Poll

5 stars for Books 1-8, then only 3 stars. I only made it to #10 before I got sick of having almost no plot. Might pick them up again since I bought all the books up to #14 after reading the first book.

I gave 3 stars because of the decline of the series after Obsidian Butterfly. The books up to that point are a solid 4 1/2 or 5. After that its hit or miss whether or not the book has any plot.

Three stars as average. The first 9 books are very good, then they start to decline. Lately, you need a magnification glass to find the plot, though I admit the last two weren't so bad as Danse Macabre (the absolute worst of the whole series, IMO. Avoid it like the plague if you can).

It's not that there is much sex, it's that it's meaningless in the context of the story. it doesn't help to advance the plot, or develop characters, no matter what the author argues. And actually, it's porn movie mechanical. It's OK, once, twice and maybe thrice, after that, she needs to make it fade to black, because it's absolutely unimaginative, formulaic and generally speaking, un-sexy.
I know that there are limited ways to portray sex, and that's why she should try to keep it at a minimum, rather than hit us with variant #4 of the same scene over and over again.

Even when she goes for controversial takes, she fails. Like she did with the very young characters Anita involves with (a quasi minor in the last one), that was included IMO just for shock value.

These plot points are done in such thoughtless way, without plausible reason except some cheap Deus ex machina argument, that she misses the chance to give food for thought in every case. Or at the very least, explore new possibilities.
The same-sex scene in Danse Macabre was one of such missed chances, IMO. There are a lot more, but I guess that she prefers to go for the shock value that will put her books at the list of the more talked about , rather than integrating controversial topics in thoughtful ways. I suppose she believes in the "there is no such thing as bad publicity" motto, for as long as they talk about her and her books, someone will buy them. That's a good market strategy, but leaves out the enjoyment factor, I guess.

I've read 1-6 and enjoyed them especially The Killing Dance which I rated 5 stars. I know the series starts to change and that a lot of people hate the later ones, but I'll keep working my way through them and see what I think!