A Caress of Twilight

contemporary, deities, fairy tales, fantasy, kink, magic, Merry Gentry, romance, romantica, that's hawtt Add comments

Mar 152010

By Laurell K. Hamilton
Read: March 2010
Rating: Engrossing

To be perfectly honest, I’m going to speed through this review, and #3, Seduced by Moonlight. These books slam into each other and it gets hard to pull them apart.

Anyway, we now know the plot arc for the whole series. Merry’s aunt, Queen Andais, wants her bloodline to continue on the Unseelie Throne. She has pit her son, Cel, against Meredith. Whoever produces a child first will win the throne. To ensure a strong match, Andais has released her private guard from their celibacy–but only in regards to Merry. It’s her or no one. Whichever guard gets her pregnant will be king.

Merry’s well aware of all the ramifications. She puts a lot of thought into who will be a good husband, who will be a good king, who will be a good lover, who will be a good father. Meanwhile she enjoys the very sexy attentions of half a dozen gorgeous warriors. As mentioned previously, not a lot of boundaries or shame. Very refreshing that way.

I wondered at the end of book 1 if we’d get to see Merry continuing to work at the detective agency, and here we do. The men have taken positions in the agency as well, partly so they can protect her. Two months after the events of the last book, a man comes in on behalfo f his client, asking for their help.

This client is an exiled Seelie princess, now goes as Maeve Reed, Hollywood’s golden goddess. The terms of her exile forbid her from interacting with other fey, so she’s taking a great risk and so are they. What could she possibly want so badly?

The answer puts them all in grave danger. Someone is so determined that Maeve not give her secret away, that they have unleashed The Nameless, a creature born of all the dark magics of the fey. The Nameless was sealed away when the fey came to America, to ensure the safety of all. Now it’s after Maeve, and their aid has become guard work.

It’s very obvious to me that the story is just one long epic, divvied up for publishing purposes. I’m happy with that, since I have eight books to read in one shot. It makes for some awkward transitions at the beginning and end of each volume, though. And, because there is so much going on, a lot of explanations are snuck in later. I’m impatient, I skim those paragraphs when I remember to.

Anyway, I’m enjoying.