Laurell K. Hamilton hooked me into her books when I started reading her vampire hunter series, Anita Blake. She writes incredibly well, has a fantastic edge for suspense, and keeps me hooked! After I read a few of the Anita Blake series (there are 16 books in the series currently), I found out she had another series going, the Meredith Gentry novels, or just Merry novels as I see her mention them in her blog.
Paranormals, if done right, are pretty awesome. I really love it when writers can create an amazing world that just sinks you into it, and Laurell was able to do that. I think that is true of any book though but when you create new cities, people, creatures, ways of doing things, etc., it’s just so cool. Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick) does this really well in her paranormal romance series. And, the best of all, J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts – my fav!!) is awesome at the blend of ‘new’ things in her Eve Dallas/In Death series set in 2054 – the future. But nevermind, getting off track!
The whole Merry series is a little racey (ie. erotica), so fair warning… But Swallowing Darkness was not as erotic as some of her previous Merry novels. At least she didn’t get into sex for the first 150 pages! I am all for romance but to much sex is just… to much sometimes. 🙂 The one complaint/disturbance I have with both the Anita Blake and Merry series (and which I see repeated in reviews in Amazon and other places) is that they start off as an interesting story/suspense and then quickly go down the tons of sex, all the time, with multiple partners at multiple times – path. Yes, they are that… interesting.
Anyway, the book was not her best. Not the worst, I don’t think but the ending confused me. Yet another slightly bad review in my start of book reviews! Sheesh! (This will change, I promise!)
Merry is finally pregnant with twins (each twin has three fathers…) but she was just raped by her uncle, the King of the Seelie Court in Book 6. So it is opening in the hospital. It just doesn’t follow a regular path after that, which can sometimes be good, but they start the book by talking about the rape and then nothing really happens with it which was confusing.
It did keep me reading though as the suspense with the three courts (Seelie, Unseelie, and the Sluagh) was, as always, interesting, and learning more about the father’s of her unborn children. The ending was a fight with some surprising characters as well, and was a change from previous diplomacy that Merry has been using to deal with the different courts.
The ending of the book led me to believe that this was the end of the series which I was disappointed in. It just didn’t end well for me. Luckily, while writing this post I found out that this was NOT the last book in the series. Thankfully. It tied up a few loose ends, as every book manages too, but opened quite a few others. While this wasn’t my favorite, I am hooked into the series and enjoy reading about Merry. I’m sure when the next novel comes out, I will be buying it as well.
For more information on the first book in the series, A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Book 1)
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