Guilty Pleasures (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #1) By: Laurell K. Hamilton (Book Review)

 (This review will contain spoilers)

Summary:

Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...

This book is such a fantastic intro to Anita Blake's world. It is so well written and really captivated my attention. I just couldn't put it down. I kept making time in my day to have a chance to read it because it's so damn good. It's a lot different in comparison to other vampire novels. Everyone else loves to romanticize vampires and make them seem a lot nicer than you would think vampires are. A lot of authors like to humanize vampires and the protagonist seems to always need their help. But not Laurell K. Hamilton! From the get go it's been vampires are bad, here are the reasons why they are bad and Anita gets paid to kill them. 

From cover to cover, it's been said that vampires can be extremely violent and loved to play with humans in a not so nice manner. Anita Blake is this bad ass animator and vampire hunter. She works with the police to solve crimes and if needed hunts and kills vampires who have broken the law. There have been a string of murders with next to no evidence or clues on who could be causing this. A handful of very powerful vampires dying from one night to the next. Nikolaos; the master vampire of the city forces Anita to investigate these murders or else she'll be the next to die. Nikolaos is a thousand year old vampire with some mean psychic abilities who can easily overpower any human and vampire. 

Jean-Claude is a powerful vampire as well. He was only in the book for a few scenes yet had such a huge impact on the story and on Anita. Almost from the start of the story, he marks Anita as his servant which she didn't realize until much later. But it did explain her faster than normal healing abilities, her hunger for more food and her resistance to vampire hypnosis. While it has helped her against vampires and now being a little bit harder to kill this means that she is forever tied to him. The only way out is with his death. Two more marks and Anita will fully be his human servant. With that comes more power and slower aging. The last part to me sounds pretty sweet. 

The whole story was really great. It had a great pace, it was constantly moving and it wasn't stuck at a certain point of the story. It had a continuous flow and so much action! I love a protagonist that can kick ass and has some sass. The book was graphic and at times a little gory. It makes me wonder who the hell let me read these books when I was a young teenager. As a grown woman I had to pause during certain scenes cause I was getting queasy. I tip my hat to Hamilton though! That rarely ever happens to me when I read books.

The ending was so good and satisfying, well almost. Anita and her friend Edward; another vampire hunter, with the help of the wererats they were able to sneak into Nikoloas' lair. Edward and Anita were able to kill Nikoloas' vampire servants but when Anita goes to open her coffin, Nikoloas wasn't in it. Being a thousand years old exempts her from being confined during daylight hours. Both Anita and Edward were able to kill her but it took a whole lot of prayer and right timing. With her death, Jean-claude ends up becoming the master of the city since he is now the oldest vampire in the city.

What I did find a little bit anti-climactic was how easy it was to kill Valentine. The vampire who Anita faced years ago that almost killed her and left her with some gruesome nightmares. An injection of silver nitrate killed him but personally I would've loved a confrontation against those two. But otherwise, the death of Nikoloas was very satisfying. Chopping her up with a sword is pretty bad-ass. 

The murderer we discovered was a fellow animator named Zachary who was not really alive. He died but was raised from the dead and with his resurrection came ghouls who listened to his every beck and call. That was how he was able to kill vampires and to remain alive. The magic that kept him alive constantly needed the blood of a dead vampire which is why there were so many murdered vampires. 

Rating: 

I am going to give Guilty Pleasures 5 stars on 5! I absolutely loved it. From the strong bad-ass Anita to the action packed story, it has been one of the best books I've read in a while. I definitely recommend everyone to read this book. Although, there are some graphic gory scenes so if it's not up your alley then this might not be for you. But if you want a strong female lead who can kick ass and take names then this book is for you.