Rating: 
Summary: Great start before the hormones took over
Review: While I really liked the beginning of this book, I was very disappointed with that lack of follow through and closure. The main character has a distastefull enlarged ego and sexual appetite. The encounters were so often that they were not even interesting. When you take away the plot and add sex, it is usually called porn.
Rating: 
Summary: good, but it took me two reads to think that
Review: First, a warning: this book is very sexually explicit and a few people die in truly horrible ways. Meredith Gentry works for a detective agency, but she's also a faerie princess. Her life depends on no one finding that out, because her aunt, Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler on the Unseelie sidhe, would kill her if she could find her. When Merry, is found, however, things don't happen quite as she thought they would. She's got a chance at real political power, but first she has to survive court and everyone who wants her dead. Also, she only gets that power if she can fufill the condition her aunt has set. I'm not saying any more, but maybe that'll pique your interest. :) Now, I didn't really like this book the first time I read it, and probably would've given it 3 or even 2 stars. I think it's because, after having read all the Anita Blake books up to the point when this book came out, I wasn't expecting what I got in this book. I've read awful deaths before in the Anita books, but none of them this much, and this detailed, sex, near-sex, and sexual behavior. In my first read, most of it seemed pretty gratuitous and pointless, but I've since decided that LKH build a pretty solid and alien world. The fey in this book are definitely different from humans. I loved the politics; Meredith is smart and, as long as she doesn't become super-powerful, I'll enjoy reading more about her.
Rating: 
Summary: Laurell K. at her best - you can't ask for more
Review: The same fast paced thrill ride you get from her Anita Blake series. However NOT just a methadone fix until Anita next adventure - this series stands on its' own. If you liked Laurell K.'s other books you'll like this.
Rating:
Summary: kissy kissy little missy, buy this book!
Review: sigh. i loved this book. Laurell K Hamilton is one of those authors who i read her new books in one day (who cares about going to work on 2 hours of sleep anyways) and then wait around till the next comes out. This one made be show up at work on 1.30 hrs of sleep. a real page turner!
Rating:
Summary: A Kiss of Shadows
Review: Fairies and magic, goblins and brownies, buff, handsome males and bold sensuous women all make up the world of A Kiss of Shadows; a fun imaginative fairy tale for adults.
On reading the first few pages it takes some getting used to the writing style and content, but once you are drawn into this world of magic and atypical characters you will find it nearly impossible to put the book down. This book makes you want to belong to this mystical imaginative melee of a world where anything is possible and no one is as they seem.
Rating:
Summary: Much darker and better than the Anita Black Series
Review: I think this series is going to be outstanding compared to the Anita Blake Series. I own this book and the sequel and believe me that I have reread both several times.
If you tread in darkness and are not afraid to be sensual,passionate and decadent then this new series is for you. Meridith is everything I wish I was and the male harem she ends up with isnt too shabby either.
Rating: 
Summary: Dull Pornography
Review: The charactarization and plot are fine, so long as you don't mind that every developing scene is a sex scene. The story follows the formula of a standard smut romp and manages, stunningly, to do it without any heat. Is this what "Bestseller" has come to?
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This may be a problem with my expectations, but after reading the description of the plot I was really looking for a more tongue in cheek attitude in telling this story. The author really seems to take the whole plot too seriously and needs to infuse a little more humor to make the book work for me. I lost interest in the characters about half way through the book, and in the story shortly after that point. The sex scenes are fun, but not enough to carry the book.
Rating:
Summary: "Sex Like A Silken Bruise"
Review: The phrase is Hamilton's own, used near the end of the book, and sums it up well. There isn't really as much sex in Kiss of Shadows as other reviewers would lead you to believe, but there is even more erotica. Hamilton seems to be making a stab at giving Anne Rice a run for her money in the BD/SM department, and it's a pretty good run, at that. What Hamilton writes best is simple sensuality - she's so good at it, she makes even pain a pleasure. The vehicle for Hamilton's erotic romp is the story of refugee faerie princess Meredith "Merry" NicEssus, who has been working for a supernatural detective agency in L.A. for three years in order to escape her sadistic queen aunt's courtly intrigues, which include a desire for Merry's death. Sightings of the Princess Meredith rival those of Elvis in the tabloids (the Fey are as commonly accepted in Hamilton's world as foreign royalty, or any minority), and mere exposure could end up costing her her life. Merry's latest case brings her to public attention, and she finds herself reluctantly drawn back to the Cahokia fairy mounds to play out her elusive aunt's latest game - a race between her and her evil cousin Cel to produce a lawful faerie heir to the throne. This book is a mostly failed novel, in the sense that it doesn't really complete any of its plot points by its conclusion. It is obvious that Kiss of Shadows is merely the first in a line of ongoing novels. But it is quite well-written and involving, and the most sensual read you could hope for outside of Anne Rice's blatantly erotic novels. Merry is a genuinely likeable character, as are her Seelie and Unseelie Court friends and helpmeets. As in her Anita Blake novels, Hamilton devotes an inordinate amount of attention to protocol as politics, but it is less bothersome or intrusive. If you're looking for plot, you're in the wrong place. This one is recommended for those who love character-driven stories, and good fantasies - sexual, more than genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the Anita Blake series
Review: Though this is a seriously sexy new look at the world of faery Laurell Hamilton's 1st in her new series does not live up to the promise of her Anita Blake books.
The story line seems promising with the heroine a mixed blood elven princess who is a private eye at the start of the book and stumbles across a case which draws her back into the political intrigue of the elven court. A fight for succession to the throne means she becomes both politically and sexually entangled with various factions within the court. During this she discovers she has longhidden talents for faery magic.
However the storyline is poorly worked out focusing so heavily on the erotic side of the story that the relationships and characters become flat and unengaging. Buy it as a good erotic read and it fairly steams! Don't read it for the scifi/fantasy element.
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