Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #11) By: Laurell K. Hamilton (Book Review)

 ***This review will contains spoilers***

Summary:

Anita Blake is trying to get her life back to “normal” after a break-up with her werewolf lover. She has settled into a pattern of domesticity, which means that the new man in her life, the leopard shapeshifter Micah, has no problem sharing her with Jean-Claude, Master Vampire of the City. Things are as peaceful as they ever get for someone who raises the dead, when Jean-Claude receives an unexpected and unwelcome visitor: Musette, the very beautiful, very twisted representative of the European Council of Vampires. Anita soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous game of vampire power politics.

To add to her troubles, she is asked to consult on a series of brutal killings, which seem to be the work of something un-human. The investigation leads her to Cerulean Sins, a vampire-run establishment that deals in erotic videos, videos that cater to very specific tastes. Anita knows one creature of the night who has such interests — Jean-Claude’s visitor. But if Anita brings Musette down, the repercussions could cost her everything she holds dear.

Once a sworn enemy of all monsters, Anita is now the human consort of both Master Vampire Jean Claude and leopard shapeshifter Micah. When a centuries-old vampire hits St. Louis, Anita finds herself needing all the dark forces her passion can muster to save the ones she loves.

I'm so happy that this book didn't continue the same trend as the previous one with all the weird sex scenes. Most of this book reminded me of the beginning of this series. Crazy murder scenes, bat shit crazy vampires and Anita having to fight her way through it. I guess you can throw in a threesome since Anita, Jean-Claude and Asher kinda sealed the deal in consummating their relationship. In this book we had two storylines going on. We had on going murders being committed by a werewolf and then we had Musette and company arriving in town to stir shit up. This is the first time where the two storylines didn't blend together. Normally, the crime scenes Anita is invited to take a look at ties in the big supernatural baddies that she has come across and this is the first time that they are completely separate. 

I love that the supernatural world keeps expanding with every book in this series. We thought that Belle Morte (Jean-Claude and Asher's sire) was the biggest and baddest vamp on the block with her ability to body snatch people from her line which she did with Musette, her animal to call started off with leopards and now include all feline creatures and her ability to control the ardeur through people of her lineage. She can create a lot of damage with very little effort and she doesn't even need to be in the same continent to do it. She is several thousand years old and has amassed a lot of power and abilities. With how powerful she is you would think there couldn't possibly anybody worse than her but then comes in mommy dearest. Or better known as the mother of darkness. Supposedly she is the first vampire who is also a shifter. And she founded the council. She is in a sort of psychic sleeping state but when Anita tries to fight off a psychic attack from Belle Morte the mother of darkness becomes intrigued by Anita and seems to be slowly waking up from her sleep. Belle is quite frightened of her but believes that she can take her place because of how much power she has acquired over the years. I doubt it because her arrogance and lack of self awareness is her biggest weakness which I believe will lead to her downfall. Mommy dearest is going to wake up soon and she's gonna wreck some havoc. 

One character that is consistent in their bullshit moral high ground is Richard. He alienates himself from Anita and Jean-Claude because he doesn't want to be a part of their lives and feel less human than he already does. But with Musette and company in town he decides to finally have the balls to be alpha but in the opposite way we wanted him to be. We want Richard to have a back bone, to be a strong and fierce leader and to be able to keep his people safe no matter the cost. Instead he went the opposite direction to that, he ends up deciding to pull all his wolves away from Jean-Claude and essentially stand alone with his pack, sort of like cutting ties from Jean-Claude. A few pack members obviously didn't think that was a good idea and they got beaten up for it. If it's not one extreme with him it's another. He decides to pull this crap in front of Belle Morte like the big idiot that he is. 

Belle Morte and Jean-Claude go head to head and everyone thought that Belle would win and surprisingly she doesn't! She was trying to drain his life from him like she is able to do from people of her line but she wasn't able to this time since Jean-Claude has become powerful enough to become the head of his own sire line! Of course, a lot of this power comes from the triumvirate tying both Richard and Anita's power to him but that's what saved the day. Since Musette 'possessed by Belle' attacked first he had the right to kill her which of course Belle did not want. So instead they had to leave before sunrise or else anyone from her party still in his territory would be executed on the spot. I hate political games just as much as Anita does and I have a lot to learn when it comes to patience and controlling facial expressions but I sure loved when Anita shined when she did and that she wasn't afraid to shoot at the bad guys or mouth off. 

The biggest issue I have with this book is that in the summary we are told Anita will visit a erotic video store named Cerulean Sins to help with the investigation which will some how be tied to Musette. But apparently there was an editing issue and that's why it was left out from the book. No wonder the two storylines didn't match up at all. And no wonder the title of the book never appeared in the story like they normally do. What a crappy job from an editing stand point. If you're going to cut shit out make sure it doesn't get released cause otherwise it causes so much confusion. They honestly should have changed the title to something that matched up with the story. 

Rating:

I am going to give Cerulean Sins 3.5 stars on 5. It was a decent book and kinda reminded me of how this series started. I love that Hamilton continuously expands the supernatural world with every book in this series. The issue I had was the whole editing error. No wonder I couldn't figure out why the two storylines weren't matching up or how come the title of the book never showed up in the story. Or the fact that the summary didn't match up with the book itself. Definitely room for improvement but I've read a lot worse books than this one. I'm looking forward to learning more about the mother of darkness.