I discovered Anita while browsing Barnes & Noble during a stop-over in New York. I bought the first book of the series - Guilty Pleasures - and got immediately hooked. It took me about three days to finish the book. Then I stormed the next bookstore I could find to get all the sequels available. :-) Yes, I like Anita Blake that much! :-) I had to read all the following novels because I just NEEDED to know what's happening in Anita's life! :-) And it got juicier and juicier with every book...

Found on amazon.com. Describes it very well:
"Bert, the owner of Animators Inc., and Anita Blake's nominal boss, is too greedy to refuse a fat fee. This time his compulsive avarice has got Anita in over her head. Her new client needs her to raise an entire graveyard of bones, many of which are over 300 years old. In addition, the client seems to have run a bulldozer through the remains - several times. Anita may be the only animator who is capable of accomplishing this, but even she is less than confident.
No sooner is she at the gravesite when Anita is called in to help investigate some gruesome killings. Deaths which appear to have been done by the first serial killer vampire on record, one who specializes in the young. In her efforts to prevent further deaths Anita manages to alienate both the local police and the FBI. She also discovers that the small country town of Branson is sheltering several people with fairy heritage, and that they are not happy about her efforts at raising the graveyard.

Realizing that she needs more help than Larry the apprentice animator, Anita decides to call in vampire Jean Claude. Unfortunately, Branson has it's own master vampire, Seraphina, who is much stronger than Jean Claude and will stop at nothing to take over the control of his own territory, St. Louis. In the process of trying to get information from Seraphina about the rogue vampire, Jean Claude and Anita are forced into an all out war with Seraphina and her powerful cohorts.

The suspense goes from intense to extreme as Anita has one confrontation after another with her clients, the Fae, master vampires, and creatures from legend. She, Jean Claude, Larry, and Jason the werewolf are badly overmatched in a struggle where no one can be trusted and nothing is what it seems to be. Laurell Hamilton has put together a truly gothic roller-coaster ride.

I am particularly fond of "Bloody Bones." Rather than perpetually introducing new cast members, Hamilton takes the time to dive deeper into characters the reader already knows from earlier volumes in the series. Even Bert gets a good bit of attention. This makes the characters come alive, and sets the stage for subsequent volumes where Anita has to deal directly with her problematic relationships with Jean Claude and alpha werewolf Richard Zeeman. If you are a Blake fan this is required reading. If you are new to the series I would suggest starting with an earlier volume in the series, although this volume still stands on its own."

Books #5 - #13 in the series will be made into a book spiral.

Bloody Bones (Anita Blake #5)
The Killing Dance (Anita Blake #6)
Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake #7)
Blue Moon (Anita Blake #8)
Obsidian Butterfly (Anita Blake #9)
Narcissus in Chains (Anita Blake #10)
Cerulean Sins (Anita Blake #11)
Incubus Dreams (Anita Blake #12)
Micah (Anita Blake #13)

Some guidelines:
1. Please journal the book when it arrives (so we know it's safe and sound with you), once you read it (to let us know how you liked it) and when you ship it off (so we know it's on its way to the next reader).

2. Please PM the next person in line before shipping the book off, not only for the adress, but also to ask if they are still interested in the ring! (please do that ALWAYS before shipping anything off, even if it's a book spiral!)

3. Try not to take longer than four to six weeks to read the book. But we all understand that sometimes life (and bookrings...) just happens. :-) In that case, please make another journal entry to let us know that the book is not forgotten.

4. Surface shipping is perfectly acceptable.

5. And the most important thing: Have fun!


Here are the participants so far:

1.cathepsut (Egypt) / Intl.
2.Rianonne (AT) / Europe
3.sunlightbub (UK) / ???
4.sweetf (UK) / Europe
5.mikime (IT) / Intl.
6.CandyDarling FI / intl.
7.Luintaurien (US) / Intl.
8. adeps (SE) / ???
9. joasik (NL)

Noted for evt. participation after reading books #1-#4:
candy-is-dandy (UK) / ???

... and back to me, Morgaine77

RELEASE NOTES:

Shipped off to Egypt... Enjoy cathepsut!

It arrived!!! Yay! Can't write more, have to go an read... ;-)

"Come morning, some of us would be alive and some of us wouldn't.... Of course, maybe there was just the one newly dead vampire to deal with. If so, we might all see the sunrise. But I hadn't lived this long assuming the best. Assuming the worst was always safer. And usually truer."

This is what you want from a Vampire Hunter novel. Scary, omnipotent vampires, lots of slaying, biting, slashing and assorted other forms of violence and mayhem. In between a little sexual tension with not quite as scary vampires with dashing good looks. Some zombie raising and general sleuthing mixed in and voilà, an extremely entertaining Anita Blake novel comes your way. Bummer, now I have to wait for #6 to reach me.... Will I survive the tension of having to wait for what will happen next with Jean-Claude? I liked him a lot better in this novel, he has become a little less creepy and more likeable. But what is it with those frilly shirts? I also liked how Larry developed in this one. And Anita's powers are becoming more interesting with every instalment.

Off to Rianonne in the morning. Enjoy! Can't wait for the next one...

All went well - the book arrived safe and sound in Vienna, today :)
Thanks so much for all the enclosed goodies!! Let's see what will travel on :p

There are some other rings infront of this one but I'll try to get to Anita ASAP!!

That was a strong story with much action and diving deeper into Anita Blake's world without introducing new members - except the fairies :) I would have loved to curl up and read nonstop!

I already have the addy of the next reader. Now I have to see when I come near a postoffice ... mine here is closed down :(

Gosh it seems like ages since I read the last of these! What a treat to get another one..A few rings in front of it, but these never take me long! Thanks for sharing and shipping everyone xxx

Sending this on to Sweetf in the morning.

Another enjoyable outing for Anita..these seem to be getting darker as the series goes on. I prefer Jean-Claude to Richard so was glad he was the love interest in this one..Thanks for sharing xxx

Thanks for the chance to read this. Received it on Monday, have read and will send on shorlty.

I received it this morning, and have already begun reading it....I believe it won't be long before it's over... ;)

I finished it yesterday...I wish it could have lasted much longer! ;) The story had an incredible suspense and wonderful fights with the bad guys and closer encounters with the good guys, I couldn't put it down... I just would have liked the last chapter to be a bit longer and more detailed about the aftermath of it all, some actual dialogue among the main characters who lived through it all... some more! I guess I'll have to read the next one for that! ;)
Thanks a lot !
I'm sending it to candydarling this afternoon. Enjoy! :)

The book arrived today, thanks Mikime for sending it and Morgaine77 for organizing the book ring!

I realized a lot of things when I read this book. One of them is that I like the murder mystery part the best. When I started reading Bloody Bones, I was thinking that this is by far the best Anita Blake novel so far! But as soon as Jean-Claude came in, I didn't like the book nearly as much. I would have wanted to give the first half of this book 11 stars, but the second half only 8, so I compromised on 9. :)

When I read the descriptions of how the three boys had been killed, I literally got nauseous. I don't think that has ever happened before when I've been reading a book! Pretty cool!

I'm glad Jean-Claude wasn't as annoying as before after the first meeting with Seraphina. His discussion with Anita after that made me like him a lot more. I can't stand it when he's tormenting Anita on purpose, and I like Anita for standing up to him and not giving in. I hope their relationship is going in the direction seen in this book, because otherwise I'll be so frustrated I'll probably throw the book against a wall, and I wouldn't want to do that to Morgaine's books...

I really hate the power struggles in the Anita Blake books, and especially the encounter with Seraphina's gang in this book. I just don't get anything out of reading about vampires molesting people sexually and mentally. It's about as enjoyable as having someone grope you against your will, and not being able to do anything about it. I guess that is one reason why I enjoyded the previous book, The Lunatic Cafe, so much. There Anita didn't have to endure as much molesting as usually, and I really liked it that she wasn't afraid to shoot anyone threatening her.

This book had way too many situations where the vampires got what they wanted by blackmailing Anita and Larry. For once I would have wanted them not to give the vampires what they wanted, even if that would have meant letting innocent people die...

I was really glad to see Larry back in action in this book. He and Edward are my favorite characters, and I hope to see a lot more of them in the future. I hope there will be a book that concentrates on both Jean-Claude and Richard, as the previous book was almost solely about Richard, while this book was mostly about Anita's relationship with Jean-Claude. So far I've preferred Richard, because he respects Anita and her limits, something that Jean-Claude seems to have a problem with. But I might like him more in the future, if he behaves.

I have pm'd Luntaurien for her address, but have not yet received a reply.

I sent the book to Luintaurien yesterday by surface mail.

There's another copy of this book, which will replace this one.

Got it today. Thank you. Will read and pass on ASAP.

CAUGHT IN YORK NE USA

Sending out when I get the address