I just finished the seventh book of this series. Yes I have been busy. In the last two plus weeks I’ve managed to read all seven of the novels. The eight is out now, that one I am looking forward to. Here are the series book titles names in order from first to last (as they are so far!):
A Kiss of Shadows
A Caress of Twilight
Seduced by Moonlight
A Stroke of Midnight
Mitsrals Kiss
A Lick of Frost
Swallowed by Darkness
Divine Misdemeanors
First off, I have to say that if you are not an adult or you don’t have the confront for novels that include a fair amount of sex, particularly your not-so-standard sex (umm these novels are FULL of otherworldly creatures…) then don’t even bother reading this review cuz these books would not be appropriate for you.
That said, frankly, without the sex the novels wouldn’t work. Maybe the amount of detail that Laurell puts in isn’t quite necessary but leaving it out wouldn’t work. The story is about a Fey princess who has run away and hidden herself from the fey in order to save her life. She’s hidden with the humans. Then her aunt (can you say evil aunt) calls her back and tells her that she is now a heir and the aunts son and her are going to race to the crown. Whoever gets pregnant (or in her cousins case, gets someone pregnant) gets the thrown. (That might give you some clue as to how and why this series would be erotica.) So that’s the base of the story.
The writer has done some serious research and has all kinds of incredible stories about the background of the fey as well as many otherworldly, like goblins and lesser fey (what we would know as fairies or pixies), dark creatures of the night, many awesome animals, so much I couldn’t even begin to tell here. Laurell is a fantastic story teller and I enjoyed it very much.
You know when you read a great fantasy and the characters are so perfectly written that you feel like you know them?
That when the story is done, you are not happy because you just finished a great book but you are sad to put the book down and know those characters no longer?
That was this series for me. Most of the books end and leave you dangling so you will want to have the next books in line but luckily book seven (Swallowed by Darkness) ends well enough that that I am not in the middle of a current crisis or anything that would drive me nuts. There is book eight out though and I will be hunting it down now.
I really enjoyed these books so if you want to take the plunge into a great series (knowing that it’s not over yet) this is worth a read.
Author Lisa Barry 