Title: Divine Misdemeanors
Author: Laurell K Hamilton
Genre: paranormal/fantasy - mystery/romance(?)
Format: hardcover
For: personal choice
Synopsis: (from book jacket)
You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin’s treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir—all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world—and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.
While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.
But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.
I thought I’d left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever—even if they’re magical.
The Good: A new race of the fey was introduced and it is a good one. Dark and creepy and getting an unholy kick out of the fear he generates in others. We only got a glimpse but the fear dearg is definitely someone I would like to see more of in future stories.
The Bad: Sadly, most of this book falls into this category. This book is so full of fail I have no idea where to start, so I guess we can begin with the outside.
The synopsis is totally misleading, and I mean completely. There is nothing in the book even remotely like what the jacket cover says.
She is supposed to be in the arms of her beloved Frost and Darkness, they played so little of role in this book why even bother to mention them? You wouldn't notice the "beloved" part by how little attention, sex and talking they do in this novel. She, in fact, spends more time dwelling on how Frost's hair doesn't tangle in the wind ( "because the wind likes it") than she does loving Frost.
The mystery is so inconsequential I can't believe she bothered to put it in there. There is no sleuthing to be had in the book, and just like always everything falls very neatly into place so that Merry comes out the good guy and with no effort on her part. If the police could trip over criminals as easily as Merry does then we would have no crimes.
Gilda "the fairy godmother" was barely a byline, I think she got a few paragraphs in which she (Gilda) completely ignores Merry and doesn't even speak to her, seriously. How is that going up against her? Gilda is referenced some, but not overly much and there is only one chapter where the two are actually in each others presence.
The humans and the "dark suspicions of banned magical activities"? One dream with the national guard (or whatever they were in SD)she had healed and it deserves time in the synopsis? I have no idea what she is referring to when it comes to banned magical activities and since I have no clue it must not have been obvious enough for a reader to get.
After you get past the fact that the synopsis has nothing to do with the book, you have very little book left. We have paragraphs describing her eating frosting, describing how hair is loved by the wind and doesn't tangle, and a demi-god having a tantrum like a three-year-old. Main characters in Merry's life are strangely missing or relegated to background characters in this book, and, again, she mentions Merry's being raped but again ignores any implications of it. If you are going to ignore the consequences stop bringing it up and reminding us that you are!
Lastly, I have to complain about Merry being a slut. How can a person who has found her "beloved" and is pregnant by them keep finding new guys to screw? She told her aunt in previous novels that she would be okay with "a half dozen lovers" and the rest could go on their happy way, yet she continually gets into bed with new people. With slavering enthusiasm even. She adds three new lovers to her stables in this book, and ignores her supposedly main men completely. How sad, how very very sad.
Overall: Don't bother. Honestly, hard core fans might enjoy it but beyond that don't bother to pick it up. The book is all fluff, and stupid fluff at that.
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