Rating: 
Summary: Branching out
Review: Laurell K. Hamilton branches out from her bestselling Anita Blake novels with a new, fae-oriented series. She really shouldn't have bothered. While "Kiss of Shadows" starts off dark and intriguing, the plot rapidly degenerates into a NC-17 fantasy without much more than sweaty gyrations to recommend it.
Part-mortal Princess Meredith NicEssus -- undercover as Merry Gentry -- is a P.I. in Los Angeles, which apparently is swarming with fey and fey-wannabes. Keeping her identity a secret is vital, since she knows the dangers that would follow being uncovered. But while investigating a supernatural date-raper (and falling prey to him) Merry's identity leaks out.
Before you can say "bonk 'em all," she is given an ultimatum by her aunt, the queen of the Unseelie Court: she and her evil cousin Cel are both going to try to have a baby. The one who succeeds will be the next ruler -- the other is toast. Merry is assigned a harem of fae men, all of whom want her as much as she wants them. Physically, anyway.
Here's a warning: "Kiss of Shadows" has a lot of sex. A LOT of sex. A sufficient amount that, among other things, Merry hops in the happy sack with any guy lucky enough to meet her. Oh, and she has a male harem. Sound like an adult movie? Well, it pretty much is -- lots of excuses to have sex, including an enjoyable rape (did a woman really write this book?) and Merry nearly being molested by the entire L.A.P.D. And that's before it gets really raunchy.
For anyone hoping for more than soft-porn, the book is lacking. It starts off strong, with a battered woman and a magical want ad, and Merry going undercover to lure out the magic-sucking guy involved. But once she bonks her selkie boyfriend, the plot goes down the tubes. What is worse, the sex obscures the mysterious cultures and subcultures of the fey and sidhe -- Hamilton hints at interesting cultures, rituals and different races, but seems to lose interest in the idea.
Without a developed backdrop, the actual plot feels rushed and half-finished. Hamilton also could use a better editor, since her writing quickly becomes repetitive -- lots of hair, unusual eye color, strange powers. All the men are madly attractive, chiseled, and devoid of any individual personality. All the women are beautiful, usually dainty.
Merry isn't terribly interesting -- she starts off as a moderately entertaining P.I. with a barbed sense of humor. Then it just sort of fades away. Queen Andais is also moderately interesting, as the villain of the piece. Merry's harem guys have paint-by-numbers personalities, and after the initial introductions they just become a heap of interchangeable sexy bodies.
Buried somewhere in "Kiss of Shadows" is a really good novella, but it's choked by a poorly thought-out soft-porn movie. Hamilton had the right idea, but the execution is a painful "Kiss."
Rating:
Summary: Overdone
Review: Let me preface this with saying that I am a huge Laurell K Hamilton fan.
In particular, this book took me three tries to start, and with force I finish it. It was difficult to keep track of all of the characters. The 468 pages were devoted mostly to lengthy descriptions about each characters clothes or body features.
As a relatively recent reader of this genre, I found the whole Sidhe/Fey/Faere/Goblin/Brownie culture difficult to understand. Hamilton didn't provide enough information to help me separate each unique culture and then see their inter-relationships.
I hope that Hamilton rescues my waivering trust and salvages the storyline in A Caress of Twilight.
Rating: 
Summary: Meredith rocks!!!
Review: Merry, Merry, quite contrary, How does your new court grow? With silver, black, green, and blue, Lovers lined all in a row!A Kiss of Shadows is the first book of a really cool, really erotic, really breath-taking series! LKH's unique writing style is quite evident throughout this book. Merry is a lot like Anita: short, pretty, tough, intelligent, possessing some powers that have yet to be discovered. But of course, Merry has a MUCH more interesting sex life than Anita. Merry Gentry is an awesome character, working at the Grey Detective Agency in Los Angeles: Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions. However, Princess Meredith NicEssus leads an ABSOLUTELY captivating lifestyle at the Unseelie Court. Especially when Merry's Aunt Andais, Queen of Air of Darkness, wants Merry, and Merry alone, to sleep with the beautiful royal Guards and produce an heir to the Unseelie throne. Now THAT is an extremely interesting proposition. I really like all the hot sidhe characters that LKH introduces, especially Doyle (the Queen's Darkness) and Frost (Killing Frost). Screw the other males in the book (I know Meredith will probably do each of them sooner or later). MY favorite male in the book is definitely Cel, Andais's son and Meredith's cousin, Prince of the Unseelie Court, heir to the throne (or at least he was before Meredith returned to court) Sure he's cruel, evil, and sadistic, but what can I say? I have a weakness for gorgeous bad guys in black. I would just love to see Cel plotting to kill Meredith again (or bed her). Something tells me that we'll see him many more times to come in the series. I just totally love this series! Now I don't know which series is better: Anita Blake or Meredith Gentry? Which world is more interesting: vampires or faeries? Who is more powerful: Anita or Merry? Which series has the sexiest men: Jean-Claude (my fave), Asher, Damian, Edward, Richard (hate him), etc, or Cel, Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Galen, etc? Parallel worlds, parallel characters: Anita=Merry; Jean-Claude=Doyle; Richard=Roane; Asher=Galen; Bert=Jeremy; Edward=Frost; Jason=Rhys; Gabriel=Cel; Marcus=Barinthus; Raina=Andais; Larry=Kitto; Ronnie=Lucy; Cassandra=Rozenwyn; Catherine=Keelin; Marianne=Teresa; Olaf=Sholto A Kiss of Shadows is perhaps my favorite book of all time now, knocking out The Killing Dance from the #1 place. I am so so glad that I bought this book, expensive as it may be. Laurell K. Hamilton, you are simply the best!!!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and Sexy
Review: This is a fun book to read. It is definately for the adult mind. Very erotic. The writing was easy to read. This is book 1 in a series that currently contains three books. It is a series that you will enjoy reading.
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