My favorite thing, and I acknowledge it's a small thing, is that they finally call her polyamorous! I've been saying it since The Killing Dance!! Edward brings it to Anita's attention, and of course she's still a little prude and reacts as such. :) Love it.
The bad Harlequin try to kidnap Anita a couple times. The first time they end up hurting the Marshal Anita is sharing a room with. The Marshall ends up getting lycanthropy of the wolf variety. This plays into Hamilton's themes of tolerance and fairness. If you're infected lycanthropy, even in the line of duty, you lose your job in law enforcement. Period. In the hospital, the Marshal's father won't even touch her. He says he won't leave his children, his sons, in the same room as another shifter when Anita brings on to talk to the Marshal. No wonder the Marshal is taking it so hard.
The bad Harlequin end up succeeding in kidnapping Anita, but all does not go as planned. Duh! They get her during the day, so the vampire masters are dead. The shifters kidnap her but quickly find out she's not what they expected; what they were told. First up is a werewolf. He's been alone for hundreds of years. For a pack animal, that's a problem. He tries to scare Anita, raising her wolf. His reaction is that she can't be, because Mommie Dearest can't control wolves. It's such a sad scene. Yes, this is a bad guy. He's the one who attacked the hotel room and injured the Marshal. But his loneliness is so heartbreaking. He tells Anita they were told she offered sex, but she's offering him home, belonging. He ends up helping her escape. Hell, he ends up killing himself so that his Master dies. He's a bad guy; Anita wouldn't have been able to get him out of a death sentence for infecting the Marshal, but you really end up sympathizing with him. You want him to find that home, that belonging that he wants so badly.
Mommie Dearest wants Anita to drop her shields so she can be possessed. Anita realizes that as homesick as she was feeling, she's never really away from home. All she has to do is drop her shields and her family is there. So, she does. And she eats the darkness. She eats Mommie Dearest. And her family helps her so she's not consumed.
When Anita is kidnapped, the only 2 not drugged are Nickey, from Flirt, and Olaf, the scary serial killer with a crush on Anita. This ends up infecting Olaf with lycanthropy. He's a fucking werelion. And Anita's pride doesn't have a Rex! This is so bad. Olaf was bad enough before, now... They should have killed him when he had the chance. It also seems he's kidnapped a nurse who looks like Anita. Before, Anita fit Olaf's victim profile, now she is his victim profile. Edward and the government are supposedly looking for him, but now he's got the skills all the shifters have. So, we have a serial killer with the skills of a werelion, a crush on Anita, and a badge. Yup, they're not allowed to fire cops just because they catch lycanthropy anymore. Good for the Marshal who was rooming with Anita, bad for Olaf. Sigh.
The feminist theme is up and running again with another cop who thinks Anita is...I don't know. No, really. It's just this irrational hate. Because she's a woman; because she's polyamorous; because she's close to the monsters; because she's stronger; because she's faster; because she's better at her job. It doesn't really matter. He, like all the others, have no reason, they don't need one. They're lovers of hate, they're bigots. She's a bitch or a slut...or both. She can't just be her.
This one might be one of my favorites. It was...almost simple, but not in a bad way. There wasn't a lot of violence - Anita didn't need to shoot her way out of anything, though there were deaths. There wasn't a lot of sex, though there is some. It was just about love and belonging and home.
Hit List, Laurell K. Hamilton
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