I had high hopes for this book, there seem to be loads in the series (15 plus) so finding a new author would have been good.......but it wasn't to be.
The story is told in the first person by Anita Blake 'Vampire Hunter' - but I hated her! She has no likeable characteristics and by the end I was hoping that she would be skated instead of the vampires!
Firstly she seems to have an identity crisis - she's a Vampire Hunter, and someone who can raise the dead (eg. zombies) - but she doesn't seem that good at any of it. She's scared of everything, and doesn't even know how to do the things you'd expect - like use a gun, pick a lock or quickly kill a vampire!? She also doesn't seem to know much about vampires!
Secondly, she's just not a nice person in anyway - why would I be even vaguely interested in seeing her live to the end of the book?!
I thought the True Blood books were badly written, but at least the stories in those are well thought out, logical and the characters are great. Guilty Pleasures is supposed to be the first in the 'Anita Blake Vampire Hunter' series, but I still know little about her or what she does - there is no character descriptions, the book just launches into a half arsed story about Blake having to solve vampire murders - which incidentally I'd solved by 214 (a whole 120 pages before Blake worked it out!!).
Characters are introduced but are instantly forgotten as they aren't given enough description or background only to reappear later - which makes keeping track of things very difficult.
To say I thought this book was a disappointment is putting it mildly - it's shit! Which is a shame as I friend gave me it, she'd enjoyed it and thought I would too. I'm going to get a second opinion from someone I know who reads a lot of vampire teen novels.
26th August - 12th September 2011
