Cerulean Sins (2003)

Synopsis: 'Cerulean Sins apparently takes place some time after the events of the previous novel, Narcissus in Chains. Anita is happily living with Micah and Nathaniel and dating Micah and Jean-Claude. However, as usual, Anita is confronted by a series of simultaneous problems.
First, she appears to be attracting the attention of a number of spies, including Leo Harlan, a professional assassin who claims to want Anita to reanimate one of his ancestors to assist in genealogical research and two mercenaries who Anita arrests via her Federal Marshal status after noticing them following her.
Second, Jean-Claude is unpleasantly surprised by an early visit from Musette and her entourage, all of whom are representatives of the founder of Jean-Claude's bloodline, Belle Morte and represent an attempt by Belle Morte to test and possibly punish or capture Jean-Claude and his followers.
Third, Anita learns of a series of shockingly brutal rapes and murders, apparently committed by a shapeshifter serial killer. However, because of her deteriorating relationship with Dolph, Anita is unable to get cooperation from the police in solving the crimes.
As usual, Anita resolves each of these conflicts with a combination of ruthlessness, magical power, and the loyalty of her friends and lovers.
Anita ultimately learns that the mercenaries have been spying on her to consider recruiting her for a secret mission overseas. (As Agent Bradford warned Anita in Obsidian Butterfly, Anita has come to the attention of one or more secret agencies within the US government). Luckily for Anita, at her mentor Marianne's insistence, Anita had stopped using animal sacrifices to raise zombies. Without the additional power granted by an animal sacrifice, Anita's zombies were sufficiently "zombie-looking" to convince the mercenaries that she would not be able to perform the job, arguably validating Marianne's belief that the animal sacrifices would result in bad karma.
Anita confronts, outmaneuvers, or defeats Belle Morte several times. First, she and Jean-Claude take Asher to their (cerulean) bed in a menage a trois, making Asher their lover and therefore immune to most of Belle Morte's advances. Second, Anita, with help from Richard, Jean-Claude, and her wereleopards, is able to block Belle Morte's attempts to make Anita her human servant. Third, Anita is ultimately able to trap Musette in their game of courtly politics, proving that Belle Morte and her proxy Musette has violated the terms of her invitation and forcing Musette and her people to leave.
More alarmingly, Anita begins to believe that Belle Morte is planning a war against the Mother of Darkness, the oldest and most powerful of the world's vampires. Although Anita and Jean-Claude do their best to avoid that conflict, the Mother of Darkness is beginning to awaken from a millennia-long sleep, and seems interested in Anita.
Finally, Anita helps Zerbrowski track down the shapeshifting serial killer, who turns out to be a werewolf member of the mercenary team sent to observe Anita herself. After a confrontation in which several police officers are killed, Anita tracks down the werewolf a second time and executes him.
In the epilogue, Anita explains that she is continuing to date Micah and Jean-Claude, and that she has also added Asher to her list of lovers. She and Richard are still broken up, but Richard appears to be overcoming his death wish. Two of Belle Morte's vampires have received permission to remain in St. Louis, both to repair the damage done by their visit and to attempt to stay out of the way of any conflict between Belle Morte and the Mother of Darkness.'
Review: While Belle Morte is annoying, the Mother of Darkness is scary. Belle Morte's vampires are creepy, as well. ( )

The night started out fine. Anita just needed to raise a zombie to satisfy some insurance adjusters. But then she gets a surprise visitor - Asher. Apparently, Belle Morte's emissary of vampires have arrived months early from France before negotiations for their safe arrival have even concluded. Although this is terribly rude and an act of aggression, Jean Claude and his people have no choice but to put on their best diplomatic faces and make a show of it.

Leading the head of the invading vampire band is Musette, a nightmare from Jean Claude and Asher's past. She has come to start a war, or perhaps just to humble them all. Either way, she has set her sights on tormenting Asher and it's up to Anita and Jean Claude to think of a way to protect him.

To further complicate matters, with Belle Morte's people in town Anita is finding herself under metaphysical attack. Belle can control the ardeur, and she's more than happy to make Anita's life more complicated. She puts the first vampire mark on Anita and threatens to take her from Jean Claude. Also, the Mother of all Vampires is beginning to stir. Belle has apparently been bothering her and now she might actually wake up after her sleep of centuries.

Oh, and there's another serial killer in town, which apparently happens every couple of months now. This one is a werewolf and Dolph is on the attack, turning his bizarre bigotry on Anita - physically assaulting her and threatening to have her friends locked up just for the crime of existing.

This one is a non-stop fuckfest from practically the first page to the last. Anita's finally caving to all her secret lusts and beginning to wonder if she should have done this a long time ago. She's also beginning to really examine the way she forms relationships and at least flirt with the idea of working on herself.

I know it's trashy, but the books are still fun at this point. This is also, of course, an Asher-heavy book so I have no choice but to Stan. I will always Stan for a sad boi. ( )

I really loved Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books but I did feel like she lost the thread a bit in the middle of the series. I am glad to say that it seems like she is focusing more on the story line and less on the sex of late which makes the books better in my opinion. I think Anita is a great character and Laurell K. Hamilton can write a great plot but her overly complicated sex scenes can somewhat take away from the book. ( )

Anita Blake is back on track in this book. Working with the police and trying to keep herself and her friends safe. This book was much better than the last one, so I guess I'll continue on with the series.

It seems Anita and some of her monster friends go up a level in each book. More powers emerge.

Her love life is more of a mess than ever. It seems the author still insists on having Anita jump through erotic metaphysical hoops to rationalize her libido against her Catholic-girl values.

There was a lengthy discussion between Anita and Nathaniel (a wereleopard), and another with Anita and Asher (a vampire) about how she holds part of herself back from her lovers, would-be lovers, and friends. As if she can't give 100% of herself. It was a great way to do a character analysis since the book is first-person.

I'm not sure how I feel about her police buddy Dolf having a nervous breakdown because his son is planning on marrying a vampire unless the author felt there needed to be someone close to Anita who is not happy at all with the way she fraternizes with the "monsters."

Richard, her one-time were-wolf boyfriend, hates Anita and hates himself. I wish we could have seen more of his deterioration, it just seemed to happen.

I also thought the ending was rushed. There were things earlier in the book that could have been streamlined if book length was an issue, but things just wrapped up so nice and neat with the bad guy, it seemed that could have happened earlier, or it could have been more dramatic. It should have been more dramatic. Suddenly the bad guy got stupid. It didn't make sense that he could be taken out so easily at the end. I mean, you always know that Anita will get the bad guy (or bad girl) at the end, but this just wasn't very satisfying. I really thought it might carry over to the next book.

But ... I still like the books enough to keep reading. ( )

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