Book Review
Title: The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Book 6)
Genre: Paranormal, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 4.5 Stars
The opening to the sixth instalment in the Anita Blake series was interesting as we can see Anita questioning her feelings towards both Richard and Jean-Claude more especially after the events of Bloody Bones. However, she soon learns that Edward was offered a contract to assassinate her and he is going to turn it down as he feels he can make more money and be more useful protecting Anita which she is grateful for as she knows how lethal Edward is although he isn’t happy about her dating a vampire. After returning from a party with Richard she is confronted by a man in her apartment who tries to shoot her and obviously he ends up dead which causes a headache for Anita as she has to explain without letting slip that there are hitmen after her and this one is only going to be the beginning. I was spoiled for this book as a friend told me that Anita sleeps with Jean-Claude in this novel which I am insanely happy with and I am excited to see how we get there but I would have appreciated the surprise since I have been waiting since their meeting in Guilty Pleasures and all the other hints dropped in the previous five books to get to this.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the assassination attempt means that Anita is going to stay with Richard for a while and it also means she is going to most likely cancel her date with Jean-Claude which he isn’t going to be happy about. Shortly after arriving at Richard’s place he gets a message from Stephen telling him that Raina is after him against to make movies and he sounds terrified so obviously Richard and Anita go to rescue him. They do argue beforehand but Anita feels like she needs to help Stephen and she can’t explain it so he allows her to come even though there was no stopping Anita and it is lucky he did. When they arrive Richard is immediately hounded by the other wolves who see him as weak for not killing Marcus in the challenge. Anita goes to get Stephen threatening Raina and Gabriel in the process but they have drugged Stephen which infuriates Anita. By the time she gets him Richard is being attacked by the other wolves and she puts a stop to it calling Stephen as her as a dominant within the pack and offering him protection, threatening to kill anyone that touches him. This weakens Richard’s position since he is trying to do things without killing but even the wolves that sided with Richard agree with Anita that he needs to make an example of someone to get the others to back off but Richard doesn’t want to do it. This causes another argument between him and Anita and she is seriously considering calling off their relationship at this point despite wanting him because she feels that his morals and ideals mean he deserves more than her since killing no longer bothers her. She also thinks a lot about Jean-Claude during this and how he wouldn’t flinch at her killing someone especially if they deserved it and how if anyone tried to come after her or threaten someone she holds dear he would encourage her to do away with them and maybe even do it for her which is making her lean towards Jean-Claude but she still isn’t 100% sure if he is the person she really wants.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Richard has a pack meeting to decide what to do about Marcus and the numbers of shifters plus Anita are enough for him to give in and say that if anyone is directly threatened or their lives are in danger he will kill to protect them but he isn’t happy about it. However, he also makes Anita is lupa despite not being a shifter and this gives her not only the power to protect the pack especially those she cares for like Stephen but they will protect her and after one altercation this matter is sealed. Edward arrives during the fight and they come up with a plan for her to go on her date with Jean-Claude to the opening of his new club as this will be an attractive position for the hitman to take her out but she will have Jean-Claude watching her back as well as Edward and she agrees. Jean-Claude is a great fit for Anita even if she doesn’t see it herself as he is able to make her laugh and smile even when she doesn’t want to and is always putting her first. She learns this through Liv who outs Jean-Claude’s celibacy as he has refused to take anyone but Anita to his bed while they are dating and this stuns her for a moment. I have a feeling that this night is going to be exciting in more ways than one and Anita is so close to admitting what she feels for Jean-Claude isn’t just lust and I know it is going to happen soon but I want it right now.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Anita goes to the opening with Jean-Claude but everything seems to happen at once and none of it is good. Damien pushes his luck with Anita by trying to use an unwilling victim which does bring the atmosphere down but either Jean-Claude didn’t know it was going to happen or he did and hoped that it wouldn’t push Anita’s buttons. However, afterwards she is cornered in the bathroom by a reporter who might be the hitwoman as she tries to attack Anita and knows exactly where she is keeping her gun so Anita kills her in self-defence. Luckily for her there are several witnesses to this who support Anita’s version of events but she is still going to be taken in for questioning again. Despite this Dolph pulls her away to a murder scene of a vampire and it turns out to be Robert who is Monica’s husband and while there is no love lost between Anita and Monica she knows they are expecting a baby. However, this murder is designed to keep people like Anita out as Robert’s heart has been taken and the circle surrounding not only keep those with magical abilities out it most likely prevented Robert from communicating with Jean-Claude which is why he doesn’t know Robert died the second he did. Anita thinks that Robert’s death might be a challenge to Jean-Claude and there are several place the challenge might have come from since he has been bringing new vampires under his protection for a while now and there are those like Serephina that think Jean-Claude isn’t powerful enough or old enough to be a Master Vampire and in part this is true but he is also capable of a lot more than many of them have seen. I am not sure how this is going to leave to Anita and Jean-Claude jumping into bed together but I am excited to see it.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, news of Robert’s death reaches his wife and Jean-Claude which isn’t good and even Edward isn’t sure Anita is coming out of this alive which isn’t a good thing. The plan is for Anita to lay low at Circus of the Damned where she will be the most protected until he can get some backup and she agrees. There is a brief scene where she learns now about Jean-Claude than she had in any of the previous model which leads to a kiss between them. Normally I would be happy about this but Richard interrupts this and his heightened emotions lead to him hurting Anita. Although he apologizes for this you can see he isn’t happy with himself and almost refuses to change in front of Anita although he is good at making excuses. That night Richard and Jean-Claude have come up with a plan to bind the three of them together. This ritual should give Richard enough power that Marcus won’t fight him and he won’t have to kill anyone and that power boost is also extended to Jean-Claude and Anita gets to ensure their safety. While she only mentions Richard we know she wouldn’t have saved Jean-Claude is she didn’t care for him and I can’t wait to see what happens.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Jean-Claude, Richard and Anita combine their powers in a triumvirate as this will give them the required power boosts they need but in summoning the power Anita raises something from the dead and she doesn’t know who or what it is. They soon learn that she raised not only zombie but the vampires who are sleeping during the day and she has no idea how to put them back. In the end, they summon Dominic who helps Anita realises what she has done and the extent of these new powers as she can heal a vampire which means she will be able to heal Sabin and he helps her return the vampire to their coffins and she hopes that they will rise again during the night otherwise she is losing friends like Willie. Meanwhile, she has come to realises that Jean-Claude is only seducing her but he is also seducing Richard as he understands that if Anita wants them both then he has to share her but Richard can’t seem to get his head around this. With only about 70 pages left in the novel I am waiting to see what sort of situation arises that ends with Jean-Claude and Anita in bed together and how Richard is going to react to this since he has shown extreme levels of jealousy at Jean-Claude just kissing Anita and I don’t think that is going to go down well.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, we see the true power that Jean-Claude, Anita and Richard have and we finally get the promised sex scene between Anita and Jean-Claude. While it wasn’t explicit enough for me to call it true smut it was slow, seductive and everything I hoped it would be. However, Richard finds out what has happened and goes nuts walking away from Anita because she can’t handle his changes and what it truly means to be a shifter but he also can’t handle the fact that she does truly love them both. When the true enemy is revealed I was disappointed, it seems like outside of the romance element these books are becoming carbon copies of each other, Anita fights bad guy, almost dies, kills bad guy, the end and it’s getting boring the only reason I continued so far was for the romance plot and now Richard isn’t it in I am not sure where it is going to go. I say this because even though Anita has admitted her love for Jean-Claude and slept with him, there relationship still isn’t solid because she is pining for Richard and there is nothing that he can do about that. Overall, this was a great instalment but I am hoping the formula changes in the next book as I am getting bored with the cookie cutter bad guys and there not really being any true danger of Anita dying or someone else dying thanks to their mystical powers so there are no stakes right now.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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