Links: Drew Bittner's review / Show Official Info /

Merry Gentry is a princess of faerie. She could have been queen but decided not to take the position. She's also a private eye in Los Angeles where she serves as the liaison between the human world and the world of fey. She's also pregnant and, therefore, highly protected by her two bodyguards, Frost and Darkness. She's also fairly horny most of the time, which would explain the pregnancy as well as a number of other things in the book. Needless to say if you don't like your urban fantasy mysteries interspersed with sex you should probably avoid this book. Of course you would not be picking up Laurel K. Hamilton if you were not looking for that as well as an interesting story.

This is seventh book in the Merry Gentry series, I believe, and it continues the story of Merry, princess of faerie, as she tries to turn her self-imposed exile into a positive situation by creating a new order outside the world of faerie. She has a lot of support since the faerie court is quite cruel and often deadly. What she does not have is a really good handle on all of the other fey who are running loose in the area. Some of them are seriously up to no good and this creates problems not only for Merry but for the humans who are just trying to go about their business.

This is an interesting book. It's not a new concept; there are any number of writers doing this setting and situation, but few add as much spice to mix as Hamilton does. Like many of her other books, Hamilton does not fool around with plot and quickly gets things moving in interesting ways. Often she is ahead of the reader which creates an interesting process of trying to follow as she maintains a plot pace just before you. The characters are interesting, the story is interesting and there are no few twists involved before you get to the end. And there is an end which is a great thing. Sure there are loose ends as well which will lead to the next book in the series but the main problem is resolved in a satisfactory way. Fans of Hamilton have already read this book and enjoyed it. Others should feel safe to pick it up if they are looking for a good, sexy, urban fantasy. Recommended.