However, the first three Anita Blake books are quite good, (though romance-free), and are the only ones I kept after the later ones lost all plot and reasonable character development in favor of really complex (and yes, whiny!) sexual escapades. (I sold the six in the middle I’d somehow picked up.)

I really recommend stopping at #3, rather than slogging all the way to #9, since then you have to suffer through what is, IMHO/YMMV etc, a really badly done excessive love-triangle thing. Which, from what blurbs I’ve seen on the later books, has worked its way up to a badly done excessive love-dodacahedron, but I could be exaggerating a bit.

eta: If you can get your hands on Nightseer, which is a fantasy LKH wrote before she started Anita Blake, I recall that as being pretty good, though I haven’t read it in years, so my memory could be a bit foggy.

I think they’re urban fantasy with romantic elements, but labels are confusing that way since she straddles a few genre boundaries.

Merry has more self reflection than Anita does, which I do like and I really enjoy it when LKH delves into the customs and culture of the Seelie and Unseelie courts and I wish she’d take up more page space with it.

But wow, I love these books like a fat girl loves cake.

Mostly because of Doyle. I know, he’s not even really a hero, and yet, I’m totally intrigued by him. Now, there are definitely parts that I look away from (any form of goblin sex), but the torture doesn’t really phase me, and the multiple sex partners thing doesn’t bother me at all. I won’t buy them in HC, but when they’re out in PB, I’m more than happy to plunk down the money for them (thus, enabling the skimming of LKH’s fatal flaw: too much exposition). Most of the time when I’m done with them I have a vague ucky feeling, which seems to go away when the next one comes out.

And, sadly, this book has more of a comprehensible plot than the following ones…

It felt like it kept turning at right angles. Like LKH did not know where she wanted to go until she sat down to write it.

@ Lusty Reader:
Er, thanks a lot for sharing!

JenB wrote:

Duuuuude…you finished this one? I made it through three hours and decided I’d either have to turn it off or fling myself off a tall building. I turned it off.

OMG. I so appreciate your sharing my pain. Thank you.

RfP wrote:

Since you’re not going to continue the series, I’ll share one of my fave finds: a condensed version of Mistral’s Kiss (Merry book 5).

Coffee? Meet keyboard. Poor Sholto.

Mistress wrote:

But I didn’t last 5 mins with this audio book. But that’s because IMO Laural Merlington was the worst possible narrator choice.

I agree. Sounds too mature. Needed more of an ingenue.

This series is one of my favorite guilty pleasures (to read), in a fun para smut way. But I didn’t last 5 mins with this audio book. But that’s because IMO Laural Merlington was the worst possible narrator choice. She has a attractive voice, reminds me a bit of Judi Dench, but all wrong for this character and this series. With Audio books if the narrator is “off” it ruins the experience for me.

Since you’re not going to continue the series, I’ll share one of my fave finds: a condensed version of Mistral’s Kiss (Merry book 5).

The narration was so slow that the first sex scene lasted more than 30 minutes. That’s longer than most sex acts.

This is one of the few books that just doesn’t translate well to audio. It would’ve taken 3-4 hours to read the paperback. 15 hours of audio is just tooooooo long.

Kudos to you for sticking it out.

::infinite shudders::