A Stroke of Midnight

Much like its predecessors, this Merry Gentry book features a press conference, several sex scenes, some political intrigue, several more sex scenes, and the occasional sudden outbreak of brutal violence. The female gaze and a general absurdity remain firmly in control of the narrative. I continue to enjoy this series, as the books are fun to mock but also have parts that I genuinely like. (Usually the violent bits; I have more sympathy for Queen Andais than I think the book intends. Although she really needs to stop forceably french-kissing her niece, that's not OK.)

Anyway, onto the mockery! To start with, the cover of this edition is an anatomical nightmare. Turn it sideways and you swiftly notice that hips really don’t work that show more way, the proportions are uncanny, and the disembodied part-torso is shaped like a violin. In other anatomical nightmares, we’re told that Queen Andais has 'no thighs to speak of'. What, then, connects her knees to her hips? She’s 6 foot tall; I’m imagining a praying mantis of some sort.

The opening press conference beginning gave me deja vu. Surely these press conferences are always the same? ‘The media’ ask incredibly polite and unrealistically staid questions, the fey stand around looking awkward, and Merry ends up snogging a guy. Additional questions that I cannot help thinking would come up: “Princess, do you vote democrat or republican?”, “What’s your stance on Obamacare?”, “Are you actually a Mormon?”, “Were the fey responsible for the assassination of JFK?” etc. There would probably be a lot more creepy questions, too: “Princess, have you had plastic surgery?”, “Does sleeping with all these men make you feel like a porn star?”, “What diet do you follow?”, “What sexy techniques do you use to keep your men faithful to you?”, etc. Actually, I’m glad realism wasn’t even attempted here.

This entire book, which runs to more than five hundred pages, takes place in a single day. Most of the kerfuffles that occur, especially the angry shitfits of Queens Andais and Niceven, could have been avoided if the fey had mobile phones. When Important Magic Stuff occurred, one of Merry’s harem should have had the job of texting updates to the other Queens’ people and whoever else needed to know. That would be a lot more convenient than the sword-based magical skype system that they seem to use. There would probably be a lot less standing about in hallways as a consequence. So many of the scenes in this book take place in hallways - the majority of the sex scenes, even.

After some speculation on my part, in this book it is confirmed that the fey shed ‘skin cells, hair, saliva’. Consider the implications. Merry’s harem mostly have floor-length hair in a variety of extraordinary colours. Hoovering their house must be quite an adventure. The shower must get blocked up constantly. Moreover, Merry must surely have said at some point: “Stop, stop the fucking! Your hair is in my face and not in a sexy way, it’s like I’m being smothered by an afghan hound. Go and get a scrunchie.”

The most memorable lines of the book are, on this occasion, not bizarre metaphors for sex magic. Mistral uses, “Do you want to ride the storm?” as a pickup line, which is I absolutely cannot believe no-one laughs hysterically at or slaps him for. The most baffling line is from page 275: “Irony is sweet when it is on the right foot.” Can anyone explain this to me? Context is no help. My favourite amongst the technicolour dream harem this time would have to be Crystall, whose hair is seemingly made of prisms as rainbows dance around his head. What an aesthetic. In conclusion, the magical erotic adventures of Merry continue apace. As she only gets to eat a couple of spoonfuls of stew all day, presumably magical orgasms are sustaining her.

Since I am absolutely going to carry on reading this ridiculous series, I shall record my predictions about the endgame. Merry will eventually get pregnant by Barinthus and marry him, but will still sleep with Doyle and Frost (who will finally admit that they're in love with each other). She will gain five hundred more magical powers and her baby will have hair that changes colour like a mood ring. Kitto and Galen will make excellent babysitters. Cel will be horribly killed by some sort of monster, or possibly by Andais in one of her fits of rage. Rhys will flounce off back to LA. show less

The Good: Merry and her men continue to be awesome, navigating the deadly political situation they've been thrust into. A murder mystery in the Slithen mixes the world of magic and faerie with the human forensics. I love how everything Merry says or does changes the whole of faerie. Her every action seems to push the plot into a new direction. You never know what the magic may do.

The Bad: The book moves at a quick pace the entire time, except when things get sexy. Those scenes seem to go on at a snails pace. Which makes very little sense since Merry is usually in the middle of a time-sensitive perilous situation when the clothes start coming off. All of this is important to the overall plot of the series, but it would be nice if the show more pace was balanced throughout. show less

Another great read with a qualifier. I read this author for her descriptive narration and the sex scenes, To the 'serious literature' hounds who are looking for classic novels - this is not it.
There are pages dominated by descriptive sex scenes and elements of repetition throughout. Hamilton will use the same phrase frequently or repeat lines of inner dialogue. The storyline sometimes suffers lulls and tangents as it gets overwhelmed by the descriptive parts. This effect is overly noticeable in the audiobooks (I think because on paper a reader can do skim reading when it becomes a bit too much - but with audio, you have to listen to every word)

Not sure why I keep buying these books. There seem to be a lot of authors nowadays who know how to hook readers with fairly mediocre stuff and keep the money rolling in. I like the basic concept of faeries coexisting with humans in the modern world, and what one can discern of a plot has potential. I would like, one day, perhaps to find out how it ends. The eroticism is interesting. By using non-human characters it gives the author scope to explore things which are unlikely, probably impossible and possibly illegal in terms of human sexuality. But the books are so wordy and rambling, a bit like a TV soap opera which tries to spin every incident out interminably. In the midst of supposedly important, dangerous and fast-moving events the show more characters seem to spend most of their time engaged in idle chit-chat. The content of the first four books could easily have been edited into one good length novel - but then there wouldn't have been so much revenue, I suppose. But I'll keep reading them. show less

More sex but enough story to balance, at least for me. I do like all the bits of lore and myth and names, so much so that I ordered The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore (Facts on File Library of Religion and Mythology) from Abe Books so I could look up all these gods and goddesses and fill in the blanks. I love books that lead me to other books. On to Mistral's Kiss

Reread 2018 - there is nothing I like better than a book that will not let me put it down. Awake till 4:00 a.m this time and up at 8:30 to continue. Mixed blood Merry gaining powers is more believable than human Anita..why is that? Suspension of disbelief works so much better with this series. Maybe its the Irish in me that has always believed more in fairies show more than in vampires.

One irritant..two books now and the editor/writer missed fixing a word she used often. The guard sent to slack Cel's need. IT IS SLAKED lady. Two bloody books and she can't fix it???? show less

I've read the Anita Blake series and while I see many similarities between the two series, I really like that they're two completely different stories. I don't feel like I'm just reading Anita's story with different names. One has to wonder just how many men one woman can take into her bed, though. I think by the end of this book, Merry is up to 18 men and 2 women. And she still has to go back to LA and find a place for all of them to live.
And I'm running to library to get [bc:Mistral's Kiss|30224|Mistral's Kiss (Meredith Gentry, #5)|Laurell K. Hamilton|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168063554s/30224.jpg|4198] to see what happens next. I said I wouldn't do that because I'm going to finish the published books and have to wait for show more the next Merry book, but I can't help myself. show less

The 4th book of the Merry Gentry series. Good intrique, fascinating world and developments, but.... sometimes (well, quite often...) I have a feeling that the plot is nothing more than mere placeholder between two random sex scenes. I'm not prudish or something like that but this is illogical and for its own sake....