A lot of early Anita Blake readers seem to be unhappy with the present incarnation. I haven't read the early books, but I glanced at Cerulean Sins and it didn't do anything for me. There seems to be this cliche going around about the hero/heroine who is absolutely irresistible to everyone at all times. The Charlaine Harris heroine sounds like she may be heading the same way, given time.

I think it's partially an offshoot of writing in first person or deep third with limited point of view. Everything has to happen to the main character all of the time. So to keep new romance in the story, they sleep with everything that moves (love the part about the tentacles), and you start rehashing things, or making changes that don't make sense out of desperation to have mountains of things happen to the lead. After a while it sound like the Perils of Pauline and everything gets muddy (Hmm. Mud wrestling with tentacles). There's a lot of formula following too.

I've got to look up the Ghost and Mrs. McClure. That sounds like a good one.