Well, that was... something. 
 To be fair, I was fully informed, thanks to the internet, that the Anita Blake series took a massive dive starting with Narcissus in Chains, so I resolved to stop before I got to this one. And I did! But my stupid curiosity got the better of me and I continued on (though I somehow skipped Obsidian Butterfly, whoops), wondering just how badly LKH screwed the pooch here. 
 Now, in all honesty, you can see the series heading into a smutfest even in the first eight books, especially after Anita has sex with Jean-Claude. Remember when Jason had sex with those two vampires who proceeded to rot all over him? Yeah, sex has always been present in this series in a weird ass way, except that it wasn't Anita getting plowed until The Killing Dance. When LKH decided that Anita could summon Raina's munin and heal people by grinding up on them, it was a red flag. When someone mentions that Jean-Claude is an incubus out of the blue after seven books, I knew there was going to be trouble. 
 And then we arrive here. It's not that there's a lot of sex in this book, but, like Merry Gentry, things start to revolve around sex, entire plot threads resolved with sexual something or another. And the ardeur, dear god. Anita, Jean-Claude, and Richard marry their marks together, which is supposedly sex with clothes on, in front of a room full of strangers. Anita is raped by Micah (I'll get to him) in the shower the day that they meet. Anita molests Nathaniel. Anita has an orgy with Jean-Claude, Asher, Nathaniel, and Jason (yes, I consider it an orgy even without penetration/intercourse. It was meant to be sexually charged to feed the ardeur). Anita has sex with Richard. And those are just when Anita is a participant. 
 Two characters are brought very much to the forefront in this book: newcomer Micah and submissive Nathaniel. I've always hated Nathaniel, with his insanely long hair and victim+++ attitude. But now, suddenly, he's like an advisor to Anita, offering support and supposed helpful insight, never mind that he was the one who was captured and tortured at the beginning of the book because he doesn't know how to say no. Thanks to ardeur, Anita starts more frequently rubbing herself on him to dominate him. (And with LKH's weird writing, one scene makes it sound like Anita is shoving her nose in Nathaniel's asshole while she licks his scrotum. Mmm, sexy.) Nathaniel, of course, likes it because he's been wanting Anita to fuck him since she became their Nimir-Ra, and Anita likes it because he doesn't fight back, or something. 
 Let's talk about Micah. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh. I've heard stories about who Micah and Richard were based off of, and the drama behind that. I'm not going to repeat it, but a quick Google search (or possibly a perusal through other GR reviews) will clue you in to what I'm referring to. Anyway, Micah is Richard 2.0 with better everything. He makes Anita tingly in the pants. He thinks the way she does. He makes her feel safe. He's Nimir-Raj of his leopards, making him an ideal mate to merge their pards. Oh, and his dong is bigger than Richard's, of course. Never mind that he was working for the Big Bad of this book, Anita's cooch converted him, so all is forgiven. It's the weirdest ass case of instalove I think I've ever seen/read. So when we get to Richard acting very much like he usually does, with his holier than thou, I hate what I am, my way or the highway attitude, this time Anita gets sick of his crap and dumps him for Micah. Like I said, do a little research into the behind the scenes of Micah/Richard and you'll start to understand. I always despised Richard, but I think I dislike Micah more. 
 When I first read Guilty Pleasures, I commented on the whole "why" aspect of the novel (aka, why is this happening, it doesn't pertain to the plot) and it's out in full force here. Anything that doesn't involve the missing alphas is pointless drivel. Marrying the marks. Negotiating with Narcissus. Gregory's capture/rescue/healing. Freeing Damien. Anything with the ardeur or sex, whether it's the act of or talking about it. Get rid of all of that and you'll have maybe 50-100 pages of plot. Maybe. 
 I don't know why LKH couldn't have kept all of the erotica smutty smut in Merry Gentry and left Anita alone. Some sexy time for Anita would have been fine, but I have a feeling that with her ardeur it's going to get worse, even though Jean-Claude told her that she could feed without sex.