I agree with those that think the quality of her writing has declined:

Through book six it was all about the characters. Once she has sex with Jean Claude it's like LKH is finding any excuse she can to throw in a sex scene. While in some cases (like reading porn) this is not a bad thing, in this case I think it hurts the overall series. Outside of that, Anita has gotten so many powers the past few books, one of the books she's going to end up immortal like Jean Claude. How can she not?

As for the Merry series, I don't care for those at all. With Anita you had enough time to care about the characters for the first sex scene to be very hot, and all the build up to it made for some delicious UST. With Merry she's in the sack within the second chapter, I think. *yawn*

That being said, kudos to LKH for managing to make it to an author who comes out in hardback first. For those new to the series, through Obsidian Butterfly, the previous books all came out in paperback first. Once OB was released, then they went back and introduce the more erotic covers that you see now and re-released the older books with them.