Seduced by Moonlight (Meredith Gentry Novel)

Rating:
Summary: The lack of plot is disturbing
Review: I give this book 3 stars because I love Laurell K Hamilton, Merry Gentry, and the other two books in the series a great deal and just can't bear to give her 1 star. That said..if you like a book that's just one baby step away from porn and don't care about plot, go for it!
The first 2/3 of the book really have no plot whatsoever. It's mostly sex, kinky sex, power-sex, and more sex. I could forgive that if the last 1/3 of the book hadn't been so good..we finally get some plot, some mystery, some deductive reason, all the stuff we love in a Merry novel.
I won't give it away but the ending of the book left you sitting in your chair saying "What?" It seemed like there should have been a lot more to that book than what there was.
So, it gets 3 stars...the average of 5 stars for the last 1/3 of the book and and 1 star for the first 2/3.
It was probably the most disappointing Laurell K Hamilton I've ever read made worse by the fact that I waited so long for it.

Rating:
Summary: too much is getting to be too little
Review: If reading this book was almost enjoyable, reviewing it is rather frustrating. I find it quite difficult to explain the particular love-hate feeling I had for this much awaited third installment. I do love the concept of the series and the main characters. Magic, beautiful sidhe, court intrigues, sex - what more to get me going?... Actually, I really felt there should have been a bit more in this latest book to really get me going, and I don't mean pages.

The first book set up the big questions: Will Merry get a child? Who's her consort going to be? What will happen when Cel gets released? The second book was, inevitably, a transition to future books: Merry got more power, her personal relationships got more complicated ... All the while the reader hoped the third book would eventually return to the main questions. The third book doesn't. If at all possible, it conveys even more the "transition" feeling of the second book. We are still at the stage when the chess pieces are layed out on the board, with two more months to go until Cel becomes a major player again. Merry gets even more power and her personal relationships get even more complicated. (I really wonder how many more potential consorts could be piled up on her bed). She doesn't even make it to Taranis' ball - that's still 2 days away, I mean, one book away. Sorry, readers, this time we don't get even the customary detective mystery - just the teasing of "more to come in the future".

There are some nice things in the book. I am happy with how Merry develops, quite pleased that her personality and demeanor are a lot lighter than Anita's latest. Rhys and Nicca get more attention (nice), Kitto more power, Frost's past more explanation (bizarre, but interesting). The whole history of the chalice and what it portends for Merry in terms of her magical power is an intriguing addition - although, like many other details in LKH's latest books, it sort of stays "on hold", making the reader hope the (yet) next book will actually explain it all (judging from the latest trend, I am assuming it won't). The not-very-nice thing is that the manner in which the story unfolds is terribly unfocused. Gone are the times when Ms. Hamilton's books were action-packed and self-contained. Whatever "action" there is in here, it only happens towards the end and is quite anticlimactic. Many new characters are squeezed in the last third part of the book, all of them potentially major, all of them potentially a future consort, as if to warn us that the next book will tease the reader even more and still nothing will happen.

If this book actually had a plot, I would have gotten quite interested in it. Since the plot was mainly non-existent, I just relaxed, enjoyed whatever I could enjoy of the book, and hated that I really couldn't love it. Not as bad as "Cerulean Sins", but not a 4-star either.

Rating:
Summary: Seduced by Frost, Doyle, Rhys, Sage, etc, etc, etc.......
Review: Ok. I have no problem with a few sexy scenes in a book, but when it becomes the entire focus, thats when I have a problem. Seduced By Moonlight was so slow in its first half that I came dangerously close to not even finishing it. The beginning chapters were just one page after another filled with wordy dream sequences and excuse after excuse to get Merry's men naked. I will be the first to admit that Merry's men are beyond beautiful and truly it is no hardship to get to "know" them intimately, but I need a plot, people! FINALLY, after speedreading through too many things that I could have done without, LKH pulled it all together and from midway on, the book became interesting. I thought that some of the violence in the books ending scenes was a bit over the top, but the last pages were fun to read as Merry settled in for the night and we were able to look in and listen to her and her suitors as they whispered to eachother while drifting off to sleep. I just love Rhys and I definitely felt like he stole the show in those last pages. All in all, this is a definite must read if you are a fan. There is too much going on at this point for me to stop reading the series and I hope that LKH comes out with the next book soon because I am very curious to see which man will become Merrys husband.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Erotic Dark Fantasy -- That's Short on Plot
Review: There are 2 Kinds of people who did not like this book:

There are those who, despite having read Laurell K Hamilton before, are shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that she would write such a highly sexed novel -- despite the fact that anyone who has read her books in the last 2/3/5 years shouldn't be surprised and anyone who opened the book and looked on just about any page -- shouldn't have been surprised, but still people are shocked -- and somewhat indignant as well.

They write things like "Oh my GOD Laurell K. Hamilton books have lots of kinky sex" or "frankly all the sex bores me". Fine don't buy another book in this series because she has 16 men now. What do you think will happen in the next book?

Then there is the 2nd level of complaint:

That it's short on plot. And those people have a point. Seduced by Moonlight is short on plot -- it didn't really bother me because I saw it as something of a Robert Altman film, which is full of characters who drive the story rather than having story drive character. But this is genre fiction and genre fiction is supposed to be about plot. This doesn't have much of one. However, if you like Merry and like the universe she lives in, and don't mind lot's of hot kinky sex then you'll enjoy this book.

I did.