A Caress of Twilight by Laurell K. Hamilton

I'm loving this series. This was the second installment in the Merry Gentry series and in this one we get to delve more into the crazy life of a Sidhe princess.

In A Kiss of Shadows, Merry was told she would be crowned Queen of the Unseelie court if she can bear an heir before her cousin, Prince Cel could have a child of his own. This caused enough noise in court to have Prince Cel punished for his assassination attempts and have Princess Meredith running back to her familiar life in LA. She has brought with her her Ravens, a retinue of guards that have been supplying her with enough sex to keep Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, happy that she is at least TRYING to get pregnant.

Merry has refused any monetary funds from the Queen (her motto being if you take, you owe) so she is living with her 5 guards (Doyle, Frost, Galen, Rhys and Nicca) and one goblin (Kitto) in a tiny, one bedroom apartment. To pay her bills she continues to work as a PI for Grey's Detective Agency which brings her in contact with Maeve Reeds. Maeve, who is now a famous movie star, has been exiled from the Seelie court after she angered Taranis, King of Light and Shadow. She has been prohibited from seeking out another Fey but she risks it all because she wants a child with her dying husband.

Merry shows that she is a very politically minded advisory and what she lacks in immortality she has in smarts. Although she was concerned over her meeting with Maeve she believes that the movie star holds a secret so big, that if shared with Meridith, will give her an edge over her uncle, King Taranis. But the King is not likely to allow that and when an ancient power is released onto humans causing mass murders to pop up everywhere, Merry wonders if the King has not shown his hand too quickly.

On top of her dealings with Maeve and the King, Merry also is working an alliance with Queen Niceven, the Queen of the Demi Fey who we met in the previous book. The damage that has been done to her Raven, Galen during the first book appears to be permanent and it would eliminate him as a candidate to father her child but Merry is not accepting of this and calls upon Niceven to provide for a cure. When a much guarded secret of the Demi Fey is revealed, Merry jumps all over it to assure an alliance between herself and Niceven. The deal adds Sage to Meredith's male followers, as an emissary to Queen Niceven.

In this installment we get to know so much more about the Ravens and their previous lives, not just as the Queen's guard but also as Fey themselves. Doyle, the Queen's Darkness finally gives into the flesh and beds Merry, causing conflicts of loyalties. We also discover an interesting fact about his parentage. Frost's feelings for Merry have grown strong and he fears losing her by not being able to give her the heir she needs. Rhy's prejudice against Kitto as a goblin comes to a collision which causes Merry to question who has the power in her relationship with her guards. She has to balance her love for the men and her position as the future Queen. Rhys also reveals his past which puts him in a whole new light and not so much the charlatan and movie buff he portrays himself to be.

There was a lot of growth happening in this installment and a lot of alliances which is positioning Merry to be the heir to the throne. Now if she can only get herself pregnant!

Grade: A

A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton

Hamilton is not necessarily a new author for me since I had the pleasure of listening to Seduced by Moonlight over 4 years ago when it first came out. I didn't really know what the book was about but when I saw the audio book on the shelves of my library I fell in love with the cover and took it home for a spin. I immediately knew I was walking into the middle of a series and also knew I had to read the rest of it, starting from book one!

I have a tendency to read or listen to my books in the format that I first find it and since I had picked up Seduced by Moonlight in Audio, I refused to read it in any other format. Thus the four years it has taken me to break down and buy the series in paperback (I'm a bit stubborn like that). This also says alot about how much I wanted the darn books to start off with, since I gave in and forced myself to step out of my comfort zone!!

For those that are not familiar with Laurell K. Hamilton she is the author of the Anita Blake series which was recently picked up by Marvel Comics to be serialized as a comic book series. She also writes a less known series called The Merry Gentry Series which tells the story of an exiled Sidhe Princess who is pulled back to the Unseelie court to produce an heir.

A Kiss of Shadows is the first book in the series.

In this first installment we are introduced to Merry Gentry who is hiding in LA from the Unseelie Queen, her Aunt Andais. She works for a private investigation firm who hire the Fey for their powers. Hamilton has created a completely alternate universe where the Fey have certain rights as individuals among the humans. Laws have been passed to protect the mortals from worshiping the Fey and becoming subservant to them. These laws must be upheld or the Fey will be vanished from society.

Merrideth gets involved in a case where she needs to expose a man who is using sidhe powers to rape women but during the course of the undercover investigation there is an attempt on her life. Now, Merry has lived in hiding for the last three years and has avoided all exposure to the Unseelie Court because of the many assassination attempts that were taking place against her, so when she feels her life once again threatened, she decides to bolt!

This first book takes us into the Unseelie Court (after Merrideth is summoned by her Queen) and we learn about the protocols that have to be followed to stay alive. The intrigue and deception that takes place makes the pages fly by and the erotic scenes are hot hot hot! I couldn't put the darn thing down!

If you expect the book to have a nice bow at the end where you can just put it down and not pick up the next story, you are wrong. Reminiscent of more recent series (Inheritance by Paolini, Gemma Doyle by Bray) the book leaves you with the expectation of much more to come, with her cousin sentenced to 6 month in a torture chamber and her new guards in place, Merry returns to LA to continue her life, but we all know that life will never be the same for the Sidhe Princess.

Grade: A