Guilty Pleasures is the first book in the Anita Blake Series, that now spans 26 books. This book is a reread for me. I read it over a decade ago when I had just started reading. I raised my review from 3 stars to 4. I really deserves it terms of originality at the time, this is one of the first that can truly be classified as Paranormal Romance, there’s not any real romance in this book, lots of longing and a couple of dreams, but there is way more action than romance. The action is sometimes non stop the hero actually gets hurt and has battle scars.

The Plot: Anita Blake is an animator, who reanimates corpses for profit. Vampires have recently came out, there is still a debate if they’re alive or dead. Anita is also a Vampire Hunter, the hunts have to be sanctioned by the government but you still can kill in self defense. Anita helps that new police force to protect against vampire crimes, but is not one of them. Her feeling on Vampires is not good, she doesn’t hate them but has never met one she didn’t want to see dead. She is shocked when the Master of St. Louis wants her to investigate a couple of vampire murders. She refuses having already having a lot on her plate in animations and a bachelorette party to help out with and her general dislike of the vampire species. Anita is tricked by members of the bachelorette party, into going to a club called Guilty Pleasures, which is a vampire strip joint, I do not know if it only caters to women, but that’s all the book focused on, at the club the Bachelorette is bitten when Anita is away. Anita finds out this was all just a sent up, if she helps out solving the murders her friend will be left alone and not made a vampire slave. Anita begrudgingly agrees to take on the case, but it could cost her life and her soul as she is forced to feed of a vampire for survival, and has unintended consequences.

What I Liked: The head games in this book are the best. The world created is really fascinating and well thought out. The character’s are really memorable, even side character’s, which there are a lot so Hamilton did a fantastic describing them physically and adding personality when she can, I just read a book that did not do it well, so I’m probably appreciating it more than I should. The villain was terrifying and posed a real threat.

What I Disliked: The Mystery in the end was really not important at all, it was kind of a foot note, that the master kind of kept forgetting to ask about. I’m like sure some vampires want to kill her but you asked her to do a job let her solve it, then kill her. I was underwhelmed by who did the vampire killings and why he wasn’t a bigger threat.  I did think it was way to soon to have every type of  were person already exist, wererats were featured but wereleopards, werewovles, and weretigers were already discussed.

Recommendations: I liked it better the second time, and was way more appreciative of the world created. If you like Anne Rice and the Vampire Chronicles this is a much faster action packed version but still has the longing nailed. I didn’t like the Dead until Dark series but if you did I think this is better in my opinion. I rated this on a second reading 4 out of 5 stars. I do plan to continue reading the series.