I'm coming back to the Anita Blake series after a long break. I got annoyed (that would be putting it mildly) with a certain aspect of the storyline at around book 10, Narcissus in Chains, and had to stop for a bit.

Basically, I can deal with my leading lady ending up in a love triangle. Just. But with this series, it started getting ridiculous. Anita went from not wanting to have sex before marriage with her one and only boyfriend, to sleeping with anything that moved, and I just didn't like it. Sorry. It upset my delicate sensibilities:)

So, in this story, Musette, the right hand woman of Belle Mort, the leader of Jean Claude and Asher's line, is sent to St. Louis and Anita is forced to make Asher her lover in order to protect him from her. She loves him anyway, mainly through inheriting Jean Claude's memories of him, so she's not too bothered. They end up in a menage a tois, which of course Asher and Jean Claude have been in before with Asher's human servant, Julianna, who died. What happened to prudish Anita, eh?

She also adds Jason to her list of people she sleeps with, when an attack of the ardeur occurs when neither Micah or Nathaniel are available to... er...help out.

Micah is still a girlie wuss who lets Anita do whatever she wants with whomever she wants.

Nathaniel is starting to develop a bit of a backbone and is getting upset by the fact that he's about the only person left whom she isn't having actual intercourse with.

There was a lot of time concentrated on and around the sexual relationships in this book, and a very brief, almost a subplot or background story of a shapeshifter serial killer. So in case you are wondering why I am only concentrating on the rudey-doody bits when I just said that's what annoys me, well, its because it took up nearly 75% of the storyline of the book, that's why.

I did enjoy it though, having said all that. I think you just have to get your head around the fact that this ardeur thing makes it impossible for Anita to be a one man, woman now, and once I accepted that, and stopped getting mad, I actually started to appreciate all the different men in her life and their uniqueness, as they all bring with them such different trials and tribulations as well as the good aspects and in some cases, power boosts.