Day 18: Book you’re most embarrassed to say you’ve read

Well I don't really do "embarrassed" like a lot of people do. I read what I like. Sometimes I wish I was a little more literary or deep in my choices, but when I stop to think about it I realize that is just silly. I saw a quote once that said life is too short to read a book you don't like. I am totally with whoever it was that said that. I read what I want to read and don't feel remorse for it.

Having said that, however, it was not difficult for me to think of what books to write about today

The Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series by Laurel K Hamilton

As you can tell from the covers, there are A LOT of them and they are very sexual in nature. Now, let me be clear, that is not what is embarrassing.  I don't have a problem with books that have sex in them. When I first started reading these books I thought they were GREAT, and I have asked a few others that I know read them and the consensus is that they WERE. And then...all of the sudden they weren't anymore. All of the sudden the books turned into....crap. Crap with LOTS of sex in them. I mean that was always a component of these books, but suddenly the main character, Anita, was having sex, often with multiple men (and or animals as some of her men were werewolves who had a thing for sex in their animal form) all the time. This was particularly confusing as the character was established early on as someone who valued her sexuality and had decided not to have sex again until marriage. It was, honestly, a bit confusing.

My brother actually found an article about the author online. Turns out that between the last good book and the first crappy book (I cannot remember which numbers these were) the author went through a pretty nasty divorce. So....way to push your personal life onto your characters Laurel K. Hamilton. I mean I get it that her views changed because her life changed but....holy heck. It was ridiculous.

So the embarrassing part of this whole story is that I KEPT reading the books. In my defense, though, I was not reading them because I liked them, but rather in the hopes that the author might finally come back to her senses and write well again. I finally gave up after the book Danse Macabre. As you can see, there have been several more since then (and I don't know if this pictures is even up to date). I did finally have to decide I could not take the  bad writing anymore. I think this is why I don't have much sympathy for everyone talking about the 50 Shades of Grey books out now. I have not read them so will not talk about them as if I have, but I will say that EVERY review I have read says the writing and story are horrible. Sex is the only interesting part of the story apparently. Read these books if you just need sex. At least they STARTED out good!

I am curious to know what Karissa's choice for today will be! Check it out here