Liking this so far, but I'm not sure I finished the previous book...some of this isn't making much sense hahaha ( )

I've stuck by Anita and Laurell for all 17 books. Even the last couple that were lacking. But I'm finally losing interest. The first several chapters were so full of exposition and wasted pages that I found myself complaining out loud. How many people are picking this book up and reading it as if it's the first in the series? If Laurell is concerned about new readers being confused about past happenings, write a brief summary of the previous books and put it at the start of the book. Referring to things that are already well established to loyal series readers in cheesy conversations makes me insane. Yes, Anita is the most powerful necromancer in a thousand years and I'm not sure I would've remembered if Jason hadn't reminded me in a completely silly conversation with Anita. I'm all for including new readers, but I'm not sure contrived dialogue is the way to attract and keep them. It's also not going to keep me. I'm not going to pay upwards of $25 to read things that have already been covered. ( )

Synopsis: 'Once you tell someone certain things, like, say, you got mailed a human head in a box, they tend to think you're crazy.

Anita Blake's reputation has taken some hits. Not on the work front, where she has the highest kill count of all the legal vampire executioners in the country, but on the personal front. No one seems to trust a woman who sleeps with the monsters. Still, when a vampire serial killer sends her a head from Las Vegas, Anita has to warn Sin City's local authorities what they're dealing with. Only it's worse than she thought. Several officers and one executioner have been slain - paranormal style...

Anita heads to Las Vegas, where she's joined by three other federal marshals, including the ruthless Edward hiding behind his mild-mannered persona. It's a good thing Edward always has her back, because, when she gets close to the bodies, Anita senses "tiger" too strongly to ignore it. The were-tigers are very powerful in Las Vegas, which means the odds of her rubbing someone important the wrong way just got a lot higher...'
Review: Olaf is back and creepy as ever. Let's hope 'Mommie Dearest' is really gone, but she seems to be replaced by another bad guy. ( )

Maybe I'm giving 5 stars because so many of the last books in the series I read have been mediocre at best. But this is the Anita Blake I fell in love with. This had a crime for Anita to solve, brought back the villain vampire Vittorio, and Edward (along with Bernardo and Otto). And no long, drawn-out boring sex scenes that have marred the last few books.

Although as usual, the big finish comes at the very end of the book.

Speaking of sex scenes, does Hamilton always have to have some sort of blood play in all of them. Anita never seems to have loving sex. There is always something that forces her to have rough sex. Rough sex is fine, but like anything else, there should be some other things on the menu.

I thought with the title Skin Trade, there would be a vamp or other creature who could jump bodies. But as far as I can tell it was titled this because someone is killing strippers.

I was surprised at how the book ended. The Mother of Darkness made an appearance and We learn about Vittorio's origin. We also learn more about the different colored tigers and why the MoD placed some inside Anita. The Jinn, creatures of air also were featured, although they are powerful, they were dealt with rather quickly.

Hamilton slowly sets some things up, but then deals with them abruptly and always rushes the endings. I'm not sure what will be happening next. I wouldn't have ended this book so abruptly.

Spoilers below, so stop here if you don't want to read about how the book ends.

I couldn't believe that not only did Hamilton kill off Vittorio just when he became more interesting by being the Father of Day, but she also seemed to kill of the Mother of Darkness, as well. That's two really Big Bads in the same book. It seemed too easy. They finally found the MoD's resting place and firebombed it. Bam! Done.

Anita uses the ardeur on Vittorio which distracts him enough so the weretigers under his control are free. They attack and kill him. This made more sense. He is not coming back from this unless he has some super power to put his essence into another body. But that would be lame since something like that wasn't even hinted at.

Perhaps one or both will come back in future books.

I am planning on going ahead and reading the next books that feature Edward, and I think those will get me up-to-date. But once that happens, I won't be reading any more Laurell Hamilton books. Too poorly edited, too repititious. ( )

I really loved Laurell K. Hamilton's early Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series books but I did feel like she lost the thread a bit in the middle of the series. I am glad to say that it seems like she is focusing more on the story line and less on the sex of late which makes the books better in my opinion. I think Anita is a great character and Laurell K. Hamilton can write a great plot but her overly complicated sex scenes can somewhat take away from the book. ( )