Search - A Kiss of Shadows (Meredith Gentry, Bk 1)

Part of the Merry Gentry Series
1. Kiss of Shadows
2. Caress of Twilight
3. Seduced by Moonlight
4. Stroke of Midnight
5. Mistral's Kiss
6. A Lick of Frost (summer 2007)

This was the first book I've read by Laurell K. Hamilton. After hearing so many good things about her books, I was terribly disapointed and will never read another one. It's all stupid blather. Her writing takes all the magic and excitement out of the paranormal and turns it into a flat boring world. I know I'm in the minority but I had to force myself to finish this book. There are too many good authors out there for me to read anymore of this series or any others.

I love LKH and this book doesn't disappoint. I wasn't sure if I would like this series as much as Anita Blake, but I was wrong. Merry Gentry is just as interesting and entertaining and I can't wait to get to the rest of the books in this series.

Good book. Good story line, but almost too trashy.

I love Hamiltion's Anita Blake series but I'm just not sure I like Meredith Gentry. If you like lots of rough sex scenes then you may like this series. I just wish it had more plot action with less emphasis on the sex...

This was my first LKH book. It was 2003, and because of the movies, I had just read the Lord of the Rings(LOTR). As usual, after a LOTR reading, I long for more of Middle Earth. It was just chance that I ran across this book in the library, and thought "Wow, I'd like to read about elves. I love mysteries too." I hadn't yet heard the term "paranormal or urban fantasy".

Well, it wasn't like Middle Earth, and it's not much of a mystery either...
At first, I was thinking, "What? The mystery is solved within the first 40 pages, and now it's become soft core porn." But then I realized I was enjoying myself, and i was turning pages just to see which gorgeous man she'd sleep with next.

I'm not a romance reader, and that is so not my thing. So, I give LKH credit for building that kind of suspense for me. I'd never seen anything like her elves, or female characters with male harems.

Normally, I just skip over sex scenes. But, magic occurs during LKH's sex scenes, and people glow like light bulbs. That was so unusual. It kept me reading, at least for the first 20 sex scenes (had to read 3 books to get up to 20). Now, i just skim the sex scenes in case interesting magic occurs.

In LKH's books, good sex will solve a lot of problems. I know that this annoys some readers, but it appeals to the optimist in me.

I don't know what to make of LKH. I have never been both so bored and so engaged, all within the same book. The sex and relationship-discussions never end.

However, some aspects of her characters are so incredibly real, especially how she dealt with inter-personal power during her early books. It felt so good to read a realistic account of women who didn't make nice, and who demanded to call the shots.