Becoming more and more porn like ( )

The murder mystery in Divine Misdemeanors was interesting. The subplots involving Merry's new guards were interesting. So were Merry having to confront Barinthus and the Black Coach helping our soldiers. Sex scenes that granted new powers or created a new sithean were tolerable, the others were boring.

Two problems with listening to Merry Gentry books instead of reading them are not being able to skim through the too-many sex scenes and the grating voices narrator Laurel Merlington gives most of the male characters. That's why I docked half a star. ( )

This novel has some intricate, beautifully thought out faery mythology - which it then thoroughly fails to explore or take advantage of. With so many places that the story could have gone, I was actually frustrated to read it as-is.

The protagonist seems a little more self-absorbed (or perhaps a little less fully fleshed) than in the earlier books although I was pleased to see that Merry, unlike Anita Blake (the heroine of the author's other main series), continues to be unashamed of her sexuality and her polyamorous lifestyle and desires, so there's that at least. The plot.. well, I read books 1 and 2, then skipped 3 through 7 and I don't appear to have missed much of the overarching plot. Merry has collected more lovers and some followers who aren't part of her sexual menagerie, is more of a power to be reckoned with in the Courts, but she is still having trouble accepting the age and ruthlessness of some of her loves. And the author still has a fascination with barbie-doll beautiful men with ankle-length coloured hair (which doesn't tangle in the wind, but even they don't know why).

Worth a read if you're bored, but honestly I'd stop at book 2.

( )

It was okay. The plot was a bit thin, but that's to be expected from LKH these days. I'm not sure why I keep reading her. She's like a drug I can't quit. Like cigarettes. LKH is like Camels. (Yes, I *am* easily amused, thanks for noticing...) ( )

I am a big fan of Laurell K. Hamilton. I do prefer her Anita Blake series but her Merry Gentry series is quite good too. As usual, for her, it is a very well developed world with lots of violence. It can be a bit tricky to keep all the guys straight but in general I find the books to have far more positives than negatives. ( )