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    Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
    Unavailable
    Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
    Unavailable
    Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

    Written by Laurell K. Hamilton

    Narrated by Kimberly Alexis

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it's up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. And when she does, she's faced with something she's never seen before: a terrifyingly ordinary group of people-kids, grandparents, soccer moms-all recently turned and willing to die to avoid serving a master. And where there's one martyr, there will be more…

    But even vampires have monsters that they're afraid of. And Anita is one of them…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 5, 2012
    ISBN9781101564233
    Unavailable
    Kiss the Dead: An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel
    Author

    Laurell K. Hamilton

    Laurell K. Hamilton is the author of the New York Times bestselling Anita Blake series and Merry Gentry series. She lives with her family in St. Louis, Missouri.

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    Reviews for Kiss the Dead

    3.5/5

    348 ratings28 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Anita Blake- Vampire Hunter. Another fantastic book.
    • 2/5
      followed the typical anita blake timeline: action, small buildup, lengthy sex scene(s), climax, short, seemingly hasty conclusion.
    • 3/5
      Closer to what I liked in the old Anita. But still not quite there.
    • 1/5
      I had given up on this series, after being a long time reader because I was tired of purchasing books that were 3/4 drivel. Drivel being exceeding long graphic sex scenes and continuous repeats of how gorgeous each guy is an how long their hair was. Not to mention no plots or moving along of the story line.Picked up Hit List, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Ms. Hamilton had gone back to her roots with minimal drivel and lots of action.So decided to go on to the next book in the series, hoping.....Only to be highly disappointed. The entire middle of the book is needless drivel and the entire plot line is resolved in the last 20 pages. So skip the middle and you have a nice short story. Maybe it is time to give up on this series Ms.Hamilton...it is obvious you have nothing new to give it.
    • 1/5
      Holy gender roles bull crap. This series has gone off every rail it could possibly have. About every other sentence Anita says something along the lines of "that's a guy thing" or "be the girl". Hamilton seems to copy and paste whole paragraphs from her other books. The constant meandering, nonsensical description coupled with never-ending repetition make this book utterly unreadable (or unlistenable).
    • 3/5
      Anita Blake is back – and this one merges the early Blake (all thriller/murder-mystery) with the later Blake (all sex alla time) in an interesting balancing act. I’m pleased that she continues to develop as a character (although thank goodness, no more manifesting new animals to call this time around) – will her constantly evolving powers never cease? And how do the less powerful feel under her boots? She’s thinking about that a lot.
    • 4/5
      This book was good but I think Laurell needs to retire Anita. The last couple books were just not as good. And it's always going to be the same thing with one of Anita's guys being threatened. I think she needs to end the series while she's still ahead.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this story, but then I like most of the Anita stories. I know that many people don't like them recently, and that's fine. I do. I also understand many of the complaints that people say about the series, but most of those things really weren't around in this book. There is one extremely sex scene with Nicky that is a little too long for me (I don't remember how many chapters there was to this scene, though I guess they had sex twice). That was really the only thing that bothered me. My normal gripe is the talking too much therapy speak, especially in a sex scene. I mean really, who wants to have therapy while their having sex.
    • 3/5
      Anita has a lot on her plate. It is getting so that police work is simpler than her home life. Character development, plot moves the overall background along, gets a little talky at times....
    • 5/5
      Ooooh, there are so many things going on in this book. Anita's guilt over Sin, vampires who want to be free of masters, cops who hate others... Seriously, a bomb threat that made my heart stop in terror. My favorite character almost dies. I don't know if I could have handled that. As it was I just finished like five minutes ago and I'm still a quivering mass of emotion. In the end I'm glad it turned out ok. Glad we got to see Nathaniel, Micah, and Jean Claude. It's also easy to forget what a jealous monster that Asher can be, yet when that ugly head roars heads will roll. Even if not quite physically but mentally it is still a lot to take. Over all this book was really good.
    • 3/5
      I am a huge fan and supporter of LKH, but this book was definitely not one of my favorites. The Anita Blake series has gone down hill and needs something to rekindle the fire. I am not ready to write off LKH or Anita Blake as some seem to be, but I do think that LKH needs to focus more on the building of the story line rather than the sex in the story. Mind you, good sex scenes are awesome and she does well in writing them; yet looking for more meat in the story!
    • 2/5
      Anita working with the police and raising zombies at this point are the only things I like about the series for the most part. The first part of the book has what I like but the second half is all relationship angst with a quickie ending tacked on. I'll keep reading these as long as the library keeps stocking them.
    • 2/5
      When a fifteen-year-old girl is abducted by vampires, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Anita Blake to find her. The pages read with a little action, Anita angsting about the men in her life, a little more action, then Anita angsting about the men in her life on a repeat cycle with huge descriptive passages of what they look like. Boring!
    • 5/5
      As a long time fan of Laurell K. Hamilton I believe that Kiss the Dead is amazing, it touches on the feel of the older novels. Kiss the dead has more story line and a more deeper connection to Anita herself as she comes to terms with her career, life and loves. I became bored with the stories as most of the newer novels seemed to lack story lines and focused on sex, but Kiss the Dead has hooked me once again. Well done Laurell K. Hamilton and I can't wait for the next one.
    • 2/5
      I had a glimmer of hope that Kiss the Dead was going to be like the earlier books in the series, but no. It's too bad. This one could have been good. It started off great, but the author just can't get past her own issues enough to tell a complete, coherent story. I thought we were actually going to get a good mystery, adventure, something, but about halfway through the book it was the old broken record--too many men, too much sex, too much angst, too much of other people being oh-so-judgemental of the polyamory (but really, those people are just jealous, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah). The mystery was definitely an afterthought and too easily handled.
    • 4/5
      Deliciously creepy. This plot underscores the idea the the most dangerous people are those with 'good intentions' and 'high ideals'. Ania continues to struggle with her trust and happiness issues, but in this case begins to doubt that she can be everything to everyone.
    • 3/5
      The book is not one of the better Anita Blake books. There are a bunch of sub-plots loosely interrelated. Action scenes are strung together like beads with sex scenes interspersed. Not one of the Hamilton books that you can't put down because of the suspense. There are also so many characyers now that I have to stop and think about where Anita met met so-and-so and what is their relationship. The main relationships are still there but there are so many other balls being juggled (literally) that I can't keep them straight and Hamilton must use a damn good continuity editor so that Anita can. The lengthy descriptions of clothes are still there but not quite as much as there used to be. Yea! Hamilton has some strengths as a writer but one of them is not using a few words to sketch a scene or bring a character to life.
    • 3/5
      Ironically I like when Laurel Hamilton focuses on characters rather than "feeding the ardeur" of the main character. This was a decent vampire hunter novel albeit readily forgotten as I read it quickly yesterday and I really can't recall the character details today. Simply a fun read.
    • 3/5
      This book was just OK. I liked the first half, particularly, because it felt a little like going back to the very beginning of the series, where it was a lot more plot, and lot more dealing with the supernatural murders, than about the multiple lovers & sex scenes.I really enjoyed seeing Anita spend some quality time with her most "important" (stable?) lovers: Micah, Nathanial & Jean-Claude. Some of those scenes actually served the story somewhat. But I'm getting tired of explicit sex scenes with people she doesn't love and wouldn''t even choose to have in her life if she wasn't metaphysically bound to them. It was enough story that I'll still try the next one--I've read worse--but I'm starting to feel like there's nowhere for this series to go anymore.
    • 3/5
      Well that was an anti-climatic ending. And the "big bad" in this book is just rather pathetic, really.On the one hand, I like seeing her back in St. Louis doing her Marshall duties, but on the other, I tended to rush through those parts so I could get to her interactions with characters I miss, especially Micah, Nathaniel, and Jean-Claude. We didn't get nearly enough Jean-Claude, but I was satisfied with how much Nathaniel and Micah we got. I miss the days when Anita dealt more with the wereleopards and werewolves and vampire politics. I mean, she pretty much has her were-harem all picked out and settled, right? It would be nice if she reintroduced some of the characters from her earlier books, like Cherry. What ever happened to her?Anita seems to be questioning a lot in this book what she wants in life, if she is happy as the "Executioner". Especially after that last chapter, it seems she is leaning towards retiring that part of her life. I don't know, maybe I'm completely wrong.Cynric - I'm not as grossed out by their relationship as some people, but I'm not completely comfortable with it either. I'll just leave it at that.Also Asher is still a big whiny vampire baby.
    • 2/5
      It was okay. The plot wasn't anything new; Anita deals with being non-human and a cop, the love-life drama, and some serious bad guys. Truthfully, I can't keep all the men straight anymore, except for all the back story the Hamilton puts in to remind readers. It did seem to be that the series might be winding down (Anita has a passing thought that she might not be able to keep up the cop routine anymore), and all I can say is good, because after doing away with Marmee Noire so easily in Hit List, there really isn't anything more to do.
    • 4/5
      Not quite up to her usual standards. The book is good, the first half give hopes that Anita has resolved her issues and is back to form... unfortunately, not all of them.The second half is basically catch-up with touching on the various characters and where they are today. Although there is one long-standing issue that now has a resolution in sight.
    • 3/5
      Anita continues to angst. She's still sleeping (and not sleeping) with her close sweeties and for a wonder doesn't add anyone additional to her menu in this particular installment. If you're interested in work politics, Anita's personal value system and how to properly relate to the guys at work... 350+ pages of not much plot, one-sided sex, and speculation on the nature of love.
    • 1/5
      SummaryAn old vampire named Benjamin heads up a new group of vampires who choose to be free...that is, not tethered in any way to a Master Vampire. Because of the very nature of vampires, in order to keep all of them safe and able to contine to live with humans, this arrangment is not normal and is heavily frowned upon by other Master Vampires. A rogue vampire or group of vampires is a threat to all vampires. Anita is called in to help SWAT and other preternatural law enforcement with containing a large group who've broken away from Benjamin and want to start a war. What I Liked Jean-Claude - the 5 pages that were actually devoted to him anyway :(I actually feel a little tricked bc somewhere over the last year, I got the impression that this book was going to be more Jean-Claude than we've had in several books. I think it was less! The only thing less would be nothing.Micah and Nathaniel - Anita has my permission to keep these two...they are there for her, when she needs them and they don't whine like babies. They each have their own comfortable lives and responsibilities outside her house; they do their own things and come home to her and they don't question her about what she does or where she goes.The premise of the story...what could have been a very interesting plotline...just wasn't...but it was bc the plot wasn't given time to develop, and the connections (if there were any) weren't made in between the beginning and the end and all the extra-curriculuar activity in the middle.What I Didn't LikeThe F bomb - I don't necessarily have an aversion to the "F" word (and I ain't talkin' about "fruit"), but geez Louise...I honestly started rolling my eyes every time it was used. And then I got an eye cramp. Ok, ok, ok, I got it. Things are bad.The sex - sex as a part of a storyline, I'm ok with...sex as just sex thrown in so that you feel like you're reading a porno novel...not so much :pThe cliches - I got so tired of the Anita-isms - her "live-in sweeties," "girls do this; guys do that; I'm so guy," "main honey-bun," everybody gets "pissy," her collection of penguins, "my second yummy boy," "we're police; we run toward the trouble, not away from it, silly ringtones, dressing in a thong and 9 inch heels and falling down where everybody can see her undies" and on and on and on and on and on and on...# of Characters - We are so way past too many characters...I cannot in any way imaginable keep up with who's who...how am I supposed to remember which animal is Anita's to call when, who came from where, how old everybody is, why who needs who, who's which personality, and for Heaven sake, just how many lovers am I supposed to believe are ok with sharing her. Really now? Seriously??Jean-Claude, Micah, Nathaniel, Cin, Nicky, Devil, Richard, Asher, Jade, Damian, Ethan, Crispin...I can't even remotely begin to remember even their names!Plot - Hello? Could we please have a plot?? We learned about the rogue vampires in the very beginning...then sex, sex, and more sex, a little violence in between and then finally in the last chapters (pg. 327 out of 359) we returned to the plot. Ahem.Cynrick - Sin - whatever he wants to be called...kick his whiney hiney out the door, Anita...I just cannot take any more.Repeitition, repetition, repetition, repetition...and did I say repetition????Where the heck was Hamilton's editor?? She explained the elevator being a killing box and whether or not she knew about Jean Claude taking power from lesser vampires in at least 2 places close together...I swear, I wondered if Hamilton worked on these chapters out of order and then forgot where she mentioned what.Overall RecommendationI am not a negative reviewer. You can take a look at my review archives and see that I would come closer to being accused of at least liking something about everything I've read and reviewed. That's because I purposely only read books that I think I'll like. I don't care how high on the Bestseller list something floats; if it doesn't sound good to me, I'm not gonna read it. Most importantly, because I just don't want to. But almost as important is the questions I have in my mind about whether or not I can give that book an honest read.I like the Anita Blake series...I hated Kiss the Dead.I really did.So, I can't recommend it to anybody. I think even a lot of Anita fans will be disappointed in this one.I'm not going away though...I'll be here when Hamilton publishes the next one, but two stinkers in a row will have to be my limit. :( I'm sorry for the snark, but I really felt cheated by this one.
    • 3/5
      While this novel covered a very brief span of time, it was packed with the issues that we have come to expect in an Anita Blake novel. While Anita has been accepted by her police squad and respected by the SWAT teams she works with, she still has to face the disapproval of some the higher ups who feel that her personal life will affect her working life. She is still having problems with one of the women she works with who is jealous about all the hot men who are Anita's lovers.This case with the kidnapped girl brings in vampire politics as the kidnappers are vampires who want to live without a master. We get to see Anita as the very scary vampire executioner who brings terror to all the bad little vampires and even those who just have guilty consciences. This violence was quite graphic and not for those with a weak stomach.At home, Anita is dealing with problems with her youngest lover because she is hung up on his youth and the age difference between them. The problems with Asher's jealousy also come to a head in this story resulting in Jean Claude sending him away to another city for a while. Whether or not he comes back is left undecided in this one. Anita also seems to be deciding that she just can't keep adding new men to her list of lovers. She is realizing that her heart isn't big enough to incorporate all of them. As she tells one of the new Marshals, her dance card is full. There are a number of graphic sex scenes in this one. This story isn't for those who are sensitive to romances with multiple partners and kinky variations as that seems to be a constant in Anita's life now. This book is for devoted fans of the series who want to keep up with Anita's latest adventures. Readers who are fans of Richard or Edward will be disappointed as neither makes an appearance here. Actually Jean Claude's role is small in this one too. Anita spends most of the time with her wereanimals or with her police colleagues. The story was a quick read for me but I don't think it will be one that I will re-read.
    • 3/5
      I was seriously considering giving this four stars while reading the first part of the book. Anita is again working with RPIT and now SWAT (in prior books the St Louis group were referred to as Mobile Reserve) and many of them appear to appreciate and even rely upon her abilities which is a nice change of pace. Those who aren't on the Anita bandwagon are becoming nastier.Dolph is back and it's great to see him finally accepting Anita as a team player, although the change in his attitude happened in therapy, off camera, in the last couple of years. Will "Pulling a Richard" become a popular phrase to describe the off camera sudden fix in a character's attitude to make the story work? A casual mention of it in prior books would have helped.The major issue in the story deals with ordinary looking vampires in the form of teens, housewives and grandparents, who had been taught by a master vampire that they shouldn't need to follow a master, so they haven't been blood-oathed. They believe Jean-Claude, as the Master of the City, is draining the powers of all vampires in the area, preventing them from being powerful, and take actions to try and eliminate both Jean-Claude and Anita. That story arc is scattered around in bits with the largest chunk of action taking place at the beginning of the book. The story starts to falter not long after that. Unfortunately the severity of the climatic ending is rushed, so it doesn't feel as climatic as it should have considering what was at stake.An ongoing issue with a major character comes to a head and I almost stood up to cheer at this shake up on the home front. Don't know yet what that end result will be.I enjoyed the insight we got on some of the characters and the fact that the story took place at home, without Edward. I love Edward, but too much of a good thing can start to feel old. I'm grateful for the break. But the "I am a monster" angst is getting old, just like so many other issues she's thankfully grown out of. She now has sex more because she wants to and sometimes even forgets while having sex to feed the ardeur, although I find her explicit sexual exploits a little TMI for each and every sex scene, especially since she's now more into pain and bondage. It's been nine months since Anita killed Mommy Dearest--well MAYBE nine months since the timeline is incredibly screwed up. We're given a lot of contradictions on what happened when in prior books--so Anita, Nathaniel, Micah and Cynric (excuse me, Sin) now get to spend a few days a week back at the house.But some of the same old issues I have with the author's lack of editing still exist. Some scenes just ramble on too long with much of the thoughts or conversations not adding a whole lot. This is annoying because she used to write much tighter stories and we KNOW she's capable of producing a better book. In the acknowledgment is a welcome to her new continuity editor. Did she work on this book or start after it was written because the story is loaded with problems: Vivian's name is Vanessa in this book, Zeke is called Harold at one point, Dolph's rank is given to us as both Captain and Lieutenant (he was a Lieutenant the last time we saw him), Cardinal is now being spelled Cardinale, Damian's age (was just over 1000, now just under), The aforementioned time line, as well as a host of other things that would require too much explanation.Did I enjoy the story overall? Yes, I did. But knowing what this author is capable of, I'm just sad it's not all it could have been.
    • 3/5
      If you have been reading the Anita Blake series this long you know the characters and you know the scores so I wont go into synopsis here and jump right in.Things I'm not liking AT ALL: My biggest dislike about KISS THE DEAD is the fact that Anita even though she is not Bi and has always been extremely uncomfortable about it (and still says she is very uncomfortable with it) talks about that fact that she now has another woman in HER bed. Laurell has changed her way to much and I'm really not liking that she changed her despite her feelings yet again. All the men are getting a little ridiculous. The heard needs to be culled and even Anita thinks so, although I have to admit that I do appreciate that the whole book wasn't filled with orgy scenes.HATE her relationship with Sin, He should NOT be one of her lovers its just disturbing.Things I enjoyed: LOVED that we get Anita back in the field again like book 20. Very much enjoyed Zerbrowski and watching Anita and him interact in the field and in their lunch scene. They had me cracking up and smiling. Love her relationship with Nathaniel and Micah. Other thoughts: Asher, Wow I really hope that Jean Claude sends him away like he said as he really needs to get over himself and his issues. There is no excuse for his behavior. Wish we had more Jean-Claude scenes (not sex scenes just in general like they used to be together). The ending, How are her colleagues going to treat her now seeing her fall apart? Will they see her as more human or will they see her as weak where they saw her as nothing but strong before?!?The Anita Blake series to me is one of those series I'm so invested in that I cant imagine not getting the next book even if its filled with nothing but orgy scenes and horrific writing because I have to know what happens next. Its hard to rate this far into the series after so many bad books so I'm going with the middle ground.
    • 2/5
      This was not the most horrible book Ms Hamilton has ever written nor was it the best…but it does seem as if she has taken some of her fans feelings to heart. This book is not filled with the usual “porn” that we have come to expect from her past novels. In fact there is only 2 scenes that stand out in my mind. It still has the usual over writing the Ms Hamilton has been famous for, with a lot of repetition going on and the over-usage of descriptive passages meant to have us imagine what the men look like. The incessant descriptions of curly hair on everyone, (which is amazing since only about 30% of the people in the US have such and they must all be with Anita!), clothing et cetera, are still being used. However, for about the first 60% of the book we actually see Anita using some of her talent. She is not raising Zombies; she is tracking bad little Vampires, and helping a new to the area Marshal. Oddly, she is helping him more with his personal love life, than being a Marshal but so be it. This is what our Anita has come to. Anita is now fighting, slaughtering and giving advice to the lovelorn. Yes, it is a stretch from the old Anita of yore. But at least she has come to terms with what is going on in her life and not over-thinking everything. Well almost everything.Anita has fully embraced her liking for BDSM and pain. And it really shows in the two sex scenes.As we are told in the synopsis, Anita will be called out for a group (Kiss) of Vampires that all look like little kids, tweens and your Grandparents, who are un-bound to any Master. They do have a Master, but they just won’t admit they do. In addition, we never get to see him only his daytime servant. These Vampires are meant to evoke our sympathy and to make us understand that they are ‘just people too’ and that they should not be forced to blood-oath to Jean Claude, but things really fall apart after these Vamps kill two policemen. Slowly we learn that these vamps want to take out Anita and Jean Claude.Oh, we do get to meet up with Dolph again and he has undergone a sea change for the somewhat better. There is less overt sex, but more covert discussions and angst about it ( as per normal). Not as gross as some of the past sexual escapades—just borderline in one scene. Asher is going to do something rather stupid, which may force him from JC and Anita’s side for a month? an eternity? Who knows!Richard does not make an appearance and I wonder if we will ever see some of the original cast again.No not a horrible read, but sadly not something I’m going to have on my mind or even remember in a couple of days or so.