Read an exciting excerpt from Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton

Some authors have a series they love and put a lot of time and attention into. That’s exactly the case with Laurell K. Hamilton and her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series as Slay is her latest.

If you didn’t know, this is the thirtieth book in the series, and honestly, what a treat that is. I mean I can’t imagine writing 30 books in general yet she’s written 30 books in one series. Her backlist is massive and it’s honestly astounding to think about.

With it being the thirtieth book in the series, she originally began publishing the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series in 1993. From there, the series has grown much larger and more beloved with every passing release.

Due to that, I was so happy when Berkley reached out to me and asked if I wanted to share an excerpt. Come to find out one of my writers loves this series and author so no doubt you’ll see more of Laurell K. Hamilton in the future.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton.

As mentioned, this is the latest book in the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, and if you’ve gotten to this point, then no doubt you’ll be excited to pick up Slay and read our exclusive excerpt before its release.

"“Don’t bother, Dad, you are older than Nicky.” Then I realized that he might not be. Shapeshifters aged a lot slower than normal humans. Rafael the rat king was over fifty and he looked like thirty, at most.Nicky smiled. “No, I’m not that old. I still match my packaging.”“You’re not how old?” Dad asked.“Sorry, Nicky read my mind. Skip it, Dad, just skip it.”“I have not made up my mind, Anita. I will try and meet this . . . fiancé of yours with some hope that I will see in him what you see.”I laughed; I couldn’t help it. Jean-Claude dressed in silk, leather, and lace. He owned more high-heeled boots than I did. He’d taught me how to walk in heels and how to do my curls so they lay just right. He owned several clubs around town, including a strip club, which he occasionally still danced at—he was quietly fabulous, and not so quietly scrumptious. My dad with his khaki pants, polo shirts, and practical shoes would never have liked someone like Jean-Claude: vampire, human, or whatever. I couldn’t have picked anyone less like my father.“I don’t see the humor,” Dad said.“I don’t either, Dad, except you’ve seen him on TV and online, Jean-Claude I mean?”“I have.”“If he were human, you still wouldn’t like him.”“He’s not the type of man that I expected you to marry.”“Who knew you were going to catch the most beautiful man in the world,” Judith said.“It’s just rumors that Jean-Claude is in the running for People’s Sexiest Man.”“I’d vote for him,” she said, and I turned in time to see her smile. I smiled back because she was really trying. I guess one of them had to.“Honestly, I kind of hope he doesn’t get it. The publicity around the wedding is getting out of hand now. If he gets that high-profile I don’t know how bad it will get.”“No such thing as bad publicity,” she said.“I’m useless for undercover work now, because of all the wedding stuff online.”“I hadn’t thought about it affecting your job, Anita. I’m sorry,” she said.I shrugged and realized she’d never see it around the car seat. “I didn’t do much undercover, but now there’s no way.”“The engagement video was like a fairy tale,” she said.“Yeah, I didn’t even know there were such things as proposal consultants complete with videographers.”“Kirk took Andria to the Bahamas and there was a video, but nothing like yours. I half expected you to refuse to get in the horse-drawn carriage. It was everything you thought was stupid and romantic when you were a teenager.”“Yeah, I was pretty disdainful of all that romance stuff.” Truthfully, I still was, and if my family had really been my family to the point where I could trust them to keep a secret, I could have told them that the big proposal had been the public one. The real one had been weeks earlier in the shower after sex. Jean-Claude had spontaneously proposed, and I had said yes. I think we’d both been shocked with that yes. I just wasn’t really the marrying kind. Can we say commitment issues?“Isn’t your young man here upset that you’re marrying someone else?”“No, old man, the young man isn’t upset about her marrying someone else,” Nicky said.“There was a time that saying ‘young man’ wasn’t an insult.”“His name is Nicky, Dad.”“Fine, Nick, aren’t you upset that Anita will be with just her husband if this wedding goes ahead?”“Nicky, not Nick.”“Nicky, I meant no offense.”“Sure, and no, Anita isn’t planning on being monogamous after the wedding, so I’ll still be one of her lovers. It’s a win-win for me.”“Anita, you will be taking vows, real marriage vows if this happens, correct?”“Yep, if we avoid the religious extremes there are plenty of clergy happy to marry us, but we’re not exchanging traditional vows. No language about honoring each other above all others or being exclusive or obeying anyone.”“It’s not about the vows, Anita, it’s holy matrimony. I may not like that you have so many . . . people in your life, but once you marry it will be adultery.”“Are you serious?” I asked, turning in my seat to see his face.“About the Ten Commandments and your immortal soul, yes, very.”I moved so I could see Judith. She gave me wide eyes and a little I’m sorry shrug. Jesus, when did Judith become so much less religious? Then I had to think about that for a second. Had she ever been as much a zealot as Dad, or had she gone along with him because she was a good Catholic and a good wife? I suddenly started reviewing my childhood again and realized that when Dad and Grandma Blake got extremely religious about dogma, Judith just stopped talking. I triedto think of a single time in my childhood where she’d talked about sin, or shit like that. I thought and thought and couldn’t come up with anything. Damn it, I did not want to like my wicked stepmother better than my own father.Excerpted from Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton Copyright © 2023 by Laurell K. Hamilton. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher."

Whether you’re picking up this book first or have been a long-time fan of the series, hopefully, this gave you something to get excited about. Thankfully, you don’t have to wait much longer for Slay to be out.

Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton will be released on November 7th, 2023. 

Will you be picking up a copy of Slay by Laurell K. Hamilton on November 7th?