What can you expect after 16 books? Her story line has become so thin, she can barely flesh it out with sex. She needs to end this series and turn her talents to another.

From "The Harlequin" hardback page.

I guess we can't give zero stars. There should be a warning label on any new book LKH writes. And that warning should be: may cause loss of braincells and momentary blindness. I honestly think I got dumber just reading this.

Aside from the profuse amount of grammatical errors I find extremely hard to believe a professional editor could NOT find, it's a trite piece of literary vomit which reduces plot to nothing more than meaningless and unflattering sex scenes. The characters are flat, uninteresting morons who talk too much about insignificant dramas unimportant to the feeble attempts at plot.

LKH has reduced a strong, independent woman who had human inadequacies to a stretchy vagina which sucks the life out of those around her. She managed to mutilate the character of the vampire who dared to love her and instead made him a background fan boy with repetitive and meaningless one liners. And Richard has spent the last five books as nothing more than a sniveling idiot who annoys the reader whenever he is introduced into a scene. Every background character from previous books who were amazing and had personalities of their own, like Asher and Damian, are nonexistent. Meanwhile old friends like Ronnie and Dolph are made out to be enemies because they don't approve of Anita's rapid character change. If LKH continues to be under the fervent belief that her characters actually speak to her--are real to her to the point where she actually considers buying them Christmas presents--she might want to listen to the minor ones who went from good friends to enemies because they don't praise Anita's preachy monologues and are not willing to stand in the background and let her save them.

I will never be able to sympathize with Anita Blake's character again. I can't sympathize with a character who is so powerful that she doesn't have any vulnerabilities. What makes a good series author is one who understands that killing off characters makes readers realize their mortality, their fragility. Kim Harrison, for example, showed her understanding of this concept when she killed off a main character and love interest in her book For a Few Demons More (Rachel Morgan, Book 5). Harrison did it because it was necessary to plot development. LKH hasn't made the sacrifice of a good main character since book 1. Flash forward to book 15, The Harlequin. These characters have lost their voices, their individuality, to the point where in a group discussion, I can hardly even tell who's speaking. And the sheer amount of characters over the course of a 15 book series, with no one dead and hardly any leaving, makes each group scene simply painful to read. I don't connect to these characters anymore. I can't connect to characters who are invulnerable and who rely on a superhuman woman who is more villain than hero.

LKH wrote in her blog that she thinks those of us who hate her current literary efforts are prudes who don't like to read books which push the envelope. Bad furry sex and lesbian dream sex isn't pushing the envelope; it's absolutely shudder worthy and the writing alone makes me feel physically ill and clutch my head in extreme mental anguish. Someone, ANYONE, tell this woman to stop writing.

'IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY TRY AGAIN'.
So said my Mother some 50 years ago, and so I applied this to Hamilton's recent book 'The Harlequin'. Finally last evening in utter disgust (after getting two-thirds of the way through the book) I threw it across the room and gave up and I will not try reading it again. What a pity that the 'muse' has apparently deserted Laurell!!Her series about Anita Blake was so well-done, full of interest and creativity; perhaps she should create a new character completely different from Anita. I don't know, but she is now relying on REALLY far-out sexual activity and filling Anita with so many animals to call, that it makes one dizzy trying to keep track of 'who's who'. I have to compare it to a composer of music that has run out of ideas,so that every so-called new work is entirely predictable. BORING!

Although I read a lot of Fantasy, this book left me frustrated and bereft of any excitement. Oh well, 'c'est la vie'.

While I agree with other reviewers that the series has gone in a different direction than when it started, I don't see this as a bad thing. Isn't that the point of a series? To see where it can go and how the characters develop?

If it had stayed the same as the first 5-8 books it would become static and then everyone would complain that there is nothing new in her writing, just a rehash of the first books with different characters. That is why I stopped reading Feehan. Three of her series started out very intriguing and then it was all the same scenario with different people in a different place. If I want to read the same storyline I'll reread the first of the books.

I enjoyed this book as much as the others with one exception and that's why it got a 4 rating instead of a 5. There were some editing errors that while small things, really irritated me. Some references were made to some of the previous characters that were inacurate. (Example: They refer to Willy's girlfriend as Candy, her name is Hannah. Sylvie makes a comment about not being into women and she was introduced as a lesbian with a live in girlfriend. Plus a couple of other nit picky things like these.) When you are involved with the characters and know who they are, then there is a drastic change it throws everything off kilter for me. Other than that, the book is full of action, sex, character insight, and an all around good read as far as I am concerned and I will continue to read LKH and see where Anita goes next.

I was happily surprised by The Harlequin. It had a balance that has been lacking in the other books since the ardeur first appeared.

Okay, yes, if I think hard enough I can pick apart all sorts of inconsistencies, but overall this book blended the old Anita with the ardeur. The plot moved, there was less arguing (no you have sex with her, no you, no you do it, no you do it etc...) and a lot less 'therapy'. There's some serious peril in this book to Anita,Jean Claude and Richard that really ramps up the tension and suspense. And Anita finally tells Richard to take a hike (which I liked, but really made me wonder about the fate of the triumervate and the 'rules' by which it operates).

The editing was much better as well. Or I was that much more tired as I have a newborn at home. Either way, I didn't find any silly typos or other gauche errors.

I think LKH is on the right track. This was a really well-balanced story with strong elements from earlier in the series blended with all the changes Anita has gone through.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read it all in one night-sitting and was very pleased with the result. Sure, its got your recent sex-driven back plot, but this book goes beyond that, and really Anita makes a comeback in this one. If you've made it this far, don't trot away yet! This one is the one you'll want to read. :) I've liked it much better than the last three!

...considering what the few previous books were like. I loved the Anita Blake series for years and couldn't wait to get to the next one but lately it's just another addition to my TBR pile. The Harlequin was enjoyable, even with its various scenes of repetitive sex, and the mysterious harlequin group featured as the villains made the story very interesting. If you were a fan of the series I would suggest you read the book, but don't expect much progress with the ardeur or Jean Claude.

I used to love this series but I was hesitant to pick this one up because the emphasis has been so heavily on Anita's "dating." 65 pages in so far it has been 90% about her boyfriends. So far absolutely nothing has happened, it's all relationship stuff.

Hopefully it will get better but I won't be taking a chance on one of the author's books again.

The 15th installment in Hamilton's train wreck series Anita Blake is surprising for a few reasons.

Hamilton has been heavily criticized for taking books with plots and turning it into bad porn. The author appears to be aware of this criticism and has toned down the sex to only a handful of scenes. What is surprising is that they are -still- so badly written, serve no purpose except to titillate desperate housewives or teens and are with 2 dimensional characters that no one really cares about (certainly not the author who cannot be bothered to remember the basics like names, heights, ages of these characters). Hamilton has heard half of the criticism of too much sex scenes but has missed the other part - too much BADLY WRITTEN sex scenes.

The other aspect of this novel that is surprising is that Hamilton attempts to fill the pages with plot. The criticisms in the past have been 'sex in lieu of plot'. Again her plot is carried on by long conversations which tell and don't show any action. These conversations are shotgunned with unnecessary descriptions of clothes, eye color, hair length and color to pad the slim page count in this novel.

But what Hamilton lacks in action she makes up with inconsistencies. The plot consists of stringing together completely illogical events that defy reason. For instance, The Harlequin (vampire cops) are hired to assassinate Anita and crew. So they follow Harlequin protocol and announce they are there to observe at the Vampire Councils behalf but just magically mess with Anita's emotions instead. The Harlequin has signed their own death warrants by announcing their presence and then not following their own rules to observe only. They also never attempt to assassinate anyone themselves.

Character motivation changes without reason from page to page. An example is that Anita needs to sex someone for power and on one page we're told it is to fuel the weaker vampires (which goes against cannon the author sets up at the start of the novel) but a page later we're told it's to save a werewolf and other vampire. Obviously the point is to get Anita into bed with someone and Hamilton does not care about the reason.

The author does seem to become aware of her glaring plot holes and tries to patch them but lacks the imagination and conviction to truly try. When their doctor miraculously (and conveniently) escapes being knocked out it with everyone else, it is explained with an 'I don't know'. When someone asks why the Harlequin (conveniently) never attacks while all the big guns are in coma's, again the answer is 'I don't know'. The next question is 'why bother reading this lazy author' and the answer is 'I don't know'.

In sum, Hamilton has now re-defined herself. She is no longer an author who delivers badly written porn in lieu of plot but now delivers badly written porn WITH a laughable plots.

I had high hopes for this book after reading the excerpt from the previous one. She leads you in to thinking this is going to be another action filled butt kickin book like the last one edward made an appearance in.

What a let down! All that was was bait to get you to read through 250 pages of trash and bad porn until edward arrives and then he doesn't even do anything!

I'm done with this series, it's gone from totally awesome butt kickin vamp hunter to low life trailer trash gutter slut. The only thing even entertaining in this book was the short lesbian scene with Belle Morte, and that was even cheesey.

[..], it's become a disgrace to it's genre and needs to be put in the cheap thrills romance section.

I will agree that the Anita Blake series had a serious change of tone after the first few books. They began to focus less on Anita's zombie-raising and police investigations and more on her awakening powers and relationships with all the men in her life. Still, I have been captivated through each and every book. I really enjoyed The Harlequin and think it's the best book in the series since Obsidian Butterfly. Anita Blake still enthralls me and it's hard to stop reading any of the books in the series until you have finished it.

I loved the first several Anita Blake books. Anita kicked butt and was tough and admirable, and all the other characters gave the books so much flavor and intrigue that i couldn't put them down. and the plots were very entertaining and original. at around the 9th book in the series, the focus of the books completely changed from action-urban fantasy-thrillers to bad porn. this last book was a little better than the few before it, but not by much. everything in the story - the characters, the plot, the drama, the romance, the humor - all get thrown to the side and the entire book is just one nasty porn scene to the next. and the porn isn't even that good! i miss the old Anita Blake characters and stories; they were classics. now, i doubt that i will even buy the next Anita Blake book at all.

The Anita Blake series started off well, continued for awhile, then took a sharp plunge down into the literary abyss of bad porn.

Well, "The Harlequin" scrabbles PARTLY back out of that abyss, but Laurell K. Hamilton's fifteenth Blake book still suffers from a surfeit of squickly sex, constant sexual ramblings, and a promising plot that gets swamped by the sex-with-Anitacentric politics of vampires and weres.

First a vamp cleric tells her of a threat so terrible that he can't name it, then a movie night with Nathaniel leads to a strange warning -- a white mask. Jean-Claude reveals that it's the warning of the Harlequin, a cruel vampire police who can warp their victims' minds. And apparently Anita and her string of adoring lovers (plus the still-upset Richard) have upset them.

And the politics of the situation are getting quite nasty, with alliances between weres and vamps getting nasty as they try to all have sex with Anita for power and influence, and Anita repeatedly getting hit by her various "beasts." And if they don't manage to kill the Harlequin soon, then Marmee Noir will reawaken -- and the Harlequin will be working for her.

"The Harlequin" sounds promising at first -- it's almost a hundred and fifty pages before Anita has sex with anybody, and there are actual villains to be defeated this time around. It's been several books since Hamilton could boast a length like that, and at first glance it seems to be promising a return to prior form.

Unfortunately, the sexless parts even duller than actual sex would have been: talking/remembering/agonizing about sex, and worrying about feelings. There's two long chapters devoted to Nathaniel wanting Anita to tie him up and hurt him during sex, and Anita getting squeamish about it. And about halfway through, she starts having public ardeur sex, bloody sex, lesbian vampire dream sex, feathery sex, and Hamilton seems to be paving the way for sex with Edward's sixteen-year-old stepson.

None of this would matter quite so much if the plot were good, and there are a few genuinely suspenseful moments such as Jean-Claude and Richard's pitched battle. And the Harlequin (aka evil vampire enforcers) are an interesting concept... but sadly Hamilton never fleshes them out beyond mask-wearing weirdos, and she chickens out at the idea of actually fighting a physical battle with them. Time for more feeeeelings...

Unfortunately, the more promising plots are bogged down in -- you guessed it -- sex. Everyone wants sex with Anita, and chapters of arguing about who gets bouncy-bouncy with her is just stupefyingly dull. As if that weren't bad enough, Hamilton takes another jab at her former fans, by announcing disdainfully that, "God hasn't forsaken me; it's just that all the right-wing fundamentalist Christians want to believe he has." Nice that now God is worshiping Anita, rather than the other way round.

And though Anita is not quite as two-dimensional as in books past, she still comes off as annoying, sexually-obsessive, hypocritical (she likes bloody sex, but gets squicked at the idea of tying a guy up?) and ridiculously superpowerful. And her mob-boss mentality is reaching unreal heights, with her ordering the death of a werelion for refusing to have sex with her, and ogling an adolescent boy.

And few of the long-haired, animeish femme-men do much but adore Anita, and the few who don't are either banished yet again (Richard) or are pale shadows of their former selves (Edward). In fact, the supporting characters just seem to float in and out on whims, without any logical reason for them to be there -- or to leave.

"The Harlequin" takes some baby steps back toward quality, but the obsession with sex and long-winded arguments drown the promising plot points. Better keep the mask on this one.