Volume  14

www.read-that.com book review

The worst thing that could happen in Anita Blake’s life is happening. Anita executes vampires, dates the Master of the City in St. Louis, lives with two wereleopards, and raises zombies. When a pregnancy scare comes along and she doesn’t know if the father would be Nathaniel, her animal to call and live-in boyfriend, Richard, Ulfric to the local werewolf clan and on again off again boyfriend, Jean Claude, Master Vampire of St. Louis and full time sweetie, Asher, Jean Claude’s second in command and about full time sweetie too, or Damien, her vampire servant, along with a few others, makes her really lost. Richard wants to marry her and have the whole white picket fence thing which wouldn’t fit into either of their lives. Nathaniel wants to give up everything and help out the best he can with the help of Micah, Anita’s other live in boyfriend and Nimir Raj to her Nimir Ra (king to queen) with the local leopard pard. Jean Claude and Asher don’t know what Anita wants them to feel so they won’t feel anything.

In the meantime, Jean Claude has invited a few Master Vampires from across the country to a ballet. There is so much vampire powers going on than anyone knows. Augustine from Chicago tries to bring the ardeur out in Anita so he can feel it once again and things don’t turn out the way he figured. Samuel and his wife, Thea (a mermaid who is also a siren and  Samuel’s animal to call), try to infringe on Anita also. Jean Claude is busy taking care of what could be third in command, Meng Die. All Anita can think about is if this is his friends. what the other Masters would be like. All the Masters are trying to tie themselves to Jean Claude’s power base by bringing Anita a new pomme de sang since she needs to feed more often. She had plans to just make a show of seeing them and then turning them down but when she meets Haven, one of the werelions that Augustine (Auggie to his friends) brought with him, her lioness beast wanted him bad enough to try and get out of her. Even though, impossibly, Anita carries four types of lycanthropy, she does not shift. She actually came closer to shifting with Haven than anyone. She had to give her leopard to Nathaniel but she still had her lion to give out so she send out the call through her mind to bring her a lion and Haven showed up. Their powers together makes her Regina to his Rex but the local lion pride didn’t want that dominant of a lion around so she agreed to send him back. Mostly because she wanted to touch him when he was around and that scared her more than anything else.

Also with many other masters in town, the metaphysical powers were out of control. Jean Claude’s entourage made their way to the ballet with their heads up but not without many troubles.

Fascinating, utterly fascinating!!! I enjoyed not having the police involved in this one. All you have is Anita and her emotions about being pregnant and all the men in her life and their problems. I can’t say anything more than; I was totally into this book, so much that I couldn’t put it down. My favorite guys were in here with their hearts on their sleeves and I ate up all of it. You won’t be disappointed with this one.