I am not on the whole Zombie band wagon and Zombie Apocalypse and all of that, but I like a well written plot involving dark magic and boy there was some dark magic going on in this one. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but this was a nice fun read, and when Anita fully embraces her power over the dead well, watch out everybody. She knows how to command her Zombies and even gets the attention of the “undead” as well. I will be looking forward to the next read in this series, maybe she will put on some heels again!

My Gemstone Rating:

Matheus Taylor didn’t ask to be murdered.

To be fair, the percentage of people actually asking to be murdered is probably small enough to be safely ignored, but he felt it was worth stating regardless.

His life might have been ordinary, but it was his life and he wasn’t done with it yet. Quin didn’t care. A seventeen-hundred old Roman, Quintus Livius Saturnius had a different view of morality than most people. Killing Matheus and hijacking his undead existence seemed perfectly acceptable to him.

Now, Matheus spends his nights running for his life, questioning his sexual orientation, and defying a mysterious new threat to the vampires within his city. Not that he set out to do any defying; he just wanted to be left alone.

Unfortunately, that was never going to happen.

This book was fantastic. I laughed, I worried, for the most part I did not want to stab anyone for getting Vampire mythology wrong. I did however want to stab the bad guys and I did have a little bit of a fit when the book ended. Not because the ending was bad mind you, but because it just dropped off and I wanted more. I hope there will be another book.

It is hard to say who I love more, Mat or Quin they are both sarcastic humor kind of guys that just make you laugh as they banter with one another. If I was forced to pick one I think it would be Quin because in many ways he reminds me of what Marcus Antonius might have been if he was a vampire. A killer at destroying those who need it, a man with rules (no feeding from women who are pregnant) and sarcastic as the day is long when the occasion calls for it.

Love this book, because guess what? Real Vampires don’t sparkle.

My Gemstone Rating: