Bullet, Laurell K. Hamilton

This was a setup book. You know the books that have a lot happen, but nothing major? They're just kind of there to put the characters where the need to be, or have the skills they need, or meet the people they need to. I feel like it's more prominent in the fantasy genre. Fantasy series are almost one long story that's just chopped up into little bite sized portions. Sure, the bites have their own flavor, so to speak, but they're still just part of the overall meal.

OK, that analogy is terrible, but the point is valid. All that makes this review a bit long…

The Harlequin, Laurell K. Hamilton

This one was much more along the lines of what I'd come to expect from the series. There's a new big bad in town, and Anita and company have to deal with it.

The Harlequin are the police of the vampire world - a completely neutral (supposedly) entity from the Vampire Council. They've come to town bearing white masks. White means they're there to observe, red means pain, black is death. Anita and Jean-Claude just get white, yet someone keeps messing with them – enhancing emotions to the point of being out of control. It gets to the point where Richard tries to turn Anita into a wolf, almost kills JC and gets himself mortally wounded in the process. Anita manages to save them all, of course.

I had really hoped this near death experience would help Richard…and maybe it does to an extent. When Anita and the gang first hear the Harlequin are in town, they call everyone in. Richard has to cancel a date and ends up actually acting like a lycanthrope and sleeps, naked, with Anita, Micah and Nathaniel. No sex. Let's be clear. I mean literally sleeps. He even helps protect Anita while they sleep from Mommie Dearest, the mother of all vampires. He also tries to accept Micah by trying to check with him before volunteering to feed the ardeur. Anita tries by going to Richard first when she sees him again and sitting with him on the couch. Unfortunately, this is right before the bad guys start messing with him and he almost kills them all.

Cerulean Sins, Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita continues her emotional growth in this one. There are two things going on here plot wise. One, Jean-Claude's sire (or is it his Dam? she's a chick anyway), Belle Morte, has sent her representatives early - like 3 months early. Two, there's a murderer in town crucifying people with a nail gun, and raping and slaughtering women. 

A few things happen to push Anita along on her emotional journey. She's still struggling with the Ardeur and has sex with Jason. He uses the opportunity to talk with her about how she withholds herself from all her men. It of course goes back to losing her mother, who she loved with her whole heart, and how she's never been truly accepted since then. From her stepmother, to the college fiance, to Richard, and now Dolph's continued badgering. But something else comes out: she doesn't really truly accept others either. She does it because she's trying to protect herself from loss - she doesn't really believe anyone will stay with her. It's not that these are new revelations (I've always maintained Anita is brutally honest with herself), it's that this is the first time she's admitted it out loud. She accepts people in the sense that she doesn't think less of them for who they are, but she can't allow herself to accept them enough to trust them with herself, with her heart, if you want to be sappy.

Burt Offerings, by Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita kicks some serious ass in this one - Some serious Council ass! Richard continues to be disgruntled. I can't blame him completely, but I've decided he changed into the wolf the way he did to push her away. 

So, last book he changed to his wolf for the first time in front of Anita. Or more, ON TOP OF Anita. To reference my last review (The Killing Dance) "There's a part when Anita is talking to JC and she comments that she's worried that if she accepts Richard's beast, he'll be horrified that she could and reject her, and if she rejects it, he'll reject her anyway because she can't accept him." To expand on that, I think Richard changed the way he did to make it as horrible for Anita as possible. I'm not sure if it was a subconscious effort to push her away so much as to get her to hate his "beast" as much as he does. I don't think he thought it would push her to Jean-Claude though. He figures, at least a wold isn't a corpse, right? Anita even comments that if he had changed differently, she might have been able to accept it. It's not like he had no other opportunities to change.

However, some of his behavior is just ridiculous.