The last Anita Blake book was definitely taking a step back from the whole "Anita the vampire layer" theme. Meaning there was plot aside from the whole sex thing. I can see her toning back on it in the next book further.

This sounds like a great idea! Can I count a recent book? Finished it last week... >.> Grapes of Wrath for school! Twas a great book. Long but great! ^^ Gotta take a trip to the library! :D

Finished the Allende triology.
I'm not in progress of reading The Alchemist... my friend recommended me that book; appearantly it's famous >.>

I'm not liking the whole divine aspect though

OH man, I loved the Alchemist... I actually went and read the Witch of Portobello too (by the same author) and also quite enjoyed it. I like Paulo Coelho.

Gaijin- I've not read that book yet, but I do love Steinback an awful lot.

Hime and Sizzla- I've not read The Alchemist yet, though it's a book I really want to read... it seems really interesting. :)

This is such an interesting Idea, and I am going to have to start, right now xP

Sizzla mentioned talk on Hamilton's series, so I had to come and peek. >>, My whole group of girlfriends are totally into Anita Blake and Merry Gentry. Merry, being about 40% sex, 40% plot and 10% sex with plot, I was not really big into the idea of it. Reading about sex... I dunno. It doesn't interest me, not in a book anyway. (Fanfics are a whole 'nother story... -cough-) But, anyway. xD If I'm paying money for a book, I tend to steer away from sex books, mostly because I associate them with "trashy romance" books, which I have tried and failed to read.

I love vampires, though. I love all the different takes on them, the very idea of them fascinates me. So, Anita Blake is where I started. I found that, not only did I absolutely love Anita AND the men in her life (you know, the ones she tried to push away), I loved the story. And it developed so very nicely in each book, in such a way that, the plot kept you hooked, but so did the character development and the relationships between the characters. I was hooked. So, when the sex first started happening, I wasn't overly bothered by it. I.. have to admit, I think Richard turned me off of the sex in the books. His change, to me, started the downhill turn in the books. The plot pieces were still really interesting, and some of the relationship stuff was interesting, but more and more as we went along, it gave way to sex. By this point, if I'd started with one of the more recent books, I'd have stopped reading a while ago. But now I'm hooked, and I love the characters. I just feel like... she tried to put too much into the last book, and the ending was disappointing for me. I've great expectations for the next book, though, because wow, the implications of the ending...

Merry was a bit harder for my friends to convince me to read, but I found that the sex in the book didn't bother me as much. It's rather obvious from the beginning that there will be lots of sex, but I feel it's much more tastefully done. (Strictly my opinion.) Merry is an awesome character, and the only things she has in common with Anita are height (short) and a don't-mess-with-me type of attitude. Beyond that, though, the characters are so completely different, and I love that. I also just love Merry, and her men. Fae are my second love, so this series hits that up right nice. I can't wait for the latest to come out in this series; I've been on edge since the last book. xD

And, just so I'm not only rambling on and on about them, for those who like this sort of stuff, check out the Modern Tale of Faerie trilogy by Holly Black (Tithe, Valiant, Ironside) and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. The former is all Fae, and I think it's excellent, if a bit dark. The latter has vampires, werewolves, Fae and a "walker" (Mercy - she can slip her skin and run around as a coyote, but not exhausting or moon-controlled like werewolves). The focus is on the Wolves more than not. It's an excellent series. :3

I may need to try this, the next time I have some time freed up. xD I have so many books I need to read...

hah hah hah XD oh wow, we are soooo getting into a total Laurell K. Hamilton topic XD - is that okay? or are we a bit too much off of topic? :d

Okay, so when my friend recommended me Coelho and was mentioning Maria Magdalene in one breath. But I really like the book thus far; I'm actually almost finished.. It's a quick read ^^

If I went off-topic, I apologize... There's no one around here I can talk to about the books, and the thread dedicated to it? I posted once and never got any response. ;_; I get a little over-excited.

I do eventually want to participate. xD I love reading... I don't do it nearly enough.

@LaVida: I don't think talking about Hamilton is off topic, considering this is a thread about reading books. XD I say, go for it!

@Hime: hehehe. Yeah, there are definitely religious undertones in his books... But in the Witch of Portobello, it's more of a mystic religious thing instead of traditional religion. I think the way he approaches religion is quite interesting. :D

I've not read Nightseer, and I don't think I read Strange Candy. I haven't strayed into her other books yet, though I'd kind of like to.

I agree that her characters are very vivid. I find myself going, "Oh... Anita. You just had to say it, didn't you?" as I'm reading through. I love Anita. xD She's such a bad-ass. But yeah, the sex has been plot-related, which I think is part of why I've tolerated it to this point. I really hope she can back off of it though and get back to more solid plot. I'm curious as to what's going to happen with the big bosses now...

I really liked nightseer :) I'm one of the people that go like - *sigh* if only there was a second book to that <3. because the ending felt like it was more of a beginning to another story >.<. and I heard the Anita Blake series will get toned down on the too-much-sex part XD yay! XD

Anthony- Looooove The Modern Tale of Faerie trilogy. <3 I actually read Ironside first (I didn't know it was a trilogy!), and Valiant is probably my favorite. I didn't really like Tithe, I was rather dissapointed by it. Valiant and Ironside made up for that, though. They had autographed copies at the bookstore, and I wish I'd bought Valiant for myself! Maybe I can check if it's still there this weekend.

Oooh, that excites me. D: I do think the sex for plot has been mostly hammered out, so it becomes less essential as the books go on. We know what it causes, and we think we know why but we're not sure: moving on. xD It's still half a year till it's out though, yeah? I really should check her site.. I'm on her twitter, but she posts so often, I've stopped reading. ;_; She's a twitter-addict! xD

EDIT: Iltu
I started with Valiant, and I do think the latter two are better written. I hated the beginning of Tithe, but I got used to the writing, and found I enjoyed the plot more once I ignored how very different the writing style was. I think I'm glad I started with Valiant though, because otherwise I may not have gotten into it at all. I'd like to go back and reread the three books in order. I don't think there's really anything that can be added to it, but I want another book to explore the relationships that started/solidified in Ironside. But, that's just me. xD

Both Nightseer and Strange Candy are pretty good books :) just don't read Death of a Darklord because that one may be a bit...boring...

Nightseer's her debut novel and Strange Candy's like an anthology of all the little pieces of work she does :)

And I got a ton of her books to catch up to myself XD

Anthony- Same here, I'm very glad Ironside was the first I read, or I probably wouldn't have bothered with the others. I liked Valiant because of Val's relationship with Ravus and how it developed over the course of the book- it was by far my favorite aspect of it! Yeah, a fourth book would make me happy. And hey, they live in a magical world- I'm sure there's a new plot somewhere that all the characters we've come to love can find themselves entrapped in. :lol:
I want to reread Ironside, to see what details I might have missed without the prior knowledge.

hmm, sounds good...maybe I'll pick it up next time I see the series :d

You should, they've got such lovely characters! I'd start with Valiant, like Anthony did. It's much better than Tithe, and you don't miss too much information if you read it out of order.

I'll see which book will I find at the library first XD and hopefully I will have finished all of Laurell K. Hamilton's books by then XP (and also Tamora Pierce's would be a bonus XP (excluding Magic Circle Series))