Customer Reviews

Flirt

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book does not live up to the high standard of the first nine Anita Blake books. That said, it is refreshing to read about Anita's career as a necromancer again. With all the toyboys she's been getting lately we haven't heard too much about her work.

This is a short book, it took me about 2 hours to read. The plot did not strike me as being original - Anita has starred in far too many kidnap scenes in the past and brings nothing new to them now. The 'Tony Bennington' character reminded me forcefully of the Harold character in the Laughing Corpse.

Without spoiling the plot of this book for others, it pivots on the fact that men find Anita irresistable, yet she herself finds this hard to accept. Its getting somewhat tired and overworked as a format.

Disappointing, but mildly so.

I was an avid reader of the Anita Blake books when they were supernatural thrillers but my interest tailed off when they changed to soft porn. It was almost as if Laurell K Hamilton was told to spice them up a bit and didn't know when to stop. I decided to give this one another chance based on the synopsis and was somewhat pleased to discover only one sex scene lasting only seven pages, but there again the story is only 155 pages long. On that note nothing much happens for almost the first fifty pages, I know this is aimed at a female audience who like a little more character interraction but pages devoted to Anita and her lovers chatting in a restaurant is just padding in my eyes. When the action does get going the writing is up to the usual standards and it was nice to see Anita operating on her own for a change. It would be even better to see her having an all new action adventure with no sex in it, how about a prequel? Back when she wasn't a promiscuous tart. The book is rounded out by a short section where Laurel explains how the story came about, shouldn't have bothered, doesn't add anything.

This book is NOT full length - its more on the lines of a novella .(over 20 pages wasted on how the idea for the book was arrived at!!!!)
This should have been made clear to buyers .
The story has no depth and glosses over the characters relationships .
Would not buy without checking number of pages in future

According to Merriam Webster, flirting is, " a: to behave amorously without serious intent; b: to show superficial or casual interest or liking."

So it's kind of hard to see why one of Laurell K. Hamilton's books would be called "Flirt."Unfortunately, the title seems to refer to Hamilton's plot -- the entire novella is a disjointed tangle of unrelated subplots, inner animals and "feeeeeeeelings" therapy. And, of course, yet more assurance that Anita is the Kindest Smartest Strongest Yet Wounded person EVER.

After rejecting a man who wants his wife raised as a zombie (no, there really isn't a good reason), Anita goes off to lunch with Micah, Nathaniel and Jason. The waiter is floored by how stunningly gorgeous Anita and Nathaniel are, and Anita unloads all her personal woes about her evil granny and evil stepmother, and how they were SO mean to her because she's short and black-haired. Try not to flood the room with your sympathetic tears.

And after rejecting another client (this time for a good reason), Anita encounters a pair of werelion thugs who threaten to harm her "sweeties" unless she comes with them -- and of course, they want to have sex with her. It turns out that one of her rejected clients is determined to have her do the animation for them... after she has the required graveyard sex with one of the thugs.

Not only is "Flirt" a very short novella, but it's very short on plot as well -- it feels like Hamilton just cobbled together all the things she includes in every Anita Blake book (prolonged talky wangsting, ardeur sex scene, new boytoy, new superpower) and hoped it would gel into an actual story. Surprise surprise: it doesn't.

There are a few promising scenes, such as Anita having to deal with morally questionable clients at Animators Inc. But those are quickly swamped by Anita having a public boohooathon with her scantily-clad boyfriends(wah, my granny said I wasn't pretty! Worst thing in the world!). In fact, the absurd "flirting" scene (we're so sexy that people are struck dumb by us!) rapidly turns into another chance for Hamilton to air all her insecurities, and be assured by her imaginary harem that she's the best ever.

And the latter half of the book isn't any better -- it devolves into a long confusing tangle of people lusting after Anita and waving guns around. Even worse, Hasmilton peppers the book with ridiculous scenes (Anita cataloguing her scars for the bad guys' approval, so they'll know how tough she is) and equally absurd dialogue ("Harm none is the rule, Ellen; bad witch, no cookie").

Anita is even more repulsive than usual -- she's snotty, superior and callous; she makes a point of rejecting a client based on problems that exist only in her own head, then sits there publicly wailing about her evil family in a restaurant. By the end, she's casually enslaved yet another man and ripped someone to shreds via her zombies -- after she's gotten all the money she wants from them. Yes, this is allegedly the HEROINE, not the villain.

The werelions are just another round of traumatized sexy guys who are enraptured by Anita; the only halfway decent character is the villain, whose desperation and love are painful to read about. And as a final indignity, Hamilton tacks on a rambling epilogue and a bunch of boring comic strips about her friends and her being so sexy they knock people sideways ("HOTNESS!" You wish, lady).

You could say that Laurell K. Hamilton merely "Flirts" with a plot in this brief novella -- she assembles the components of an actual plot, then turns it into a therapy trip. Yawn.

I stopped reading the Anita Blake series a while ago when they became interchangeable to me - about the same time that the 'ardeur' became synonymous with 'let's have sex with as many people as possible'. I much prefer a monogamous relationship in books anyway, but due to Laurell K Hamilton's engaging writing style, I only stopped reading when every book seemed to add new sexual partners to the list.
I thought I'd give this a try because it was so short that it wouldn't mean as much wasted time if it turned out to be a complete mistake: which it wasn't. The annoying thing is that I still really enjoy the writing, it's just what's been written that I take objection to. Firstly, the plot is hardly original - nor SO well written that that fact can be overlooked. Secondly, I think that someone who has a harem of gorgeous men of all descriptions willing to put up with sharing her with the other gorgeous men should probably stop being so 'humble'. At first it's an endearing character trait which allows the average reader to identify with her, but in the end it just becomes really frustrating. My third and final grievance is the comic strip at the back; yes, the comic strip which somehow manages to be completely pointless, and yet simultaneously to sum up a hefty chunk of the plot.

I would recommend really only recommend this to ardent fans of the series. Hamilton's easy style can carry readers quickly through books double this size, but does not make up for an almost complete lack of plot.

Something of a mixed addition to the Vampire Hunter's story in this novella as, kidnapped by a group of mercenary were-lions, Anita is faced with the choice conducting an illegal zombie raising with a human sacrifice, or allowing her lovers to be murdered. Naturally, neither choice is acceptable to our favourite necromancer, and she has to use all her powers and skills to keep her men safe and her soul intact.

There are both strengths and weaknesses to a story in a shorter form: with less space to work with Ms Hamilton avoids the shapeshifter politicking and ardeur which has tended to bog down some of the more recent full-length novels; but, equally, there's little time to develop anything, and the final denouement is disappointingly reminiscent of that of The Laughing Corpse. Nevertheless, this is a reasonable read for a quick Anita fix, and it does introduce a couple of characters who will have a role in Bullet, and who might otherwise present something of a puzzle.

The final part of this slim volume, though, is taken up with an account by Ms Hamilton of the creative process and inspiration which led her to write the story. Again, this is somewhat mixed: if you are interested in where an author gets her ideas, and how she uses them to create a story, this will be worthwhile; but if you just want a good read, you may end up wishing that she'd put the energy into writing a longer book, instead.

Overall, then, while this is a must for die-hard Blake fans, more casual readers might prefer to give it a miss, and skip straight to the next full-length novel.

I'm still enjoying Anita, though I know a lot of people have stopped for a number of reasons, but what I liked about this novel (and I use the word novel very loosely, should be novella) was that it got back to basics. There was very little mystical mojo or sex. She actually did her job- raised the dead.
Ok there was a little bit of sex and magic, and she managed to bag herself another guy (and in such a short book too!) but honesly it wasn't bad.

My main problem, which I may have said before, was that it was too short. Not a bad plot, good action, annoying relationship talk scene I grant you, but on the whole it could have been more. I'm looking forward to the next one, but only because this has wet my appetite, and not satisfied me in the least.

A very short uninteresting story padded out(with notes drawings at the back of the book)so they can sell it at full price to fans, I.E. fools like me who thought Laurell k hamilton, was not the kind of author who wrote books to fill a contract or just for the money. The author say at the beginning of the book that she wrote the book to give her fans a idea on how she go's about writing her books. Well I payed and read the book and still have no idea how she or any other author writes a book. I feel that the book should have a clear warning that it's should only be bought by a hardcore fan.

This is not a stand alone book, i think it should of been in an anthology of stories as it is the thinnest and shortest book at only 177 pages.

Yes thats right 177 pages of rather large text if im honest, i have every single one of Laurells books and they take pride of place on my bookshelf, i honestly dont know what has happened to her as an author, its almost as if she cant be bothered to come up with any decent stories and its all soft porn from now on, i mean who cares about the stupid sex anyway, i want more basic anita necromancy and the suspense stories we got at the beginning with all twists and turns it made compulsive reading and quickly became my fav book anthology ever. Now ? not so much.

The story was ok, not great, and certainly not her best, and i only bought it now as it had dropped down to £3.50 and didnt feel as though i was getting ripped off.

The story itself as i mentioned was only 177 pages, read in 74 minutes, the rest of the book is an afterword and the 1st few pages of bullet.

Bullet is the next purchase for me, im hoping that's better..

I found this book to be a great read, but far too short as it only took me little over an hour to read and i was taking breaks whilst reading it aswell. Its so nice to read about anita's necromancy and job as an animator again. The past few books have just skimmed over this.