110:66 Kiss the Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton

The 21st book in the Anita Blake series.  Dear G-D, why do I keep reading these books?!  This series is such a train wreck and Ms. Hamilton is a complete tease.  The last book reminded me why I keep reading as it was something other than a massive orgy, characters I enjoyed were back and she set up some really interesting future plotlines.  With this one, I had high hopes going in.  The first 150p there was a bit too much mention of sex but no actual deeds and there was actual plot.  There were younger vampires kidnapping underage people to turn them, dead cops, no master of the kiss.  Lots of things to figure out.  And then Anita went home and the sex and relationship drama continued for the next 150+pages.  She talks all about how she's so happy with how her life works but then there's Asher or Sin or Dev or or or.  I guess we should all be thankful that she didn't add any more men to her harem but OMG, the repetitive nature of her personal thoughts, the sex scenes, and how every man makes her feel really makes me want to buy Ms. Hamilton a freaking thesaurus.  It's the exact same thoughts, scenes, etc and the words barely change.  And these are the exact same things she's stated and described in every book for the last 10!

As I said, I had high hopes starting this book.  The last one actually had me very curious about what would happen with Olaf.  He wasn't to be found in this one and I was a bit disappointed but the plot was moving nicely and then it just stopped.  Instead we got an all time cop-out when after all the monotonous sex scenes, the human servant of the missing master shows up at the police station and hands them all the information on  a silver platter.  REALLY?!?!  No investigative work, no mystery, nada.  It just gets handed to them with a big freaking bow on it and all they have to do is go shoot some people.

Pathetic!

I keep saying I'm through with this series and then I end up getting pulled back in and I'm sorry enough to say that likely the next one will have that glimmer of hope and I'll end up reading it but again, it will be because my library has a copy.  I am sticking to my resolution not to pay for this drivel because you never know what you are going to get.  It seems to be about every 3rd book really packs a punch and reminds me of the start of the series but the in between ones are just pathetic attempts at erotica.  I don't think any other author I've read has disappointed me as much as Ms. Hamilton as she did have a good series until she screwed it up.

Page count: 359p/21,390p