I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
The Harlequin
by
Laurell K. Hamilton
It is part of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter #15 series and is a erotic romance, urban fantasy in Paperback edition that was published by Jove on April 29, 2008 and has 406 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Hit List, Bloody Bones, Killing Dance, Burnt Offerings, Narcissus in Chains, Obsidian Butterfly, Bite, Incubus Dreams, Micah, Danse Macabre, Blood Noir, Skin Trade, Flirt, Bullet, Never After, Kiss the Dead, The First Death, Affliction, Guilty Pleasures, The Laughing Corpse, Circus of the Damned, "Shutdown", A Kiss of Shadows, Lunatic Café, A Caress of Twilight, Seduced by Moonlight, A Stroke of Midnight, Mistral’s Kiss, A Lick of Frost, Blue Moon, Dead Ice, Jason, Crimson Death, Serpentine, "Wounded", Fantastic Hope, Cerulean Sins, A Terrible Fall of Angels, Slay, Swallowing Darkness
Fifteenth in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter erotic urban fantasy series set in an alternate St. Louis, Missouri. The story revolves around Anita Blake’s increasingly vampiric powers and the issues it creates for her and the people with whom she’s involved.
My Take
>Oh, wow! The action just never stops and the emotional tangles are just as intense, BUT Anita is forced to see just how difficult she makes life for the men in her bed. She’s an odd duck, our Anita. She hates being in love. Has no clue about relationships. Demands honesty and hates it when she gets it as she continually gets in her own way.
I had doubted myself in the last story. Now it’s confirmed. Jean-Claude and Anita have reinforced their “natural practicality” and she still doesn’t know what J-C got from Richard. Hmmm, for as much in love with Anita as J-C is, I wonder if J-C got that desire for love from “our wolf”…
Shockingly, Anita is learning not to poke. At least, not all the time.
The Story
The Harlequin have come to St. Louis. A secret police force of vampire assassins who should abide by the rules when they come to town. Should being the operative word.
But then the Vampire Council does fear Jean-Claude and his triumvirate. So it’s not that much of a surprise when all hell breaks loose and death comes shooting.
The Characters
Richard is such an ass blowing hot one minute and cold all the rest. Nathaniel is certainly feeling powerful these days while we learn a great deal about how Jean-Claude‘s guards feel about Anita and the ardeur. Malcolm certainly receives and returns the surprise of Anita’s power. The lion pride in St. Louis gets a nasty shock and they certainly deserve it! Poor Raphael also gets a shock. It’ll be interesting to see how he deals with the consequences of Anita’s power in Blood Noir, 16!
Edward comes to help bringing a very unwanted pair of backups. And both Anita and Edward realize that their concept of fun has changed.
The Harlequin are the vampire police…unstoppable, deadly.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a bit scary with its scantily-clad Columbine casually leaning back against the warm brown and gold stone wall dangling an elaborate black-gold face mask from her fingertips, black ribbon crisscrossing her left forearm…a very feminine gauntlet.
The title is much too apt as it is The Harlequin and their founder who are threatening everyone that Anita holds dear.
