Okay, guys, I am officially going on a twelve-step program. You guys are my witnesses.

I am NEVER EVER EVER buying another Laurell K. Hamilton in Hardback. This is cold turkey. There will be no more. Nada. Niente. Nichts.

The latest Merry book? Is all about sex. They have sex. But, dear God, they TALK about sex first. They argue about sex, what constitutes sex, what precisely they are going to do, and how many people there are room for in the bed.

And it's boring. Boring boring boring. Boring book about sex. And it is (conservatively) 90% sex, 10% plot.

Nobody should have to suffer through that much unarousing boring pornography.

Help me. Help me be strong. Remind me of this pledge when the next Anita book comes out.

I am NEVER EVER EVER buying another Laurell K. Hamilton in Hardback. This is cold turkey. There will be no more. Nada. Niente. Nichts.

I thought you learned this lesson like...three books ago?

I know. This is why I am making the pledge in public. Next September I shall call on you to make me be strong. The demon Hamilton shall be far from my lips.

Oh dear. Boring pornography is worse than fade-to-black. At least with the latter you can let your own imagination go places.

On the warning-to-others hand, that's one less book for me to pay late fees to the library on.

Boring sex? That's sad, Betsy. And I would have said impossible except that you are very believable. Why am I broke and this woman has bank, again? because I've gotten praise for being erotic even without boots actively being knocked.

I thought you learned this lesson like...three books ago?

I know. This is why I am making the pledge in public. Next September I shall call on you to make me be strong. The demon Hamilton shall be far from my lips.

Don't worry, I'll remind you. I'm supposed to do the same thing for another friend who bought the latest Merry book and now regrets it.

No more Hamilton for you. If you want to be *really* virtuous, promise you'll only buy her work from second-hand stores.

There is so much to regret in the latest Merry book.

Because you know what her Magical Goddess-Given Power is?

She empowers other Sidhe by sexing them up. Seriously. Sleep with Merrie, get your mystical powers back. Except that no sleeping is possible. The Goddess asks her to kill a Sidhe so he can be resurrected, and she says, no, I want to sex him up instead. And does.

She talks a lot about having the Hand Of Flesh And Blood, but it's more like the Yoni of Taser.

Heck, I not only don't buy her at all, I've stopped reading her. Unless something interesting happens to--crap, what's his name, the young werewolf who will occasionally call Anita an idiot to her face.

Oh, I'm sure Anita sleeps with him, but that's not what I call interesting.

I'm beginning to wonder if Obsidian Butterfly was ghost-written or just an old manuscript left over from the early days, when she remembered plot is good.

that's not what I call interesting

Agreed.