I finally got a chance to read the eighth book in Laurell K Hamilton’s Merry Gentry series, Divine Misdemeanors and I have to say I’m not too upset that I waited to read it.
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.
This time around, Divine Misdemeanors deals less with court politics and intrigue and puts us back in Los Angeles where Merry and her new court get use to their exile. The overall story was great – Merry’s character is given a lot of growth, we see more of the sidhe that she has acquired after the events from Swallowing Darkness and we’re given a hint of what may be coming. However, as for the actual plot of the story, I could have used a little more.
The idea of the crimes that were committed were unique and I liked the idea of what the villains were using as their inspiration, but why they were using it was never really explained. On top of that, there really wasn’t anything about the plot that seemed to have a purpose other than development for a lot of the characters. That is one area that was remarkable. We do end up getting a lot of development on some of the new court members, namely Cel’s old guards who have joined Merry. Plus, there does seem to be some interesting developments regarding Barinthus. Something tells me he is going to be problematic in the future.
The one area where I thought we might see some interesting interaction never panned out. When Gilda was first introduced, I thought here was an adversary that could be more amusing than what we’ve seen so far, but in reality, there was nothing there. Gilda was a human who wanted to be a faery godmother and when the wild magic hit, she was given her wish. Let’s just say, by the way Hamilton describes her, she very much looks like Gilda the Good Witch from the old 1939’s Wizard of Oz, but with a highly inflated sense of worth. Gilda doesn’t like the fact that Merry is sidhe royalty and I get the feeling there is going to be some interesting conflicts between the two. It’s just a little disappointing we really didn’t get to see any in Divine Misdemeanors. Maybe we’ll get to see some in the ninth novel, but we won’t know that until it’s released.
Overall, I do love the Merry Gentry series, but I’m not really feeling much about Divine Misdemeanors. Granted, it has been awhile since I’ve read it, but after looking over my notes, nothing of the novel is coming back to me. Usually, all I need is a few words and I can think of sections that I want to go back to read, but that’s not the case right now. Honestly, I’m getting scenes from earlier books stuck in my head and I should be getting Divine Misdemeanors since that’s the last one I read. So I guess all I have to say is that if you like the Merry series, then find Divine Misdemeanors at the library. Quite honestly, if you don’t read it before the next book, I don’t think it woudl be a problem. There was nothing that gave any indication of what we can expect – except knowing that the twins are coming.
Read Order:
Kiss of Shadows
Caress of Twilight
Seduced by Moonlight
Stroke of Midnight
Mistral’s Kiss
Lick of Frost
Swallowing Darkness
Divine Misdemeanors
Also reviewed by:
Tricia’s review on Literary Escapism
Tez Says
Karissa’s Reading Room
Off the Shelf
A Hungry Vampire
The Good the Bad the Unread
This book was so BLAH for me. I think I gave it a 2… At this point I am pretty sure I won’t be reading the next one. I wished I had stopped at the book 8, I could have been happy with that LOL!
I loved it, I really think the character development was superb in this book and that is what I really wanted to read about as far as this series goes. I am usually the kind of gal who has to have a solid plot but for this series I didn’t really mind it so much because in her past books not many of the characters (and we know there is a lot! lol) got much page time, so it was really cool to see the development in DM.
I think a lot of people were upset that it wasnt a love story with just Merry, Doyle and Frost lol, at least I have seen that in a lot of reviews.. and well there is way more to her world then just the three of them :)