at least for the next few days.

(The newest Anita Blake book is out.)

Dude, if she likes Anita Blake, she needs to try the other Laurell K. Hamilton series, A Caress of Twilight and A Kiss of Shadows (3rd coming out soon)...an Unseelie Princess hiding out in LA, working as a detective, with Hamilton's, er, signature erotic touches. You, sir, would like them very much as well.

Oh trust me, she's got those too.

Read 80% of it in Borders yesterday...

It's out? Okay, maybe now's the time to think about getting the previous book in paperback.

I wasn't impressed with the first 6 chapters, which were published in a romance anthology. Jackie, do you think that they've gone downhill with the recent books? And more importantly, are you a Richard or Jean-Claude shipper? :)

I should say, that's the first six chapters of the previous book, whose name is escaping me. Narcissus in Chains?

I think the series has gone downhill, as Hamilton has (a) increasingly pandered to the goth-erotic market (which is her prerogative, of course, and evidently a lucrative prerogative), and (b) felt she had to top (so to speak) the threat, eroticism, and kinkiness levels of each preceding novel.

Which isn't to say I won't be picking up the next paperback when it comes out, mind you.

Ditto that. I read a spoiler in the back of Obsidian Butterfly for the next book that just made me thinking "jesus, everything she can already do isn't enough, they have to give her THAT too?"

Oh, and rough trade from a werewolf... didn't exactly trip my trigger.

While I agree with Dave's declining interest as the series progresses, I have to say that my favorite book was the last one I read (Obsidian Butterfly) -- all Edward and basically no sex meant a much better story from the author.

Doyce - almost agreed. OB was an excellent book (All Edward! All the time!), but not my absolute favorite. I'm fond of the first few.

I am not a huge Edward fan. I would say I lean towards Jean-Claude. Yes it has gone downhill some and I would have like to have seen more of her police work and less of her bedroom work. Better than the last book, but I hope Laurell gets back to the basics.

I think Edward -- like a lot of the other dark elements -- are best used sparingly. An occasional Edward-centric book? Good stuff. An Edward series? Not so much.

But I agree -- you go back and look at the first half-dozen books, and there's a lot more there there. IMO.