Laurell K. Hamilton can Pace!

I just started reading my first Laurell K. Hamilton book the other night and could not put the book down until page 208 (there are 658 pages). The book, Incubus Dreams, is an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novel and came out in 2004. You don't have to read previous novels to enjoy this one, but it might help to understand the characters a bit more. Anyway, the first 22 pages set up the story with a wedding, then switch to a murder scene, then back to the reception. At that point I had to hold on tight because the intensity soared.

It started with some emotional intensity and then kept pulling you in until it took you to a very emotional bonding scene followed by a friendly vampire gone crazy scene where the heroes had to keep the vampire from hurting them but couldn't really kill the vamp, then as that action finally calmed down, it raced right back up and dove into an emotionally charged sex scene. My heart was literally pounding as I read. The intensity finally slacked off at the end of chapter 27 (she has very short chapters) and I could close the book and go to bed.

I don't know how she can pace like that - it drained me just reading it, I can't imagine writing it. But I know if I ever wonder how to speed up the pace of my book, I need look no further than to Laurell K. Hamilton and study at least this book, if not others.