Skin Trade

An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

By: Laurell K. Hamilton

Narrated by: Kimberly Alexis

Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's Summary

A proven series with a hot new look. The #1 best-selling author returns with her most anticipated novel yet.

When a vampire serial killer sends Anita Blake a grisly souvenir from Las Vegas, she has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Ten officers and one executioner have been slain - paranormal style. Anita heads to Vegas, where's she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward. It's a good thing he always has her back, because when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The weretigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher.

Love in vein: listen to more tales of Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter.

©2009 Laurell K. Hamilton (P)2009 Penguin

Better than the last few

I loved the Anita Blake series when it first came out, because it was all about Anita and how she solved crimes and kicked butt with her special abilities. Some of the story was about her personal life. Then the series got really sexual. I don't mind a hot read, but the sex part took over the novels until the story line was lost. I found myself thinking, "Oh no, not another sex scene!" I almost stopped reading the series. This book seems to steer back to less sex, but there is a lot of talking between characters and not much action. If it was possible to talk a vampire to death, all the vamps would have been dead by the 3rd chapter. So for me, the pacing was slow, but overall it was an interesting read. At least Anita has some backbone again rather than just being on her back all the time.

Blake is back! But....

Okay..so far Blake is back in form. No ridiculous sex scene after sex scene... However I have not been able to make it through the entire book yet.. It was so bored that I backed out to listen to Mean Streets about half way through. While seeming to get back to pre-sex-obsessed Blake novel theme, thus far, the story is putting me to sleep. After a the past six month diet of Peter F. Hamilton and Brandon Sanderson..not to mention the latest Harry Dresden novel, I find myself not caring much about this book. The story, thus far, is pretty much interchangeable with any of the earlier Blake novels. OooooOoOOoo...Marme Noir is doing something new! Wilikers! Pardon me while I yawn. Oooo..more sexual tension and crazy powers manifesting. Sorry, but this, so far, is just hack work. I had to put this down half way through when I found myself looking for an excuse to listen to something else. Hard core Anita fans will like this book, hands down. But anyone looking for some kind of serious story progression will be sadly disappointed. There's way too much talk and explaining of EVERYTHING. She infodumps in such a way that make it nearly like listening to a technical manual, a dry boring one at that. I may edit this review if I can manage to listen to the rest of the book but when I find myself able to listen to an Audio book while doing other things, not caring if I miss parts of the 'story', that is a bad sign. I can't say this a BAD Blake novel. It's probably the best one since before she got so wrapped up in the ridiculous sex infatuation, but it's just..boring. I find myself not caring much and wishing for something with a bit more meat to it.

Hot Darn---- Anita is Back

This is the best Anita Blake book in the last few offerings. It is a good read(listen) all the way through. While Hamilton writes hot sex scenes, this one has more plot and I enjoyed it as much as the first Anita Blake books where she kicked butt and took names. Hamilton is back to writing good characters and story and much less sex. My only complaint is that the narrator was different from the one who has been reading the audio for all of the previous ones, and I prefer the first narrator. The characters do not sound quite right, especially Jean Claude.
I am sooooo glad to see this series get back to the plot and character heavy books that I enjoyed from the first.

Almost There!!

I admit the book is a little slow and drawn out but it beats the hell out of the last few books. This is closer to the original books. I gave it an extra star just for dropping all stupid drawn out sex scenes. I don't know about the rest of you but I personally didn't recognize the the character Anita Blake and actually started to dislike her after Cerulean Sins. It was like someone else who knew nothing about the character wrote the books. The only reason I keep reading is in hope that the real character will come back. This book gave me that hope. And if you feel the way I do, then you should read the book. The question is, "Will I read the next book?" the answer, "Yes, I will. Will I regret it? Maybe! But what's life without a little regret. (Anita Blake 101)

Saddened that I can no longer stand Anita Blake

I was an avid reader of this series for many years. Then at about book 14, I felt it was getting a little more out there than my taste. I read book 15 and it was just okay. Book 16, terrible. It was as if Anita was a totally different character than in the first half of the series. I gave book 16 one of my first critical reviews, as had many other people.

It has been a couple of years since I have dared to read book 17, hoping the author had read some of those reviews and taken them to heart. It seems that is not the case.

There are just so many things that make Anita an unbelievable character for me as the series progresses. Originally a vamp killer, now a vamp, ummmm, significant other. Okay I adapted to that, but then wait..... lycanthropy came on to the scene. So as the series progresses, it describes within reason, how lycanthropes and vampires cohabitate and help each other, so then she has one of each. Okay, I can still be on board here.

Within a few books, she now has 6 “men” that she’s sleeping with on a regular basis and they all know and approve of this lifestyle. I say men, but that amounts to 2 vamps and 4 lycanthropes, I believe. She’s justifying this way of life, however if mentioned by anyone else, especially male business acquaintances, she takes huge offense.

Take that and add to it that she is a human, BUT she channels the powers of her first vamp lover AND her blood contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 5 types of lycanthrope species mixed in, gaining her superhuman strengths and senses, unlike anyone else in the world.

It’s just gone so far off the rails, I couldn’t handle it. The only positive thing that I can say is that this the first in the series that I’ve chosen to listen to as opposed to reading and I did think the narrator was doing a good job. Right up until I just couldn’t stand to go any further and deleted the book before finishing it.

So disappointed that a great series went so bad!

I think I've given up on Anita Blake

I loved the first Anita Blake books. However, as the series went on the romantic/sexual portions of the book bogged down the narrative and made them a lot less fun. Now I only really perk up when Edward comes on the scene. Unlike a hardcopy where you can skim through the padded conflict scenes between Anita and just about any authority figure, with audio book it's a lot harder. I couldn't force myself through this book even after several attempts.

Boring, Repeating

The characters kept saying the same things over and over again in the same conversation. What, no editor? I almost never stop reading a book, but I couldn't finish this one because it was too boring.

Finally!

I've been patiently waiting for the last few books, for LKH to get back to writing pop fiction, rather than erotica. Finally, after...what, six books? Anita Blake is back!

Less repetitive, copycat, mind-numbing sex, more action!

Of course, it's an Anita Blake book, so all the male characters stand around and have endless expository discussions about how perfect Anita is, but other than that, it's nice to finally see a story in there somewhere.

One note; others have commented that they didn't like the new narrator, Kimberly Alexis. Personally, I think she did an absolutely excellent job.

The old narrator didn't have any grasp of French accents, and her pronunciation used to drive me absolutely crazy. 'Ardeur' does not sound like 'ar-DOOR'. It was bad enough that I actually decided not to buy any more Anita audiobooks unless they changed narrators. I found Kimberly Alexis to be a refreshing change.

Worth a credit, worth a listen!

Anite, but just not the same

I'm a massive LKH fan, and I have all her audiobooks. This was probably the first Anita book, that I actually had to force myself to finish.

My first issue with this book is the change in narrators. The voices are all off. I couldn't always distinguish between character voices, even the new characters. The miss-pronunciation of vital words as in "ardeur" and "pomme de sang" made me absolutely CRAZY!!!! I found myself dazing in and out, due to he voice. I think she was an awful choice to narrate this series. I probably would have given it a better rating, if the old narrator was back.

My second problem, is that I liked the past few Anita book (unlike a lot of people). I think that ALL the cop stuff got a little boring. I dislike when they take Anita out side of her little St. Louis comfort zone. I miss the other characters a lot.

I should have went with my first thought and just read the book. I think that the publishing company is making a massive mistake changing the narrator in both of LKH's long standing series. I think I may be done buying audiobooks from this author.

Thank you, Kimberly Alexis!

Thank goodness she's back as the narrator that brings distinction to character voices and Anita Blake. Sorely missed!