A Caress of Twilight: a review by freya lorelei

A while back, I read the Laurell K. Hamilton novel A Kiss of Shadows; a silly piece of fluff about a modern-day faerie princess and her adventures in the Unseelie court. A lot of sex, a ton of cliches, a little plot--basically supernatural porn. I found it entertaining enough, so I wrote a review on it for the amusement of myself and my best friend DC (who I actually bought the book for, but found so rant-inducing that I purchased my own copy). Shortly afterward, DC bought the sequel and lent it to me. Hers was hardcover, so I waited a bit until the book came out in paperback. Thus all page references are from the paperback edition.

This sequel, A Caress of Twilight, while slightly better in quality, diverts very little from the formula of its progenitor. The one redeeming value of the Meredith Gentry series is now that LKH has an outlet for her porn-writing impulses, she can stop making Anita Blake into a slut (at least in theory; the books themselves have very much proved otherwise).

The second book is very much in the vein of the first: Lots of political wrangling, lots of handsome long-haired men, lots of revealing new powers for Merry, and of course, LOTS of Hot Sex. The last is toned down slightly, and Merry does seem to develop something resembling a conscience and moral code (her blatant promiscuity in A Kiss of Shadows was really getting on my last nerve).

The good news: Merry's no longer initiating sex every fifteen pages. In a marked improvement, she's only initiating sex every forty pages. Things are looking up!

Better yet, A Caress of Twilight has actual substance. Plot threads are tighter and more frequent, not just an occasional reprieve from the copious amounts of intercourse. Ironically, there's less sex in A Caress of Twilight than there is in Cerulean Sins, the latest Anita Blake paperback. This is both heartening and depressing.

However, inconsistencies still run rampant. Take Maeve Reed's career. On page 26, Rhys claims "She's been the reigning queen of Hollywood for over fifty years." Fair enough. Then on pages 59, 79, and 84, it states that she's only been in films for forty years--no more, no less. So, which is it?

If I never hear this again, it will be too soon: "Sightings of the missing Elven American Princess had rivaled Elvis sightings." Merry states this on the SECOND PAGE of A Caress of Twilight, and variations on it several times afterward, and on page 39 in A Kiss of Shadows. Another I could do without is "Pretty to think so." This occurs in nearly every Anita Blake book and both Merry Gentry books. Also the word "spill" or "spilled" on every single page. I could make a list of LKH sentence cliches.

The Sueishness marches on: Merry gains a new power by book's end. Fortunately, so do a few of her "boyfriends", which sort of balances the deal. There is still a good deal of superfluous name-dropping, in the form of characters mentioned only in passing and never heard from again. I have heard that LKH plans on limiting the Merry series to 7-12 books, so this may be a case of J.K. Rowling Syndrome, with seemingly innocuous information playing a huge role later on (Sirius Black's motorbike, much?). I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, up to a point.

I do have a complaint that really doesn't have to do with the book itself, but is still worth mentioning. At 348 pages, this book was over a hundred pages shorter than A Kiss of Shadow's 468. Yet it was $7.50 to A Kiss of Shadows's $6.99. Yes, I know, inflation, but still....

One thing I did find amusing, in a disturbing sort of way, was Kitto the mixed sidhe/snake goblin's physical appearance. I never really thought of it much, then one day it hit me: He's a hobbit. More specifically, he's movie!Frodo. Short, curly dark hair, bright blue eyes...Hamilton basically created Elijah Wood with scales and a forked tongue. And agoraphobia.

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