Summary: Merry Gentry is a fay princess—part elf, part brownie, part human. She's third in line to the throne, which is now occupied by her aunt Andais, the queen of Air and Darkness. Merry has been on the run for three years: Her aunt and cousin, Prince Cel, want her dead to ensure that the royal line stays in their side of the family. When the queen begins to realize that Cel may not be an appropriate heir, she sends her goons out to bring Merry home.

Why I Abandoned the Book: Hamilton has created a complex and internally consistent world of fay that exists side by side with humans in the modern world. The varied creatures and their different powers are well constructed and easy to envision. The fay world is divided into two courts, and the political tension between them is nicely developed. The plot moves along quickly, and it is easy to get caught up in the story.

So what's the problem? It turns out that the fay are very sexual. So sexual that there are laws and restrictions concerning fay and human sex. Merry is particularly gifted in the area of the sensual arts and gains power through sex. Frankly, it begins to get very tiresome: Every time Merry meets a male (of any sort), she is either seduced or she does the seducing. The sex scenes are well written, but I began to be annoyed at the breaks in the overall plot and bored with reading yet another description of sex with yet another type of fay.

I listened to the audio production of this book read by Laural Merlington. The characters were easily distinguishable, and she did a good job with pacing. Perhaps if I had read the book in print, I could have skimmed over the sex scenes and concentrated on the story line itself. But with audio, you listen to every word.

A Quick Look at Reviews: I checked several commercial book sites and discovered that the print version of A Kiss of Shadows averages somewhere around a 4-star rating. Audio sites rate the book at bit lower at 3.5 stars. On the book cataloging sites, the novel is rated at 4 stars. I did not find any book blogger reviews to link to. If you know of any, please leave the link in a comment so I can update this post. ( )

This is a great series, very imaginative new world, but the sex is overpowering. This one isn't as bad as the rest for that, but some of the later books in the series (7 now?) are 1/2 sex - more than it needs, although sex/fertility is the main driver. ( )

In this book we explore the world and life of a true faerie princess in Los Angeles, California, the life in fact of Princess Meredith NicEssus under the assumed name of Meredith 'Merry' Gentry. Merry is working for the Grey Detective Agency in an alternate reality to that of our own where the Seelie and Unseelie Courts of the faeries are a very real and very public--to an extent that is. The faerie courts are like the lives of modern superstars in that the public image is intended to be only what they wish to show rather than what it is.
Merry is in self-imposed exile after having nearly been killed at the courts in the past. When she is brought back to the Unseelie Court after a dramatic and traitorous course of events she is shocked by Queen's 'request.' The Queen reveals that she wishes for her bloodline to continue upon the throne and for that to happen, she is willing to take whoever of Meredith or her own son, Cel, who can produce a child first as her heir. The Queen lifts the order of celibacy upon her Ravens for Meredith alone and insists that she choose at least three or even more of the men in order to increase the chance of her becoming pregnant. ( )

 Awesome read! A faerie princess, unseelie & seelie courts, magical book & cant wait to read rest of series! if you like modern faerie novels and great sex scenes this is a book for you. ( )

This was an okay book. Seeing the set up of the court and the politics was interesting, and there is definitely enough sex. We'll see how the rest of the series plays out. ( )