#7 Smolder by Laurell K. Hamilton

Well this one is definitely a turning point in the series, I think it will be like how Obsidian Butterfly changed how fans thought of the series.  Anita is at a wedding fitting for Edward and Peter when she goes called in for a copycat murder case of a vampire exposed to the sun in a hotel room.  She then goes to get ready for a date night to see JC perform at his strip club.  He does show off a new power at the club and before they can leave the club, there is a metaphysical attack from an unknown very powerful vampire.  Of course to fight off the vamp and lift the power off all the customers in the club there needs to be sex. What comes next will make a lot of longtime fans of the series very happy.  I won’t say what it is but I will say most of the book covers maybe 12 hours from the start of the date to dawn when they all go to sleep.  There is a lot of back and forth going over the same details and people either being unhappy with Anita or Anita being unhappy with what has happened in the last several books. They also come up with a plan of attack on the new vampire coming to take out Jean Claude.  The murder case is interesting but once she leaves the hotel the book doesn’t touch on it again.  The part of the murder and a power item that is mentioned seems to be there to set up something in the next book which readers get a small look at the end of this book. 

 

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss