When You Know Better

Okay all, prepare yourself because I am about to out myself as a Vampire Romance novel lover. I know, I can hear you saying - is there such a sub-genre? (Except Margarita who I fully blame for this addiction). But yes, there it is. I think I read these books just so Mark has a reason to make fun of me, oh and because they ROCK! Yeah, I know - HUGE geek.

So a few years ago while I was looking for a good book along the line of the Sookie Stackhouse series someone recommended that I read the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. This series was great! Anita was a PI who moonlighted as a Vampire Executioner. The first 6 books were fun, they have great plot lines and interesting characters. Then about book 7 the blood starts to run thin. I am not sure what happened, but these books went from being novels to soft core porn. I stopped reading after book 8.

But then a girlfriend swore up and down that Hamilton was back in form with the new Merry Gentry series. I knew, I should know better, but I thought I would give Hamilton the benefit of the doubt. And 150 pages in I have to tell you I agree with this quick review from Amazon by reviewer: E.A. Solinas,

Laurell K. Hamilton branches out from her bestselling Anita Blake novels with a new, fae-oriented series. She really shouldn't have bothered. While "Kiss of Shadows" starts off dark and intriguing, the plot rapidly degenerates into a NC-17 fantasy without much more than sweaty gyrations to recommend it...Before you can say "bonk 'em all," she is given an ultimatum by her aunt, the queen of the Unseelie Court: she and her evil cousin Cel are both going to try to have a baby. The one who succeeds will be the next ruler -- the other is toast. Merry is assigned a harem of fae men, all of whom want her as much as she wants them. Physically, anyway.

I have now decided that Hamilton needs to take a long vacation. It has become apparent to me she is incapable of writing anything but crap these days. And if you want cheesy vampire romance novels why not read Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series or Kathy Love's Fangs books, which well repetitive, are a hellva lot more fun and the sex isn't so sadistic.

Laurell K. Hamilton shame on you doing this to your readers, they deserve better.