A Shiver of Light

What I really enjoy about the Merry Gentry series is the creative, astonishing acts that happen around Merry. The mystery can always go, but this latest addition had little mystery at all. We were trapped in stasis. Merry is expecting triplets and confined to little movement and action. The entire metaphor represents the book as a whole. If felt as if Hamilton was trying to get a handle on her characters again, resummarizing their appearances and meaning to one another again and again and not presenting any new action. Although the ending appeared to be a conclusion, there was nothing conclusive about it–just what we had last book- Merry finally knocked up. This series is very liberal sexually and you would think this series wouldn't end like Twilight where babies make everything suddenly solved. I hope we get a book #10 where Hamilton doesn't do another throw a away just to appease fans that loved the series.

The Merry Gentry books have been one of my personal guilty pleasures for a while now, so much so that I tend to reread at least one of the books at least once a year. To be sure, they're not the best kind of paranormal romance I could possibly pick up and read, but I'm fond of them regardless for reasons I can't really explain. So when I found that there was a ninth book in the series, and that it had been out since 2014, I got myself a copy and read it on one of those days when by brain just wasn't feeling up to anything too heavy.

Now, while my standards for my guilty pleasure reads are significantly lower than my standards for the other kinds of reading I do, I have to say that this book didn't quite meet even those lowered standards. The story seemed to ramble around pointlessly for three-fourths of the book, and then all the action came in a rush towards the end, reaching a climax that I didn't even particularly like because it just didn't make sense. If there's a sequel to this one I hope it's a lot better than this go-round.

We need negative stars for utter wastes of time.

Better story than before. I think with the birth of the babies there is not as much politics, which I'm not fond of, and more family relationships. I'll have to re-read the last section to get who the father's all are though.

I definitely think that this installment was better than I expected. The writing was what I remember it to be: on a level of its own, descriptive beyond belief, and just plain beautiful. It reminded me how entrancing LKH's writing is.

I am sad about the death that occurred in this book because I know it will affect Merry and the babies won't know one of their fathers. Sholto was such a great guy, so unique as a person and as a King. His death did not seem like it needed to happen, but I think it did in order to dethrone Taranis.

I am looking forward to the next book in the series to see how the children start developing as kids and in their powers.

My actual rating? 0 stars. This book was absolutely pathetic. Between Hamilton squashing in as much backstory garbage as she could into the dislogue and the utter lack of plot, I'm left to wonder what the hell I just read. Not to mention she kills off a main character about 5 pages after granting them a new ability. What the hell is the point? I'm so disgusted with Hamilton as an author. What happened to her intense characters? Oh and now the fae can suddenly lie too! Hamilton broke the rules of her own world! This book was nothing but crap.