Both of these fantasy series follow their protagonists as they gain in power and deal with the dangers of worlds in which creatures of legend live.

Several media outlets, including USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, and Time have identified her works as significant contributions to the development of the urban-fantasy genre.

[4] Hamilton is involved with a number of animal charities, particularly supporting dog rescue efforts and wolf preservation.

Reception to these dynamics and to the usage of sexual abuse in later books has been mixed,[3] with some reviewers commenting that the character of Anita spent too much time "obsessing about whether or not she’s a slut" while others remarked that the erotic themes enhanced the series.

Hamilton no doubt appeals to romance and erotica lovers, but it does not take long for the clichés and the constant droning about sex to become tiresome.

[17] The reviewer for the Kansas City Star stated that "After 13 erotically charged books, boredom has reared its ugly head for the 14th novel in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, as eroticism becomes mere description..." and Publishers Weekly commented that Blood Noir had a "growing air of ennui, which longtime readers can't help sharing as sex increasingly takes the place of plot and character development".