Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories

Book Info
ebook
Published June 3rd 2014 by Transworld Digital
original title A Shiver of Light
ISBN 1473508681 (ISBN13: 9781473508682)
edition language English
series Merry Gentry #9
other editions (11)
Source:Kindle version borrowed from Public Library

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BOOK SYNOPSIS

I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. Legal name Meredith Gentry, because Princess looks so pretentious on a driver's license. I was the first faerie princess born on American soil, but I wouldn't be the only one for much longer…


Merry Gentry, ex-private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of the both courts of faerie are coming to woo Merry and her men at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have babies of their own.


Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry, and failing that, raped her. He's using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the children is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can't prove it.


To save herself and her babies from Taranis Merry will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, The Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie - while trying to contain the war, to keep it from spreading to those innocent humans who are in very real danger of becoming collateral damage..

My Thoughts

Merry Gentry is finally back, now having given birth to triplets instead of the twins she had been told to expect, her life has become even more complete and even more stressful thanks to the efforts of her sadistic uncle trying to claim one of the children as his offspring from the rape he forced on her when she was already pregnant.

Waiting for the DNA results is not the only stress Merry and company must face, there are real issues that have not been resolved yet concerning the support and upkeep for those who have chosen to join Merry and her lovers as well as the fact that Queen Andais is still a possible threat who could choose to target the newborn babies with very little chance of preventing her.

Merry finds herself having to face a repugnant choice once again of using her Hands Of Power as defense, this time to stop Taranis from a repeat of his previous attack as he keeps trying to use illusion in her dreams to tie her to him forever.

What actions will she take when push comes to shove and what about the concerns she faces in the future when it is finally made known just how powerful her newborns are, these questions and more are addressed and it is best to let the book answer them for us rather than spoiling things for other readers.

The trademark repetition is still prevalent throughout the story, that and the ever present turning every encounter between Merry and her men into one boiling over with sexual tension do not in any way prevent me from enjoying this long awaited 9th installment in the series as am accustomed to the style that Laurell K Hamilton employs within everything she writes. I actually only notice it when it becomes something that distracts me completely from the action in a scene but that only rarely is the case this time.

Not knowing if there will be more to come for Merry is not really bothering me at this point as she has finally lived up to her potential, she has finally learned just how much more useful love and kindness can be than the violence and fear she had grown up experiencing at the hands of the members of the Sidhe court and most of all Merry Gentry has accepted that she can embrace her humanity proudly as part of her heritage without being made lesser by it. The last one took all 9 books to get to and it was the most important breakthrough that needed to come to make Merry truly happy and at peace with herself.

[Kindle version borrowed from Public Library]