Smoulder by Laurell K. Hamilton

I am a long time Anita Blake fan. I’ve read all the books to date — most of them at least twice — and even a couple of the graphic novels just for funsies. I devoured Smoulder in three days. Would have been two, but I had to work. Honestly, Smoulder feels super unfinished. I want to say there are two major plot lines introduced in Smoulder that just don’t come to any sort of conclusion and the third, continuing plot line that kind of does. It’s felt very odd when Smoulder just sort of petered off when it did. The book wasn’t bad, but the ending was definitely a… uh… I don’t know how to describe it in a single word. I felt like I had whip-lash from the ending, because I was expecting more.

So, the first story line that I felt should have had an ending was the Sunshine Murder thing. Usually, Anita gets called in to help with a case and that’s the over-arching plot of the book. But not so here. Anita gets called in to consult and then… nothing. Dolph sidelines her from the case and apparently McKinnon’s magic do-hickey means nothing in the long-run of Smoulder. Okay… but fine.

Second story line: the while Deimos thing. Anita and the gang are attacked and barely get out with the power they currently have. We spend much of the rest of the book theorizing on how to take out Deimos. And then… nothing. No second attack, no actually going after Deimos, just prep work. Uh… what? This one feels like it got stopped right in the middle. It’s the story line I’m really annoyed pretty much goes nowhere.

The continuing story line of Anita’s love life keeps getting on. We get Richard back in the mix and Asher’s nonsense continues. Another part of this kind of concludes because of the Deimos story line, but, as usual, there are more issue to work out. I’m happier with this bit, but… ugh. Just… everyone talks like they’ve got a partial psychology degree and they explain things to the point of smacking the reader over the head with them. Also, all this talking really killed the pacing for me. Aaand everyone goes to sleep all of a sudden with no food? That was kind of a large part of the focus that go forgotten, I guess.

I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from Smoulder but this wasn’t it. I definitely expected more story and it just cut off. Adding a Sneak Peak at Slay didn’t endear the abrupt ending to me either. I didn’t read it, to be totally honest. I really expect more out of the Anita Blake novels.

Favorite Line

"Yeah, existential dread and the search for identity is a bummer." - Anita Blake

Character Spotlight: Rodina

There are spoilers in this section. You've been warned.

I really feel like I should talk some about Rodina because she's a big part of this book. So first, I will probably never get it through my thick skull that she's a wereleopard. With a name like "Rodina" my brain will always think "rat." But that's whatever. Rodina is fairly new to the Anita Blake universe, at least as far as readers are concerned. She's also understandably having an existential crisis during Smoulder on top of grieving for her brother Rodrigo -- she has been ripped from her previous life and it is their birthday. Although I've complained a little about how everyone in this series talks like a therapy ad, I really hope Rodina actually ends up working on herself through the therapy she's agreed to go to with her other brother, Ru. I feel like she'd be a really fun character once her spitefulness is worked out.