diannamorganti's reviews
439 reviews

What can I say? I loved the early Anita Blake books. The last 6 or 7 were on a fast downhill slide. Then came Harlequin -- it seemed like a throw-back to the days of a likable Anita. I had hope for Blood Noir. That hope has been dashed.

There is literally a run of FIVE ENTIRE CHAPTERS of her laying in bed with Jason just talking about having sex, the implications thereof, their relationship, etc. Come on... the woman gang-bangs with wolves and leopards... what's one little stripper? Finally, he literally gets down on his hands and knees and begs her to shut the f* up and just do him already - I practically stood up and cheered. Unfortunately, she has to talk about that for a while too.

If you're an Anita Blake fan - don't bother with this one. If you're not an Anita Blake fan - you should be, but stop around book 10. I'll let you know if LKH comes out with a good one in the future... for some reason I just can't stop reading them. I hate myself for it a little.

I finally finished it, and I added a star to the review (for a whopping two), because there is some plot in the last twenty pages or so. I am happy to see the possibility that Anita has lost the ardeur, because frankly I'm getting sick of that plot line... she's milked it for all it's worth. Come on, when a four-some with a woman and three animals becomes commonplace, I think something has gone terribly wrong.

This was a bold departure from Palahniuk's normal writing: good. It was sensationalist, meant merely to shock. Much like the trumped-up stories of the normals fainting at the author readings. I imagine it was more like their eyes rolled so far back in their head that they were thought to be fainting. Unfortunately, it started a downhill trend continuing in Rant, which I really tried to get into. Really I did. I didn't even bother flipping through the new one: Snuff. Please. Visualize me "fainting".

Call that 4.5 stars. I try to be stingy with the 5 star ratings, but this one comes damn close. I'd almost gotten sick of paranormal romance (blame Anita's ardeur on that one), but this renewed my interest. Following is more of a review of the series than just this book.

This entire series is engaging, and the author does such a great job making each narrator's writing different. For example, I don't really enjoy reading Paige's books all that much, because I don't like her narrative style at all. Still, the peripheral characters in that book eventually do or may have their own book, so I find it worth it to read Paige's. Have you gotten online to see the short online-only stories included in the series?

One complaint I have, not with Bitten or Stolen, but with the others is that many characters who have been fleshed out in previous books all of a sudden become flat in future ones. Clay and Elena, who we've become practically intimate with by the end of Stolen, turn stereotypical and annoying when viewed through the lens of the books narrated by other characters. It's like she just threw them in there in case you only continued reading other books to catch up on their lives, but she didn't really care to expound. Of course, I'm a serial series reader, so perhaps this series is more for the reader who doesn't typically pick up series books.(?)

Okay, my rating isn't really objective - I'll admit that now. I'm a Ranger girl, and he doesn't figure prominently in this book, so I gave it a poor rating. Otherwise, it's a good, average member of the series. Not really worth the wait, imo, but once again, I'm biased. I'm also a bit disappointed that she seems to be writing towards making Joe and Steph a permanent couple.

There's an interview with Evanovich on the web (romancenovels.tv) where she says she wanted to make this series into a kind of bubble where no one ages, grows, or learns. It's kind of like the Simpsons - pure entertainment. It's a great formula with a great fan base, so she isn't going to screw with what works. As a nearly-compulsive series reader, I'm happy to hear that. As a Ranger girl, that means 15 better be all about Ranger. I'm sick of Joe!

Enjoyable. I doubt I'll pick the series back up - the main character wasn't really well-developed. More time was spent on developing the setting, which was interesting, but I guess I prefer characterization over place. For my money and this type of book, I do prefer the Dresden files.