Laurell K. Hamilton: A Caress of Twilight

Ballantine Books (Hardcover), ISBN 0345435273

You know that old adage about try, try, try until you succeed? Well, Merry Gentry, fairy princess and L.A. private detective, must conceive a child before her loathsome cousin and rival for the UnSeelie throne does. Talk about your hard jobs. To aid in her fertilization endeavors, her aunt, Queen Andais, lends her six (count ’em!) males from Andais’ personal guard in the hopes that one will…er, pop that all-important bun in Merry’s oven.

Despite the six-month head start on her cousin, Prince Cel — currently serving torturous time for crimes he committed against Merry — other problems keep interfering with the princess’s, er, practice time. First, Maeve Reed, a Seelie goddess, who also moonlights as an enduring Hollywood bombshell, comes to Merry with a request Merry finds hard to refuse: the goddess/bombshell wants to get preggers. Well, gee, must be something in the air, huh?

Unfortunately, there is something in the air. A monster known as The Nameless suddenly begins to prowl the bad, bad streets of the City of Angels, and the main entrée on its horrific menu appears to be Merry ala mode. Throw in an angry Seelie king, dissention between the sperm donors…er, I mean guards, and an aunt who wants to know every five minutes or so whether you got yourself knocked up yet, I mean — what can a poor girl do?

Well, if Merry doesn’t, her creator, Laurell K. Hamilton, certainly does. From alphabetizing her bedpartner list to battling it out with the supreme forces of evil, Merry and her intrepid band of boy toys…er, guards, take on everything that a determined author throws at them and more. And you know, after page 60, I even got used to the notion of color-coded men. While the first book, A Kiss of Shadows, left me a bit cold with its strong Mary Sue tropes, this time I actually managed to shake off the urge to look at the back book jacket every time the author described Merry and settle quite nicely into the story.

I wouldn’t call this a must-read for all fantasy fans, but if love Laurell K. Hamilton or if you relish multiple partner-sex, color-coded sex, sex with fairies, goblins, and just about anything else that might pop out of the faery shadows, then you’ll want to read this book cover to cover. I mean, look at me — I read it all the way to the end, and I certainly didn’t think I would, although I do love Anita Blake. Now, I don’t mean to mislead readers into thinking that A Caress of Twilight only features sex. Not so! Hamilton throws in Merry doing some detecting, some green sex, more detecting, teeny-weeny sex, acrimonious chats with grumpy faery queens, some ebony sex and a monster that needs to be bitch-slapped too. Of course, that comes after Merry’s nooner.

Teri Smith

By day a financial assistant, by night the assistant editor for Crescent Blues, Teri Smith somehow finds the time to write and sell short stories (“The Visit” in Let Us Not Forget: A Tribute to America’s Twentieth Century Veterans, “Magic” in Strange Pleasures III and “Dragon Bait” in the upcoming Strange Pleasures VI and work on her first novel. Rumors that she is totally crazed are mostly untrue.