Review: Seduced by Moonlight by Laurell K. Hamilton

Title: Seduced by Moonlight
Author: Laurell K. Hamilton
Series: Merry Gentry #3
Pages: 404
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: Bought b/c it's awesome!

Goodreads Description:
My aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is no longer distracted by her usual sadistic hobbies. Her obsession has turned unwaveringly to me. The mission to get me pregnant and beat my cousin Prince Cel to the crown is taking longer than expected. Even though I spend each night with the Queen’s Ravens, my immortal guards, no child has come of our decadent pleasures. But something else is happening. My magic courses through me uncontrollably. And as I lock my half-mortal body with their full-Sidhe blooded ones, the power surges like never before.The Unseelie court has suffered for so long, and there are some who would not have it weakened further by an impure queen. My enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what I am capable of. Nor, for that matter, do I. . . 


My Review:
Another excellent addition to the Meredith Gentry saga! This book was split up: half on the west coast with Merry's PI business, and half in the courts of Faerie. I admit that as much as I love getting to know characters on an intimate level, and of course I love those super hot baby-making scenes, I was glad when we finally got back to faerie. There was just so much that happened in the ending of A Caress of Twilight, and I was anxious to see what it would mean when Merry got back home, instead we had another 20 chapters or so of character and magical developments. I get why it was needed, they couldn't go back to see Aunt Andais without certain things happening, but I was anxious to return to the world of court politics that I found so fascinating, so I was really excited when they finally got there.

There are so many complexities to this series that I can't even put it into words. We see Merry and her men negotiating these immense contracts with the other courts and they literally barter with sex and blood. It's really stressful to know that one word slip, one misspoken sentence can lead to complete disaster so I really love all of the political maneuvering. The different courts of faerie are worlds unto themselves. I would honestly be happy to have a series about each of the different courts of fey, from the goblins to the demi-fey (pixies, etc) to the Sluagh, and of course the immortal Sidhe. There is just SO much information that is implied and inferred that you just know that you could spend years reading everything you can get your hands on about this world and you still wouldn't grasp all the amazing things going on.

The one thing that did bug me, was that the entire first half of the book was almost entirely conversations and sex. Don't get me wrong, they were fascinating conversations that made you get an extremely in depth look at the characters involved. Also the sex scenes were particularly hot as Merry upped the number of men in her bed and goes for more dramatic and completely magical sex scenes. However, I did end up feeling like the first half of the book was, "let's have sex, something magic happens, let's talk about the magic, then let's have sex again". It got a little repetitive and I feel like I could have used some transitional plot or mystery to solve that could have kept me from feeling the drag of the story. Luckily, that happened with the addition of Merry dreaming of The Goddess and having the objects of power come into her life.

The Goddess adds a whole new dimension to the story. Now we get whispers of the Gods coming back from wherever they went when the sidhe failed. Merry is obviously favored by the Goddess and Consort, but the problem is that most of the sidhe don't believe that a half-human mortal would be so favored so they aren't likely to believe in her and support her. This is a problem...especially because it leads to a ton of assassination attempts. When we finally get back to court, the action picks up like crazy. There is still some sex and metaphysics that everyone talks about, but there is also guns and blood and assassinations up the wazoo. There is a scene in Aunt Andais's chambers that is so bone-chilling, so traumatic, that I seriously didn't think I would recover. Indeed, if the Goddess didn't interceed on Merry's behalf, I would have probably been so traumatized by that scene that I couldn't continue. Rest assured that it is one of the most memorable, graphic, and terrifying fight scenes I've ever read. I am so in love with that scene alone that it more than makes up for all the talking in the first half, and then there's even more dramatics and battle scenes afterward. SO GOOD.

I think I will give Seduced by Moonlight 4 out of 5 Keys. The ending more than makes up for the beginning in my book, but those who aren't quite as in love with the series as I am will probably find it a little difficult to stomach. I love that the characters are so well characterized, but I have read other reviews that claim that the descriptions run to the irrelevant. I really don't think so, but if at least a few people think that then it might be true for some readers. Just know that you will probably find one of the most memorably bloody scenes in all of fiction near the end, and the court politics make for awesome twisted plots that flow into each other with amazing ease. I love this series and if you push on through this book, there is more excellence to come. Thanks for reading!