"Romance, action, fantasy and adventure"

Princess Merry of the Unseelie Court has been made co-heir to the throne along with her cousin Cel. The first one to get pregnant or give a woman an heir will be the new ruler of the court. Even though Cel is under punishment now for six months, Merry has too many enemies to feel safe at the court. She returns to Los Angeles with her harem of males (fertile sidhe who can get her pregnant) and goes back to her old job as a private detective.

A very famous movie star Maeve Reed hires Merry to perform a fertility rite so she can get pregnant by her husband before he dies. She was banished from the Seelee Court because she knows a secret about its king that would get him killed if it was ever revealed. Before Merry can perform the ceremony, the Nameless has been released on the world with Merry and Maeve as its specific targets, and unless someone can stop it, a massacre will occur.

Readers were introduced to Merry in A KISS OF SHADOWS but in the sequel, A CARESS OF TWILIGHT Merry finally comes into her own. She is no longer fearful and anxious, but instead is a fully mature woman ready to fight to keep her people safe. There is enough romance, action, fantasy and adventure to keep lovers of all genres satiated.

Harriet Klausner - Copyright © 2002

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 19, 2002

Summary

I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne--if I can stay alive long enough to claim it.

My cousin, Prince Cel, is determined to see that I don't. As long as we both live, we are in a race for the crown: Whichever one of us reproduces first gets the throne. So now the men of my royal guard-- frightening warriors skilled with blade, spell, and gun--have become my lovers, auditioning with pleasure for the role of future king and father of my child. And they must still protect me from assassination attempts--for unlike most of the fey, I am part human, and very mortal. All this royal back-stabbing makes it very difficult for me to pursue my living as a private investigator in Los Angeles, especially since the media made sure the whole world knows the Faerie princess is alive and well in sunny California.

Now, in the City of Angels, people are dying in mysterious, frightening ways. What the human police don't realize is that the killer is hunting the fey as well. Havoc lies on the horizon: the very existence of the place known as Faerie is at grave risk. So now, while I enjoy the greatest pleasures of my life with my guardians, I must fend off an ancient evil that could destroy the very fabric of reality. And that's just my day job. . . .

From the darkling throng to the glittering court, this is a world of magic and delights, greed and grotesque ambitions. Laurell K. Hamilton has created a mythos of extreme power and pure beauty that is a delight to behold.