[Book Review] The Killing Dance

Title: The Killing Dance
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Date Published: April 4, 2006
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Fantasy, Mystery
Source: Purchased Copy
Rating: 4/5

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About the Book:

Dating both a vampire and a werewolf isn't easy. But just to complicate Anita's already messy life, someone has put a price on her head. Love cannot save her this time, so she turns to Edward, hitman extraordinaire, for help. But finding the person behind the threat won't be easy, because as both a vampire hunter and zombie reanimator, Anita has made a lot of enemies-both human and otherwise.

Review: 
Whenever I need an engrossing read to momentarily escape the boredom that is the real world, I stick to my favorites, and a Laurell K. Hamilton book is certainly one.

As always, the book is well-written and the suspense is maintained throughout the story. Aside from the mystery bit, the shift to erotica was a little bit disturbing at times, especially those happening to the bad guys, but nothing majorly off-putting. The mystery and action bits were enough to keep me reading throughout the night.

As for the characters, Jean Claude is consistent in being the cunning bastard that he is, and that is what I liked about him. Consistency. That, and his momentary bouts of humanity when it came to Anita. The thing is, Jean Claude perfectly depicts how intelligent people (in this case, a vampire) can become mindless idiots when it comes to love and all that romantic whatchamacallits. And it also doesn’t hurt much that Anita always stresses just how beautiful he is.

Richard, on the other hand, seems too humane. In contrast to Jean Claude, Richard holds on to his morals like a lifeline. He wouldn’t kill even if it meant providing security for the people/creatures that depend on him. Choosing not to kill even though he has the power and the motivation to do so is admirable, but when villains are being a huge pain in the ass, personally I’d move for the kill.

And of course, Anita Blake, the kick-ass heroine of the story. She is a huge contradiction all on her own. I love that she knows her own frailty – the fact that she’s a human surrounded by vampires and were-folks that are all much stronger than her. It keeps her guarded and always alert when it comes to danger. That also explains why survival is quite high on her priority.

However, I don’t like the fact that she doesn’t know what she really wants! First, between Jean Claude and Richard. When Jean Claude gave her the freedom to choose, she should’ve chosen who she really wanted to be with. Right from the start of the book, she had been on Team Richard! I was on Team Richard, too, by the way. But instead of choosing and making up her mind, she didn’t! She just had to see how Richard looked when he changed, only to get so disturbed and end up making a half-assed decision to sleep with Jean Claude, which ultimately defined her choice between the two. Yep, even if she kept on saying how much she loathed the cunning bastard that is Jean Claude, she ended up choosing him anyway. And this was mainly because she can’t accept all of Richard even though he already sacrificed so much for her. This made me realize that maybe, Anita didn’t really love Richard wholeheartedly. Personally, I believe Richard deserves someone better.

Anyways, although I’m not that satisfied with the storyline, the book did keep me engrossed and I highly enjoyed the fight scenes, so yes, I give this book four stars.