Showing posts with label series: merry gentry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label series: merry gentry. Show all posts
September 18, 2014
Merry Gentry 9: A Shiver of Light
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Well, talk about disappointing while also somewhat expected given what has happened in the Anita Blake series. This book is lots of gratuitous sex scenes that "aren't actually sex" because Merry is still banned from that by her doctors postpartum. The twins are in fact triplets, yet Merry is not constantly sleep deprived from breastfeeding the three that apparently are super powered faerie babies on top of having multiple father each (don't even try to figure that one out; it will just make you're head hurt). Instead, she takes walks around the estate, talks to her aunt, gets trapped in dreams with Taranis, and takes breaks with her lovers while unknown other people take care of her special children, one of which supposedly must have only her milk because she can't handle anything man made. Yeah... that makes sense... not.
On top of this, a large portion of the book is spent on physical descriptions and re-hashing the reasons behind the babies names, how to pronounce them, and what they mean. Seriously, that information is only needed once, if that. Over and over each chapter throughout the entire book? No thanks. This book could easily be cut down to half or less of it's actual length.
Of all the interludes with her many lovers, the most touching is of course the last one with Sholto. It must be that way since of course he has to be killed just after the encounter. Of all the men to choose to kill, Sholto would not have been my first choice. On top of this, we learn Frost is apparently now mortal and Doyle is having a breakdown because it appears both Merry and Frost will now die before him.
So in a nutshell, lots of emotions, very unrealistic situations and character death. If anything, I'm rather relieved that I never really loved this series as much as my other favorites, so while the 5 year hiatus was annoying, overall I felt rather indifferent about it. Otherwise this book would have been an even bigger disappointment then it already is.
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August 3, 2012
Merry Gentry 8: Divine Misdemeanors
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Takes a lot longer to read a book when taking care of a newborn too. Even without that delay, this has always been a harder series for me to really get into. Sadly, this was another hard one to really get into. Hamilton has gotten very repetitive in her descriptions, even within the same book. I lost count of the number of times fey magic is explained along with the differences in Merry's mixed blood, especially how it allows her to wear metal directly against her skin when it could hurt most of her guards. Hate to admit it, but I miss her earlier writing when everything was new and moved forward to actually develop the characters. Her more recent books are just repetitive, slow, and lack real development on a lot of levels.
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July 7, 2012
Merry Gentry 7: Swallowing Darkness
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Merry is pregnant, Frost is gone, Andais is once again going back on her word, Cel is as crazy as ever, and still they're adding people to her bed. I'm beginning to think Hamilton is obsessed with sex and has lost her ability to write about anything else. This makes me very sad as her series have wonderful foundations prior to their degradations to these points and the characters have the potential for a lot more depth than they seem to be given in the long term.
Overall I felt this would have been an excellent point to end the series as Cel is finally dead, Frost is returned, and Merry has walked away from the courts with her lovers and allies. Seems like a good stopping point as everything has reached some form of conclusion. Makes me a little wary about the following books.
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April 17, 2011
Merry Gentry 6: A Lick of Frost
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Frost is a stag, Merry is finally pregnant by multiple parties, theoretically allowing her to keep the majority of her men, Taranis has publicly snapped, the shining court is falling and Merry may have just won herself yet more enemies. Not really something she needs right now. The next big questions is how will Andais and Cel take the news of Merry winning the race for the throne? This book was a much faster read than the others, but I'm not sure if I liked it as much either. Dealt a lot with Rhy's feelings knowing he wasn't the apple of Merry's eye. It was interesting to learn Rhy's had actually petitioned Merry's father for her hand before her first engagement. The multiple fathers thing seems like an easy out to me for her to keep her men. Even with magic and all, not very realistic or following with the line so far that everyone else would be gone once one king was chosen. That will be a whole new mess to figure out.
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April 15, 2011
Merry Gentry 5: Mistral's Kiss
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is primarily mostly sex and power upgrades. About the most interesting things that happened were the fae animals and Sholto's new attitude. Definitely bad things coming now that Cel has been released; that was a bad move. Still nothing new on the side of the Seelie court with Merry's so called ball. Now that she's running back to L.A. without visiting the shining court, just how many things could go bad?
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April 12, 2011
Merry Gentry 4: A Stroke of Midnight
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Somehow, a single day manages to take up this entire book. Starting with the press conference going wrong and ending with Taranis nearly beginning a war on accounts of a Seelie lie a day before Meredith and her entourage are due in his court. I'm not sure what I think about so many people suddenly lining up to join Merry's little band. I did like that they got Andais to lift the ban so Nicca and Biddy could be together. Also liked the idea of her immediate group of men being marked by her power so they couldn't be taken away again. That has been a constant concern since the first book, and likely will continue to be so. The living months inside their skin kind of creeped me out a bit at the end. Otherwise just waiting to see more of how the story unfolds.
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April 11, 2011
Merry Gentry 3: Seduced by Moonlight
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm actually really liking Frost's development and Rhys' personality more and more in this book. I also find Doyle's regained and new animal forms interesting; would love to actually see some artwork that did it justice for a real visual. Meredith herself seems very slow to develop beyond the sudden power changes that get thrust on her. There are also parts of the story, like Kurag's intro/description that seem to be copy/pasted in each book. That's getting old fast. Merry has added yet more men to her odd little harem - something has got to change or there either won't be anyone else left in court or people will start getting sent back because they flat out don't have room for everyone. They managed to avoid the issue of the chalice with the Queen, but there's still the King's banquet set for two days after the ending of this book, so you know that's part of the next chapter. The show's not over yet.
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April 8, 2011
Merry Gentry 2: A Caress of Twilight
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Once again, relationships shoved in your face and that takes up the majority of the book. The only real development is news that Kitto turns out to be sidhe, the guards get their powers back from the Nameless, and they learn that King Taranis is behind both the Nameless and the ghost's releases.
Was glad to see Meredith officially get her own guard at the end of the book. Maybe now the men will stop panicking about loosing their new found freedom. It is slightly curious that Merry was able to help Maeve get pregnant with one simple ritual while she herself is still barren.
Once again, something I'll likely continue just to see how it ends and keep an easy read going, but not something I really devour or will go wild over when it comes out.
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April 2, 2011
Merry Gentry 1: A Kiss of Shadows
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When I first read this book in high school, I couldn't focus on it or hardly remember anything I read. It did not hold my interest at all, and as such I did not continue with the series despite loving Hamilton's early work with ABVH. In looking through my personal library recently, I decided it was time to give this book another chance.
While being delightfully different as far as characterization goes from her other series, MG holds the same fatal flaws as her ABVH series newer releases demonstrate - sometimes too much detail and way too many sexual exploits shoved in your face at the detriment of any real story line or progression.
Admittedly enough I'm finding that I like Doyle and Frost far more than Meredith or other supposed main characters in the royal triangle in large part because of how little we know of them yet. There is still an air of mystery and wonder getting to know these two characters that is in large part missing from the others. Doyle especially has struck me as very complex through this last read and I want to see more happen with him than the others.
Still not enough to rate it as a favorite, but enough to keep me interested for a laid back read.
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