Oh Boy! I think this is one of my favorites. I believe it’s because Anita gets to meet Micah and he is one of my favorite characters in this series.

Anita has been away for about 6 months and doesn’t know what to expect when she gets back. Finding out the hardships her other two of the triumvirate have had but a damper on her mood and made her decide to marry the marks between Jean Claude, her vampire lover and Master of the City of St. Louis, and Richard, the local Ulfric, king of the werewolves.

Having her priorities straight, she needs Jean Claude to meet her at a club on the Illinois side to pick up one of her leopards. She became their Nimir Ra when she killed the other leader and realized that they were just meat for the picking when it comes to other more dominant shapeshifters. Nathaniel was supposed to have someone with him at all times because he is too submissive. When one of her leopards called to tell her that they were in trouble, she could only think of Jean Claude as backup. When they met there, Jean Claude had called ahead and made sure that Narcissus would intervene and keep the leopards from getting too hurt. After having to relinquish her guns in order to go into the club, she wasn’t sure that this was a good idea. Marrying the marks was in a way losing control of herself and she wanted to fight that with all she had. Deciding that would be best to get it over with and then get her pard out of trouble, the metaphysics began. Of course everything that Jean Claude does when it comes to that, ends up being sexual. She so didn’t want to do that in a club full of shapeshifters but she also didn’t have time to go somewhere else.

The entertainment of saving the leopards and marrying the marks leaves you breathless and dying for more. Hamilton delivers. A new pard is in town and the leader is Nimir Raj (king of the leopards), Micah and there is a connection between them that is mystical. Anita meets him for the first time lying in bed naked up against her. All the leopards were taking turns trying to keep her warm after almost losing her life against those that took her leopards at the club. One of her leopards saved her life but accidentally stabbed her while in animal form which is how you become a shapeshifter. The news that she might become furry for real and that Gregory was taken by the whole pack of wolves for killing their lupa( fancy word for Ulfric’s girlfriend) and Jean Claude was in jail for supposedly killing her. She wakes up to all this mess and seems overwhelmed at first until she decides to take one problem at a time. First there had to be a way to get Gregory back from the wolves, second was to take care of Jean Claude and third was to figure out why she has inherited the ardour from Jean Claude and what is going to happen now.

This book is jam packed with guns and violence and sex. I absolutely loved it. The imagination from the writer is overpowering in such a good way. She’s so in depth with a variety of characters and so full of adventure and suspense. I love her. I love Anita Blake. I would recommend this book and all the Anita Blake series anytime. I  don’t recommend this for kids though. This is an adult book and with the ardour rising in Anita, the sex is really intense. Great for an adult but not for kids.