Burnt Offerings (1998) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 5 stars

“Seventh in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter urban fantasy series set in an alternate St. Louis, Missouri.

The Story
Drama all around—St. Louis has a firebug, the Vampire Council has come to town taking Jean-Claude's vamps hostage, and Anita discovers the wereleopards are anyone's meat ever since she killed their "alpha", Gabriel.

Ostensibly, the Council is in town to find out why Jean-Claude is not taking his seat on the council after killing the Earthmover. In truth, Padma the Beast Master wants to kill Jean-Claude and Yvette's master is of the Earthmover's persuasion. Asher. Asher simply wants his revenge.

Then Humans First strike…a modern Day of Cleansing (Inferno to the vampires) in which they are killing as many vampires as they can find including firebombing the Church of Everlasting Life. Rescuing the vampires trapped in the basement causes Anita to ask the Traveler for aid as a humanitarian gesture.

My Take
After this visit from the Council, I have a better understanding of Jean-Claude's desire for power. After the life he's suffered so far…ughh…, the possibility of creating a safe haven for himself and for other vampires who have also suffered is very understandable. Yes, I know he can still be pretty brutal and when you look at the actions of some of the vamps he has under him, you know he has to be hard. On them.

Lots of rescuing by Anita—Nathaniel almost dead in the hospital, a skinned Rafael from the Council, Vivian and Gregory trapped at the Circus at the "mercy" of the Council, Richard from some of his ignorance, and Asher.

And Anita is forced to put her sexuality on display to save herself from Asher, to save Jason from Yvette, to bring power back to Jean-Claude and save them all. The start of her slide into erotica.

The Cover
The cover is an intriguing blend of soft flames framed by a woman's bent legs on the left and her nude torso on top with long, narrow, red-to-orange flower petals falling through the air. Definitely Burnt Offerings, yet another vamp-owned club in the city the theme of which was horror stars of the sixties and seventies. It is also the offering Yvette intends to offer up to her master when the city burns.
”

• Rated 4 stars

“very good”

• Rated 4 stars

“Who would have thought, that Anita could fall face first into a lot more trouble than she thought she would ever be? I mean, yeah, some people did try to kill her, repeatedly, but hell, never before did the whole city suffer for it.

Unexplainable fires started to go up in the city and Anita Blake is called in to investigate, mainly because most of the joints that went up in flames were save houses for the newly made vampires of the Eternal Church. But at the same time Anita and Jean-Claude get a surprise visit by the european Vampire Council. And they are not amused.
They fear Jean-Claude's power and how he killed one of the vampires on the council, the earthmover. Also, someone really, really wants to get his revenge.

Unfortunately everyone else is swept up into the whole mess too. Anita's new leopards, as well as all the wolves and rats. But Anita can't take it. She has to fight back and save and help as many critters as she can.

This is probably one very emotional book. Unlike the others is starts to incooperate a lot more than just being a book on vampires and wereanimals. Now, Anita is swept into the world of the night. She meets up with the vampire council, gets to be the protector of a new wereanimal group that hasn't been around in these books a lot before and at the same time has to help the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team. It's one of the first books that combines all the elements that live and work in St. Louis.

Definitly a book I would recommend, if you dare to continue on in the series.”

• Rated 4 stars

“amazing”

• Rated 5 stars

“MY GOD my favorite book of the series so far. We start it off with seeing the tender relationship between Anita and Jean-Claude. The resturant seen is by far my favorite look into the 2 of them together. The idea that they talk about what to eat and Jean-Claude absorbs from her everything is so a tender look. WE meet more were-leopards. We meet some of the council member like the "Traveler" who ends up being one of my favorite characters to be introduced along with Asher. We see the struggle Anita has with dealing with Richard but also her growing bound with him and the pack. But still throughout the book we see more and more into Anita and Jean-Claude and how much he truly cares for her and the little and big things he does for her. By far the best book of the series, i will be reading this one again and again.”

• Rated 4 stars

“I really like this series, and the narrator is wonderful.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Another good read.”

• Rated 5 stars

“book and pdf ”

• Rated 5 stars

“Wow another adventure packed book! Fires are happening throughout the city and the vampire council is paying our friends a visit, (think they are related??). The Traveler can take other vampires bodies, pretty cool talent and the Master of Beasts can control almost any shifter. They want Jean-Claude to take a seat on the council to replace the one he killed (earthmover Oliver), he doesn't want it because he'll be challenged and killed. Anita learns she can channel Raina's powers, which make her wan sex or violence... she saves a wereleopard with the power. She has to deal with a jealous Richard, and I understand his jealousy. The last part is pretty intense, Anita tames Asher (Jean-Claudes old friend), saves Jason from a Yuvette and her rotting self, helps Richard with Master of the Beasts, and then saves Jean-Claude!! This is one of my favorite books in the series!!”

• Rated 4 stars

“Another great addition to the series. I've grown to really like the Anita Blake character. I wasn't sure about her when I read the first couple of books but my opinion has since changed. ”