Search - Danse Macabre (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Bk 14)

The problem, for me, wasn't that DANSE MACABRE was 300 pages of sex. The Anita Blake Series has become increasingly more sex- based, due to the ardeur that Anita carries and needs to feed. The sex in the book is nothing great, although there are a few attempts to put the people involved in situations and positions that I find would be hard to accomplish for any mortal human. But since everyone in the book is some type of supernatural being, it didn't seem to be a physical impossibility. So, if you can understand the fact that sex is an integral part of this book, you won't have a problem.

What makes the book not that great is the fact that, underneath the sex, there's just no real plot. Jean-Claude has invited a number of various Masters of the City to St. Louis for the showing of an all-vampire ballet/dance troupe. As such, the same Masters have all brought various candidates to become Anita's pomme de sang (read blood & sex dinner). That's the general plot. Unfortunately, the entire book only covers forty-eight hours, and although we know the gist of the storyline, nothing ever really happens. Besides, of course, the sex.

There are lots of hurt feelings in the book. There's a pregnancy scare. There's the typical characters (Richard, Jean-Claude, Asher, Nathaniel, Micah, Jason, Claudia, assorted vampires and werewolves and wereleopards and wererats). There are new characters (the succubs mermaid and her family, the werelions, the Masters of the City). There's crazy sex, ardeur sex, powerful sex, painful sex.

When you strip away the sex, there's not a whole lot else there. Although I will say that DANSE MACABRE could have used a good editor, just to get rid of the repeated phrases that are prominent throughout the book.

Yes, I finished the story, and no, I didn't hate it. But it wasn't all that satisfying (the sex, although large in number, isn't anything to write home about) or fulfilling (almost nothing is resolved at the end of the book that was brought up at the start).

Would I recommend buying a copy? No. Should you borrow it from a friend or the library? If you're an Anita Blake fan, then yes, to see how the storyline (what there is of it) continues. Let's hope the next book has a little more meat to it, and less screaming sexual gratification.

I have read alot of not so good reviews on the later Anita Blake books, but I liked this one as well as the others. I like to see the progression of the characters, and the relationships. I can't wait to read the next one to see where it all goes. I really LOVE this series!

Not her best work but still a good read. Missing the butt kicking Anita Blake, hope she finds her way back soon.

I really enjoy all of Laurell Hamilton's books. She has such wonderful imagination and creativity in how she spins her tales making exiting and sensual characters endure the most seemingly impossible situations. This book excells in that respect. I hope this series continues for a while. I never tire of Anita Blake's struggle with her real life and her moral life. Her men are not too shabby either.

This was the last of the Anita books with any substance. I am a fan of LKH and like my books to lean toward erotica but, I also like some plot thrown in too. I feel like many of the "old" characters that I have grown to know and love are thrown aside for more and more new characters that LKH doesn't even take the time to develope. I don't mind the orgies and sex that leans heavily on metaphysical crap as much as I do that I don't feel like I know half the characters anymore.

Loved it!