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After choosing my love of Frost over the crown of faerie, I, Princess Meredith NicEssus, have decided that my children growing inside me and the men in my life are more important to me than a crown. I also decided that fighting always to keep my crown wasn’t worth dying for. I wanted to be with the fathers of my children and live my life without having to look over my shoulder for an assassin. We decided to go back to Los Angeles and back to Mauve Reed’s mansion and the detective agency. I wanted Doyle and Frost with me of course and Rhys, Galen, Mistral, and Sholto. I know that there is 6 fathers for the 2 babies I carry but the Goddess has granted me the sight to see when the wild magic was around us.

Life has been more laid back when it comes to people trying to kill me but there has been someone or someones killing other fey. It seems that they take a page out of a fairy tale book and try to mimic it. The murders have been really disturbing for us. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble since I am a faerie princess and the media has been hounding me relentlessly. They have found out that I have refused the crown but am still the Queen of the Sluagh to King Sholto. When I come around the reporters seem to grow and get antsy. The lesser fey are starting to get antsy as well. Everyone is looking for a demi fey named Bittersweet. We caught her at one time and she seemed to be a witness to the first murder but when the “fairy godmother” showed up, Bittersweet was entranced and the tension between Merry and the godmother was enough to walk on.

I thought this book was more laid back than the others but I still enjoyed it. I liked having the guards in a more laid back atmosphere. They seem to be… just more. I can’t wait until the next one. I will be anxious to read that one as well. I don’t think it was the best one of this series but it was by no means bad. I was just coming off of reading Swallowing Darkness and all the drama from it and then slowing way down for this one. Its a change since all the series has been fast paced. I was shocked by the twist at the ending. I was pointing my finger at someone else entirely. It was a nice surprise not to know what is going to happen beforehand.

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My name is Princess Meredith NicEssus, wielder of hands of blood and flesh. I am heir to the throne of faerie by my Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness. My Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, of the Seelie Court is demanding that I return to the Seelie Court with my twins that were conceived before being taken by my Uncle. He is disillusioned and believes that the children I carry are his and that he is not really infertile. Being King and being infertile will make for the rest of the court to be infertile. Andais knows that she cannot have any more children, which is why she has decided to give up the throne to either her son or her niece, Merry, which ever gets pregnant first. Since Merry is to give birth in 9 months, then the throne should belong to her. There are those among the Unseelie Court who don’t wish to follow Merry due to her human blood. There are those in the Seelie Court who only want to have Merry there because they believe that through her will come power. Merry and all her guards know that the Goddess, Danu, is speaking and acting out by using Merry as sort of a vessel. There are so many plots and trying times that Merry’s not so sure that the crown is worth all that. After losing Frost to the wild magic, Merry isn’t certain that she wants to give into anymore. She don’t want to give up Doyle for sure, but her other guards are becoming really important to her. The fathers of her two babies are King Sholto of the Sluagh, Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Galen, and Mistral . There are many that don’t see how that’s possible but the Goddess has shown them and the ring has helped. All that were witness to that are giving their most solemn oath that its true.

I really got into this book. I couldn’t put it down but was afraid that it would be the end of the series. I know that the author can’t keep going and going like the energizer bunny but it’s sad that there will come an end but not yet. This ending is full of >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Can’t say anymore without giving anything away. It is well worth the read, especially if you’ve been keeping up with all the others in this series. Enjoy, I know I did.

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My name is Merry Gentry, aka, Princess Meredith NicEssus, heir apparent to the throne of faerie. My aunt, Queen of Air and Darkness has agreed to step down if I am fertile enough to carry and have the first faerie child since I was born. I live away from faerie because I want to live. I spent three years in hiding  to keep from dueling again. I just knew that I wasn’t going to be lucky enough to win all the time.  My cousin Cel is also in the running for King. So we are in sorts having a contest and whoever gets with child, wins the throne. The Goddess is working her wild magic through Merry. Of course, not everyone in faerie is happy with that. Many magical artifacts once lost, are coming back. More and more sidhe are coming back into their powers through Merry.

Merry has decided that she loved all her men in a way but none could compare to the love she shares with Doyle and Frost. But things couldn’t just let her be. King of Light and Illusion, Taranis, Merry’s Uncle is accusing three of her guards of raping and ravaging one of the Seelie sidhe. For some reason,even though sidhe cannot lie, the King isn’t relenting his accusation. When forced to meet at the lawyer’s office, Merry and her guards, along with all the lawyers, got to see the King go mad after his magic to lure Merry to him had failed. Once his true colors are known, the value of his opinion is less and the lawyers are pushing for lack of evidence. The only puzzle is that Merry had no idea why her uncle would want her to come to him so badly. She has turned down his invitations for the Yule Ball and a feast in her honor for that same reason.

I really love this book and hate it at the same time. Frost is my favorite guard and character all together. I can’t say any more about this story except that it is very magical, emotional, and will keep you on the edge of your couch while you turn page after page. I was unable to put it down and this isn’t the first time I’ve read it. I recommend this one with 2 thumbs up!!

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Princess Meredith NicEssus, wielder of the hands of flesh and blood, also niece to Queen of Air and Darkness of the Unseelie Throne. The Seelie power in her has changed the sithen in a way that the Queen doesn’t like at all. After the Queen lost her captain of the guard, her Darkness, and her second in command, her Killing Frost, she put Mistral, Bringer of Storms in charge of the Royal Ravens. When Merry’s ring reacted to Mistral, as they say, “the heat was on.” Of course, the Queen wasn’t happy at all. Darkness and Frost are Merry’s guards now and if Merry was to be exiled from faerie, they would go with her without any doubts. Their only problem with letting everything go and leaving all behind was that they couldn’t leave prince Cel in charge of faerie because there wouldn’t be a faerie after that sadistic sidhe was on the throne. So with the world of faerie in their hands, Merry is doing her best to get pregnant and be on the throne before Cel.

Once after there were assassination attempts on Merry’s green knight, Galen, things were beginning to come into perspective. A prophecy concerning a vegetative deity and Merry was going to bring life back to the Unseelie Court. There are many in the courts who don’t wish Merry on the throne and figured that if her guards were attacked then she would be weakened. Also Queen Andais has been having members of her court make major mistakes against the throne. Once Andais learns who is the traitors, things don’t go well for them.

For a first time life has returned to the sithen. It is raining in the sithen because of Merry laying with Mistral. They had to make the best of this since the Queen said that Merry couldn’t keep him. He was hers only for tonight.

Things get really steamy with Abe, Sholto, Mistral and Merry. I can only say that the wild magic is in the air and changing many things.

You have got to read this one. I have found it to be the most exciting book out of this series. Its sensual, breathtaking, and at moments sad. The high emotions running through all those in faerie, sidhe and non fey alike.

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Meredith Gentry, also known as Princess Meredith, wielder of the hand of flesh and blood. Merry looks like she’s from the Seelie Court but her powers are definitely Unseelie. Of course, Merry hasn’t fit in at either court. Her Aunt Andais is the Queen of Air and Darkness. Her cousin Cel and Merry are both coheirs to the throne and when the first one gets with child gets the throne. The Queen stated she would step down from the throne as soon as one of them proves that their fertile. She has let the whole court know that she’s infertile and that is the only reason why she’s giving up the throne. The royal guards have been celibate for 1000 years because Aunt Andais didn’t want her men to waste themselves on anyone but her. Now she has lifted that celibacy for Merry and Merry alone.

Powers have been coming back to faerie and the God and Goddess have been using Merry as their vessel. With faerie coming back to live, the other houses have been leery of Merry’s mortal blood. Before Merry left faerie the first time on her own, she was fearful for her life. It seems that her cousin Cel had been sending his guards to duel Merry on a regular basis. She wanted to leave before one of them killed her. She only won those duels by a hairsbreadth and only one by trading blood which in turn made another sidhe mortal. After that, was when she decided that being alive was much better than being dead. The Queen didn’t seem to want to stand in front of her only son and his wrath. Cel seems to be much more crazy than his mother.

I hate to say any more and ruin it for my fellow readers but I had to tell you a little. Some of this is just background knowledge and like I said, I don’t want to say more. The power that runs through Merry and some of her royal guards and some of those that are first timers. I loved this book. So seductive and mind blowing. It’s a must read!!!!

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Meredith Gentry Series

Meredith Gentry is a private investigator in LA but in the land of fairie she is Princess Meredith NicEssus and in line to the throne from her Aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness. The Queen has a son, Prince Cel, but she is giving up the throne to the heir that gets pregnant first. Merry has been given a magical ring by Aunt Andais from fairie that makes the men who touch it and herself have their moment of magic. The Queen has kept her guards celibate unless she wants them, so she has granted a geas to anyone that the ring responds to. Merry didn’t think that she would feel the way she does but she does. The Killing Frost has been defrosted and the Queen’s Darkness is no longer the Queen’s but Merry’s now. Galen is her Green Knight and she has been in love with him since she was 17. Rhys has always teased her but since they all were then and are now royal guards they were off limits.

Merry is doing the best she can to avoid the assassination attempts and thank her lucky stars that she has the guards at her back and the gods in her life. The Goddess, Danu has been speaking through Merry and the powers that come to her and her guards is wonderful for the sidhe. Of course there is getting pregnant that seems to hinder them all. She knows that if she doesn’t get on the throne and Cel does, then Merry will not be alive to see the destruction that Prince Cel will reap on the sidhe and non sidhe alike. She has made a promise to her guards that she would take care of them in the only way that she knows how.

Oh, step into the wonderful world of fairie and all the sidhe and fey. I absolutely love this series. This one brings you even deeper into their world. I cannot seem to get enough and want to keep going. I am so glad that I have this whole series because as soon as I finish one, I have to move onto the next.

Wonderful! Seductive! Intriguing! Can’t miss it! 5 out of 5 stars. Must read!!!

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Princess Meredith NicEssus manifested her power of flesh. She is trying to get pregnant before Cel gets out of his punishment. She has been named coheir with her cousin, Cel. With Cel in punishment, there hasn’t been any attempts on Merry’s life. While being back in L.A., Merry and her guards have started working for the Grey Detective Agency again. The boys are bringing in more and more jobs from stars that need publicity and think that having a Sidhe guarding them will be just the ticket.

While at work with Doyle and Rhys guarding Merry and Kitto under her desk, a man came in wanting to talk about his boss but was too vague on the details. Once it was decided that he could hit around, Merry realized who he was talking about. The Goddess Conchenn who was exiled from the Seelie Court many years ago. She wanted to talk to her but no one was saying what about. The guards and Merry made the decision to go see her and find out for themselves what she wanted. To speak to an exiled sidhe was in itself treason. Merry was beaten by her Uncle Taranis himself who is the King of Light and Illusion, King of the Seelie Court, just for asking why she was exiled. Now she was going to talk to her as Conchenn is now. The actress, Mauve Reed is top dog in Hollywood and lives in the ritzy Holmby Hills. The visit was different for everyone. Once Merry finally found out why Mauve wanted to see her and what she wanted from her was an absolute shocker. Of all the things Merry could think of, she was still surprised about the answer. Also learning why she was exiled was a big plus.

I couldn’t stop turning pages in this one. I have really been taken with this series. Every time I read these books, I seem to be more enthralled and find things that I didn’t notice before but as afterwards I was like OK. I definitely recommend this to everyone with an imagination.

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My name is Meredith Gentry. I work for the Grey Detective Agency which we specialize in fey magic. Although no one knows that I hold glamour over myself to keep everyone knowing, including my friends, my real identity. My real name is Princess Meredith NicEssus of the Unseelie Throne. I can get by without changing my hair since humans try to match my unseelie red but I always have to hide my tri-colored irises. I have been in hiding from everyone for 3 years now. My aunt is the Queen of Air and Darkness and dotes on her son who despises me. If it weren’t for Cel trying to kill me, I wouldn’t have left. I didn’t think I would survive one more duel.

While working, Jeremy Gray and I were confronted with a dilemma. We rarely do divorce cases but neither of us could let this one go. A woman came in with a spell so nasty on her that we just couldn’t let it lie. We decided that we needed to answer one of his many spell ridden ads and try to figure out a way to put him behind bars. Then we would have more time to work on getting the spell off of the wife.

Alistair was normal looking and didn’t look like a predator. But he was stealing the magic off of fey without their knowledge. Merry has that knowledge which just make him want her more. When they got to his room, she gets surprised when he brings out a bottle of oil that happens to be “Branwyn Tears”. This oil lowers anyone’s ambition and makes then need to be touched by anyone. It was also forbidden to be used without the Queen’s consent. Also once the oil touched Merry, her glamour disappeared. Without the glamour, everyone would know who she was. While trying to keep her head and not let the “tears” get to her, she told Alistair to stop but her body didn’t want to.

After a gruesome ending to Alistair, Merry was found out. She would try to get out of town and run again but nothing was working the way she wanted. When on her way to the airport, she was being hunted by more than one member of the Unseelie Court. Unbeknown to her, the Queen wanted her home and safe so she could make her coheir with the Queen’s son, Cel. The one to bear child first gets the throne.

The Queen of Air and Darkness has always kept her guards celibate unless she wanted them. That geas was to be lifted for Merry and only for Merry. In order for her to get pregnant as fast as possible, Merry was to take on many men. She decided that she would return back to L.A. and take her men with her. She chose the Queen’s Darkness, the Queen’s Killing Frost, Rhys, Galen, a spy for the Queen, and with an alliance to the Goblins, Merry was to take Kitto too.

I loved this book. The imagination put into this whole series is out of this world. I am a big fan of Hamilton from her work with Anita Blake but this is really top notch. The characters are phenominal. I think so far, Frost is my favorite. Even though he seems to be the most emotional. Darkness or Doyle is scary to me. Rhys is not serious enough, neither is Galen. Of course she has to remember, whoever gets her pregnant will be king. Kudos again to the author for such a well written and imaginative series. Most beginning books are slow to start since you have to learn the characters and get the basics down but Hamilton does it with ease and makes you keep turning pages over and over. What a Read!!

Volume 17

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Anita Blake is a medical miracle. Supposedly you are only able to catch one type of lycanthropy and once you do, you become furry once a month at least. Anita carries at least four different flavors and hasn’t shifted yet. She has wolf in her through her tie to the Master of the City and Master, Jean Claude. She also carries leopard from Belle Morte, Jean Claude’s maker. She carries tiger in her from an attack and also from Marmee Noir, the Mother of All Darkness. And not to be last she carries at least one or two more strains from a panwere attack. With Anita there is always more than meets the eye. She is physically gifted even before becoming Jean Claude’s human servant.Her affinity is with anything dead. She can raise zombies that are older than any other necromancer. Since she is a true necromancer. With Anita, work is supposed to come first. While at the office of Animator’s Inc, she was mailed a surprise from a vampire that had gotten away from the police and her. Instead of flowers or chocolates, Vittorio sent Anita the head of the vampire hunter in Las Vegas.

Wanting to wait until her vampire sweeties rise for the night but not wanting to take any more time, Anita leaves by only telling Jean Claude’s pomme de sang, apple of blood, Jason. With Anita’s powers growing, she has gotten another animal to call. She already had a triumvirate with Jean Claude and the Ulfric from the local werewolf pack, Richard. Then she became her own triumvirate with Nathaniel, her leopard to call, and Damien, a century old vampire, who became her vampire servant; which is unheard of.

While Belle Morte wants Anita for her power so does Marmee Noir. The other Masters from all around are sniffing around since they know that there is a fourth mark to be given to Anita but Jean Claude is respecting her wishes and not giving it to her. She is afraid that would make her lose her soul and she isn’t sure that she wants to live like forever. Knowing all the metaphysical stuff that is going on, she still has to leave and help out as a U.S. Marshall. Her friend and fellow Marshall, Edward (Ted) is meeting her there, along with a couple other Marshall that want a piece of the action.

Once she arrives in Vegas, there is testosterone in the air. Many cops don’t think that Anita can fill the shoes that she’s in. They either think that she’s slept her way to the position that she’s in or she is compromised by living with the monsters. Since Jean Claude had her move into the Circus, her reputation has plummeted. Las Vegas PD is no different. For some reason, the police think that either she didn’t tell everything in her reports or that she is intimate with this vampire. After being worked over by the SWAT as to how well she could handle herself in a situation metaphysically and passing all their tests, she was passed on to Vegas PD. Her interrogation didn’t go so well with Undersheriff Shaw or Deputy Morgan either. Once things were finally settled, there was a big, bad, vampire to hunt down.

She also had to contend with Max, the Master of the City in Las Vegas, and his wife, Bibiana, who is also the queen of the weretigers. Bibiana wants Anita’s power since there was an accident before with one of her tigers. Once Anita slept with them and fed the ardeur, they seemed to gain powers. She has to keep control of her beasts and try to catch this vampire before he kills again.

What a read. What an imagination.  I really couldn’t stop reading this one. I am already excited about the next one. I can only say that, as one of the most talented authors, Laurell K Hamilton has not let me down yet. Kudos for her and I hope to read the next one soon.

Volume 16

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Welcome back to Anita Blake, Vampire Executioner, Zombie Raiser, Human Servant to the Master of the City of St. Louis; Jean Claude, Lupa and Bolverk for the local werewolf clan, and Nimir Ra (queen) to the local wereleopard pard. Join Anita while she goes with Jason, her friend, sometimes lover, and her Master’s pomme de sang (apple of blood), to see his family. There is some bad blood between Jason and his father but with his father dying, Jason feels that he should go to say goodbye at least. Nathaniel, Anita’s leopard to call, nominated her to join Jason. While things should have been more than normal with a visit home to see the family, Anita can’t seem to have anything normal. Jason seems to looks more like the Summerlands than he wanted to. Evidently during school they were always getting mixed up as each other. Keith Summerland isn’t an upstanding man and he’s supposed to be getting married this weekend. Plus being rich and the governor’s son doesn’t help him be nice.

While Jason tries to tell the reporters and everyone else that he’s Jason and not Keith, nobody believes him. Since the Governor is Keith’s dad and Keith is missing just before his wedding, the media frenzy is outrageous. Only to make matters worse, the bride to be thinks that Jason is really Keith also until she finally figures it out personally. Once the bride and Jason were an item in high school so she knew him well. Jason and Anita were invited to the Bacherlorette Party. Things were going as normal as Jason would be until the entertainment showed up. A vampire and two wereanimals, which one was a weretiger.It was time to leave.

Marmee Noir, the Mother of all Vampires, is using Anita’s necromancy powers to help wake her up from the endless sleep she’s been in. Things really get weird when the weretiger, Crispin, from the party shows up as if called. Then that’s where things begin to go even more haywire. After 2 days of Jean Claude not being able to reach Anita metaphysically, he has sent Richard as the only wereanimal that could help Anita keep Marmee Noir at bay.Richard is the third of their triumvirate with Anita and Jean Claude. He is also an on again off again boyfriend and sometimes lover for Anita. She has mixed feelings when it comes to Richard as always. She hates him on one hand but loves him on the other. Richard is Ulfric, King of the local St. Louis werewolf clan. Once Anita realized that it has been 2 whole days that she has been in that hotel room with Jason and some strangers, she knew that she was being messed with badly. The charm she kept on her at all times was no where in sight and she was beginning to get scared.

Not only does Anita have to worry about the weretigers and whether she is being tormented by Marmee Noir, but now she knows why the bodyguards were so frustrated with Jason being in town. Keith Summerland has run off with someone else and is missing. That someone else is married and her husband is out to get him. So Jason is or could be in trouble and Anita isn’t wanting anything to happen to Jason.

I couldn’t put this one down. With Jason and Anita there seems to be more passion than before and the emotion is intense. Fertile imagination and amazing ability to draw in the reader as always. Hamilton is the greatest!