THE LUNATIC CAFE
Anita Blake, the supernatural "jack of all trades" is experiencing a bit of a slow period with her necromancer business. To keep the money rolling in, she decides to take on a few odd jobs. One of them includes solving a missing persons case assigned by the local werewolf pack alpha, Marcus. There's tension between him and Richard since they are both dominant, which naturally alludes to them likely duking it out to decide on a leader once and for all. All of this werewolf business isn't really conducive to a happy Jean-Claude. The beautiful and dangerous vampire shows his jealous streak as he is after Anita's affections. Her fellow colleague, Edward, wants to do away with BOTH of Anita's love interests which only complicates matters further.

You're in for plenty of action in this one as well as some interesting revelations. Anita is very powerful and we may be seeing very soon in future books just how powerful she is. Jean-Claude isn't attracted to her *only* for her beauty. She is truly special and I look forward to finding out how. But the question is how Anita handles this mentally. Being surrounded by so much death, destruction, hate and greed seems to have taken a toll on our favorite vampire hunter/necromancer. But as I always say, if you can't stand the heat...

You will benefit from having read the prior 3 novels, so I don't really recommend starting here. It would also help by way of you becoming more attached and familiar with the characters and what they stand for. It's another solid installment in the Anita Blake saga, and I'm definitely glad I got into this series years later because it makes picking up the next book much easier than waiting on it for a year.

BLOODY BONES
In the usual Anita Blake fashion, the title of this installment is reflective of a building establishment in the story. This time, it's out of town as we are taken on a road trip with Anita and the gang. In many Urban Fantasy series that's usually the tell tale sign that the readers will be in for some major developments as characters are taken out of their usual element and certain things come to light that will completely change the game. That seemed to be the purpose of this book. Anita is called out to Missouri to raise 300-year-old corpses. She's far from thrilled. It doesn't help matters that there is an evil vampire serial killer on the prowl, meaning Anita will need some help of her own. Cue the forever sexy and dangerous Jean-Claude to come in and help on that front. In the usual fashion, Anita handles her business and saves the day.

This book was very interesting. I'm a total Jean-Claude fangirl so I was THRILLED with his screentime and even more with the interactions between him and Anita. It was also great because I am not a fan of Richard so was happy to conveniently see him out of the picture for this book. This was easily my favorite book to date because it brought in a new atmosphere while still keeping the action and suspense we've been used to in the Anita Blake world. It left me highly anticipating the next book.

THE KILLING DANCE
This is probably my favorite book of the whole series. It cuts out all of the BS and we get to the meat of what everybody wants to see. There is so much focus on Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard and by book 6 it was needed. Of course, she's got a half-million dollar bounty on her head that she needs to figure out in the process of trying not to get dead. Richard's dealing with his own pack issues; he isn't seeing eye to eye with his co-alpha, Marcus. That climaxes in an unbelievable scene.

Of course, this series isn't just about werewolves. Jean-Claude has been biding his time for when Anita will come to him. This book definitely pulled no punches. We were introduced to fairly disturbing concepts (shapeshifter porn, anyone?) and Anita's in a fight for her life.

Anita finally makes a choice between her two suitors and I was extremely pleased. This book in general is a little more racy than past novels, but there is still a fair amount of action, gore, and suspense that we have come to expect. I highly recommend picking up this book if you've read the others.