If you missed my review of Anita’s last book Smolder, you can find it here.
It’s been an exciting year for Laurell K. Hamilton. Anita turned 30 this year, and books 29 and 30 in that series were published. My hat is off to Ms. Hamilton because that is a lot of work. I love that I can see her and keep up with book news on TikTok. Just to make sure, this is a review of Slay, book 30 in the series. If you don’t know about Anita, this will have spoilers. I have quite a few articles on TGON about her as well as book reviews.
On to the star of the show. Anita’s world, while yes, is much like ours, the changes to it make a richer world, in my opinion. I can picture Circus of the Damned and feel like I am falling into Jean-Claude’s eyes. I’m jealous of Anita and all the men she calls her and her magic. The magick in this world is impressive and varied. She’s a powerful badass surrounded by more badasses. With all that, I am still irritated by this book. I read the whole book impatiently because what I thought I was going to get what I was not getting.
The whole wedding thing has been dragging on. I knew we needed to meet Anita’s family, and we did, but not to the point that I thought we would. The first part of the book with her family was intense, but it felt rushed. Anita noticed stuff about Judith and Andria easily and was more accepting than normal. Anita has been in therapy, and it is without a doubt helping, but I kind of missed her poking. We didn’t get to see much of Josh at all with this book. I think all of his interactions could fit on two pages.
I don’t know what I was expecting of Anita’s family. In the looks department, yeah, that is what I pictured myself for Judith and Andria. I pictured Josh more like a surfer for some reason, but I was glad that she seemed to love Anita. I craved seeing their relationship. Even though all the interactions with Grandma Blake were horrible, I would have liked to have an even better opportunity to hate her. Ultimately she gave a spectacular reason to, but it’s fun to watch characters dig their own graves in a book. Ya know what I mean? We were robbed of that. Dad, I expected the looks but not the attitude.
I do have to take a moment to appreciate how Deimos moved behind the scenes to try to take Jean-Claude’s kingdom from him. He managed to convince some powerful vamps to betray Jean-Claude. Damaging the marks between Anita and Jean-Claude was a smart way to try to separate their power, but I think Deimos underestimated how deep their bond is. They, the bad guys, did count on Anita’s connections, but Deimos, thinking he was the son of the god Ares, thought he could control her power. Silly vampire. Even with the damage to the marks, Anita is a powerhouse. She can draw on her own magick, her own power, to overcome her enemies. Plus, she has scary allies.
Oalf is back, which was anticlimactic. I mean, I am scared of what Olaf would do to Anita, but this didn’t give me pause more than the initial, “You said who is coming?”. There weren’t any really good fights either. I feel bad for the Wicked Truth, but even that didn’t bring a good fight. Even the end “fight” wasn’t much of a fight. I mean, I can see why the fight went the way it did though some were a little convenient.
The whole book felt so rushed. I don’t feel like I got to spend enough time in any part of the story, or at least the parts I wanted to spend time on. There are some “OMG!” moments, but I feel cheated. Laurell does include a deleted scene at the back of the book, and it is deliciously spicy. Even though I am irritated with this book, you know I am going to buy the next one. I hope that something for Merry comes out before something for Anita again, though. I covered the Merry Gentry series if you want to check it out.
Have you read Slay? Have you read any of the other Anita books? Or maybe you have read Merry Gentry? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Until next time, Happy Holidays, and have fun storming the castle!
