Review: Kiss the Dead (Anita Blake Book 21)

2.5 out of 5 Stars

Genre: Paranormal Romance
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5
Blurb:
When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she’s faced with something she’s never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people—kids, grandparents, soccer moms—all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there’s one martyr, there will be more…


But even vampires have monsters that they’re afraid of. And Anita is one of them…


For those of you haven't read the previous 20 books (truth) in the Anita Blake series, Kiss The Dead is not the book to start with. Honestly? KTD and I have had a week long love/hate relationship. Usually I can get through a book in a day...or two. Not the case with my wily friend here. Now lets get straight to the good stuff.


The Good:
The book begins with Anita on the scene with some of my favorite secondary characters, Zerbrowski, (newly lobotomized) Dolph and friends, getting ready to take out a potential vampire "kiss." Here is where they attempt to rescue a 15-year-old girl who "made the choice" to become a vampire. The blurb says it all once Anita busts in and does her thang, all stank-tastic in her heels, 'hoes, and skirt suit, ready to blow someone's head and/or heart out. She seems to feel more comfortable in her skin, not caring what others think of her and just doing her job both psychically and physically - consequences be damned!

Skipping ahead, I enjoyed the little bit of time spent with Jean-Claude (even without his naughty bits...sad panda) as well as meeting up with our Claudia and the other body guards. Just the mini-reunion with some of the characters made me all nostalgic and happy-face.

The Ugly:
In between the job, Anita gets to go home to meet up with Micah and Nathaniel and gets some sexy time in. But on her way, she is busy wondering if she can handle killing the "monsters" anymore when she loves so many of them...and here we go...is one herself. *FACE PALM* Whyyyy! I was so disappointed that Anita was still hung up on her monsterness and really thought she could compartmentalize between bad monsters and good ones. I understand her confusion of wanting to quit her job...but it's never ending.

After all of her self doubt and nonsense, she gets home. And I'm hoping for some nice ménage action to help repair my brain after the whining. But of course there is conversation and crap to fix with her other men before any real action. Again, slightly acceptable because she has so many of them to please and LKH is giving us a taste of the negative side of so many sexy's. Eventually, we start to get somewhere and *snore*. This romp literally put me to sleep. I mean really - like passed out in the middle of a sex scene. 
-__- <---disappointment.

Another side argument and internal debate is the continuance of Anita complaining about Cynric, being a senior in high school and all, and how he's much too young for Anita to ever love. Ahhh, but there is the rub! She's still sleeps with him. I mean, the lady doth complains too much and I for one am completely over it. OWN it, Anita! Or kill Cynric off, Ms. Hamilton. Either way he's free - and so are we.

Oh and then there is Asher. Stupid. ******SPOILER****** Please stay exiled because Anita, JC, and everybody else is tired of your nonsense ******END SPOILER******

The ugliest and hardest to forgive was the extremely repetitive and condescending writing that kept appearing at the end of every stinking chapter. It was insanely frustrating and unnecessary, making the chapters or thoughts seems careless and unimportant, when some of them were the opposite.

Conclusion:
I did see some light through the darkness and haven't lost complete faith in the series, but one more book like this one and I may. Self-doubt is persistant and the lack of memorable sex is on repeat too. But I truly enjoyed seeing the characters that have been behind Anita through her journey finally make a reappearance after so many books away. I loved the new addition with Marshal Brice too. But, there was still some heart missing. I guess I'll always be hopeful for the next one.