Review: A Shiver of Light (Merry Gentry #9)

A Shiver of Light by Laurell K. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to start? I read the rest of this series a while ago which might be why I had less continuity issues than some of the other reviewers out there. That being said, if you picked this book up (or listened to it, as I did) and expected some epic read, filled with not a lot of sex and a massive amount of story, you will be disappointed. If you enjoy descriptions of men, comparing their skin color, eye color, and hair color to beautiful things, then this is the book for you! Oh, and liking the smut would help, too.

Honestly, I picked this book up because it bothers me if I haven't finished a series. I thought I was done with Merry (she was pregnant, things here looking up, the series had ended), but I guess LKH had to poke at things. I assume this will start up the series all over again, because we certainly don't get a lot of resolution in this book.

So, the review. I really have no idea where to start. The book kind of meandered until the end, when MAJOR things happen and then get wrapped up in a summary. The book starts where the series ended: Merry is pregnant and with oodles of men. She declined the throne but is making her own little bit of her home on US soil. The entourage is living with a fae movie star and everyone is super fertile now. In the first few pages we get another pregnancy shocker and then there are babies. I was worried that babies would slow down the smuttiness of the book and while it puts a damper on things for a few chapters, they ramp right up to standard levels before you know it. To balance, we are reminded of Merry's Uncle's rape every other chapter.

Hard to say what the actual story was, really. There's lots of emotional Merry, catty girl fights, dream fights, emotional Merry, baby daddy drama, jealous fae fights, emotional Merry, sex sex sex, Merry saving some of her soldiers, romance, Emotional Merry, death, and it all ends with Merry being pretty awesome. If the book had started with the event at the end and spent the time in between investigating, it might have been a bit of a better read. Of course, I'm setting standards that shouldn't be applied to book 9 of a long dead series. It was nice and cozy to come back to these characters. Based on the read alone it should be a 3 or so, but I like this world so I bumped it up to 4.

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