A Kiss Of Shadows

A Kiss Of Shadows
Laurel K Hamilton
Ballentine Books
480 pgs.













Amazon blurb -

Laurell K. Hamilton revitalized vampires, werewolves, and zombies in the popular Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter books. In this new series, she updates faeries. A Kiss of Shadows introduces Merry Gentry, a.k.a. Meredith NicEssus, a faerie princess of the Unseelie Court, where politics is a blood sport. Merry, who's part sidhe (elvish), part brownie, and part human, never really fit in. She's short, not skilled in offensive magic, and mortal because of her human blood. These are real liabilities when your family, especially aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, is out to kill you. Merry has been in hiding for three years, living in Los Angeles and working for the Grey Detective Agency, which specializes in "supernatural problems, magical solutions." A new case sets her against a man who uses forbidden magic to seduce fey women and drain their power. A plan to trap him goes awry and Merry's cover is blown. Now Andais knows where she is. But things have changed in Andais's court, and Merry is changing too. Despite the selkies, brownies, goblins, and ogres in this book, it's not for children. The fey are "creatures of the senses"--and in the Unseelie court, sex and pain go together. Merry is sexually adventurous and surrounded by gorgeous, powerful males, most of whom want her badly. She's politically savvy and no coward, though she's not the warrior Anita is. Hamilton fans and readers of adult fairy tales like Anne Bishop's Black Jewels trilogy will want to give Merry a look.
*****
Merry Gentry is a Private Eye in Los Angeles, that’s not all she is though.   She is also the Fae Princess Meredith NicEssus of the UnSeelie court and the Queen’s niece, who really doesn’t like Merry all too much, hence her living in L.A. essentially hiding from the Queen.  She uses glamour to disguise herself so no one see’s the real her, though it is known that she has some form of power.   The supernatural world of Fae is known to humans and they coexist in this tale that Laurel K. Hamilton has created.

When her cover is blown, Merry is summoned back home by her aunt with a promise of safety.  Merry doesn’t know if she should trust her, her aunt is quite wicked and known for her enjoyment of torturing her subjects.  She has also allowed Merry to be attacked with no provision of safety almost to the point of death by some of the fae.  Queen Andais has put a geas on her guards forcing them into celibacy except with herself.  Some have been celibate for hundreds of years.  That geas is being lifted for Merry, the Queen wants Merry to have a child, the problem is Merry’s horrid cousin Prince Cel and the Queen’s only child.  He has angered the Queen so now the competition is to see who can provide a child first and they will become the King or Queen.  Cel wants to see Merry dead as a doornail his hatred of her is so intense.

She isn’t even home yet and the assassination attempts have begun.  With the Queen’s guards around her, Darkness, Frost, Rhys, and Galen, Merry will be protected and taken care of in more ways than one.

LKH has crafted some great characters and an interesting world.  While Merry is decent, I’m not doing cartwheels over her.  I liked this book, I haven’t quite decided if I’ll keep going in the series yet.  I’m at the cusp here, should I….I’ll have to think about it.

3 ½  cannolis