Customer Reviews

A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(58)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

_A Lick of Frost_ is book 6 in Hamilton's "Meredith Gentry" series. The first two Meredith Gentry books were good execution of a GREAT concept -- what if all the fairies mentioned in the old folklore tales were real, and had come to live in the U.S. during the Jefferson presidency? What if one of the heirs to the throne of the Unseelie court was part human and had to return to the Unseelie court after living in disguise among humans for years?

The first two Merdith Gentry books were so good that I waded through the next three books hoping to see a return to that. The start of this book had some flaws but overall was REALLY good, and I was hopeful. But the second half was a return to the overly detailed sex, sadism, spitefulness, and treachery that has dominated the last three books.

There is still TOO MUCH TIME spent recounting conversations and sexual encounters that are emotional therapy for men I expect a little more emotional maturity out of, given that they are hundreds or thousands of years old. As another reviewer noted, is the overall theme here that all men with power are either needy morons or heartless psychopaths?

And yes, as readers WE GET IT that Merry likes sex and sometimes she likes it in unconventional ways. Anytime someone blushes or feels the least bit awkward, Merry has to sermonize on how stupidly judgmental and uptight other people are about sex, and it gets old.

There is an overall theme that the enemies are always ahead. Merry has the god and goddess on her side, boosting the power of her and her allies and performing miracles through her, but Merry is basically a poorly prepared medium-level pawn caught up in a major power struggle with people who know the rules better than she does -- and are more willing to play dirty than she is. Anyone Merry cares about becomes a target for her enemies. If Merry is kind, it's a sign of weakness and invitation to attack; if she is cold and cruel, then her enemies are colder and crueler and crazier. I'm not real fond of torture, and I read far more torture scenes in this book (and this series) than I wanted to.

Also, could Hamilton make up her mind about what Merry and her guards are or aren't capable of with regards to intelligence? If the guards have lived hundreds or thousands of years, then can they have enough experience to recognize uncontrolled ambition and paranoia, and start working to counter that? If Merry spent so much time as a child in the goblin court, then why all the agonizing in this book about what she doesn't know about the goblin court? Most importantly, if there have been strong hints since book one that some of the Sidhe are playing fast and loose with the rule that fae can't lie, then can Merry and her guards quit acting so stupefied (and quit being so slow to react) when Taranis LIES and breaks other rules too?

All that said, the plot does advance in some important ways:
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There is a large meeting of Merry, some of her guards, her lawyers, the U.S. ambassador to the Sidhe, and the prosecutors investigating the rape charges from the last book. During this meeting, it becomes clear that Taranis has broken yet another major rule by placing a spell on the U.S. ambassador. The St. Louis U.S. attorney mentions that one of the conditions for the fae coming to the U.S. are that there will NOT be a war between the Seelie and Unseelie courts. There is a conference call with all the attorneys, Merry, her guards, and Taranis, during which Taranis tries so hard to put a spell on Merry (another big no-no) that he incapacitates (and maybe permanently damages) one of the assistant attorneys. The rape charges from the last book are dropped, or probably will be, especially after Taranis finally loses it and directly attacks Merry through the mirrors. Doyle is seriously hurt in the attack. Taranis's guards intervene, and tell Merry that the Seelie court may vote Taranis incompetent. Merry and her guards tell Andais, who as usual initially reacts in a completely paranoid and unhelpful way, before Merry again reaffirms her loyalty, and Andais again says that she doesn't care how loyal Merry is, Andais hates her with a passion. Andais spends more time torturing people who like Merry, just so she can make Merry watch. More old magic starts appearing, particularly more fey creatures (like cu sith hounds), and Andais says the Unseelie sithen continues to change and show signs of renewed life. Rhys and Kitto come to a new understanding. There is drama and politics related to the goblins and the goblin court. Rhys is heart broken that Merry loves him, but not as much as Doyle and Frost. We find out Frost's origins. The red caps all pledge allegiance to Merry. Merry finally gets pregnant. Frost transmutes to a non-human form.

And then Taranis kidnaps Merry, who is out walking alone without her guards. This of course MAKES PERFECT SENSE on the part of Merry and her guards, as there's NO REASON to think Taranis might break more rules to attack Merry directly. After all, he's only: been attacking Merry through intermediaries since book two; been desperately trying to get Merry to come to the Seelie court since book three or four; been trying to bespell Merry through the magic mirrors since book three or four; been lodging false complaints against her guards since book five; and made a major effort to bespell her and kidnap her through a mirror in the beginning of book six. So why SHOULDN'T Merry go out walking by herself with no guards!!!????

At that point, I was so disgusted with the incredible stupidity Hamilton has written into her characters that I just skimmed the last chapter. Among other highlights, Taranis claims he raped Merry while she was unconscious.
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I will preface this by saying that I no longer read the Anita books, but still hold curiousity on the Merry books.

This book is a LOT better than Mistrals Kiss, which was one long talky sex scene (and sex is a lot better doing, than talking about)..

Stuff does happen in this book... Merry gets pregnant(although the Daddy situation is a deux de machina if you ever saw one). How convenient...

We finally see some Seelie court and the political stuff that was interesting to me in the beginning of the series.

LKH still spends a lot of time talking about hair and makeup and the same alliterations litter up the scenery (like candy on your tongue, swallowed the moon, etc, etc). I fear she will never recapture her old snappy dialogue style that I enjoyed.

If this review seems disjointed, I apologize, but these books have become disjointed also. I sincerely hope that LKH takes the positives she gained with this book (moving the story along now peoples!) and manages to get this sucker tied up in a few more books, because she can, if she just concentrates on what is important...

I truly think that LKH should only write one series at a time, she tends to have them bleed too much into each other.

The latest installment of the Princess Merry story at around 300 pages is shorter than others have been but if it's a trade between quality and quantity I want Hamilton to keep the books short.

This book picks up a few weeks after the last book ended and the Princess' world gets pretty much shaken up when Taranis, King of the Seelie court pretty much loses it in public, allowing his nobles to move against him and potentially offer Merry, heir to the Unseelie throne, the throne of the Seelie court.

This does not make things any easier for Merry. She doesn't trust the Seelie court and suspects the hint of an offer is to use her as a poltical tool in their own games. The offer also outrages her aunt, Queen of the Unseelie court. And outraged Queen is usually a very BAD thing, as long time readers of this series know.

Through it all Merry is realizing that her having favorites are affecting things and not for the best as she must learn to let go of things that she might not be able to keep as queen. The book shows more of faerie, including finally more of the Seelie court and how they live. It also looks more to faerie outside of the mounds. If there is something missing from this it is Merry's LA fey contacts who seem to have dropped out of the author's site. Also this focus' on the original 4 guards and goblin from book one The dozen other guards she's picked up in the books in between have between them , maybe 3 spoken lines. This failure to pick up dangling threads is symptomatic of Hamiliton's latest books but if she's getting back in form, I odn't mind. (too much.)

This has been the first Hamilton book in years that I have had trouble setting down, she seems to have resolved her own sex demons that have been crippling her work for the past few years and gone back to form. This is very very good.

A Lick of Frost (2007) is the sixth Fantasy novel in the Meredith Gentry series, following Mistral's Kiss. In the previous volume, Meredith flees to the human world to escape the Wild Hunt. She and her men pop out of nowhere into the sight of a group of FBI agents and policemen. Then the Wild Hunt also appears.

The cops bravely fight the Wild Hunt while the FBI agents try to take Merry to safety. When they pass a large number of goblin warriors leaving the area, Merry gets out of the car and persuades the goblins to assist her men. There she uses her Hand of Blood and the Wild Hunt transforms into nonhostile animals, including a pack of faery dogs.

In this novel, Meredith's Uncle Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, has accused three of her bodyguards with the rape of a Lady of the Seelie Court. Meredith is attending a meeting with Federal and local authorities in the building of her attorneys. Two of the partners of the law firm are also attending the meeting, as is Ambassador Stevens, embassy to the Courts of Faery.

The U.S. Attorney for L.A. -- Michael Shelby -- starts the proceedings by thanking Meredith and her guards for participating. Ambassador Stevens promptly reminds him that it is impolite to thank the people of faery. Of course, Meredith is used to human etiquette and so is not offended, but older nobles of the Faery Courts probably would view such words as a grave insult.

Assistant District Attorney Pamela Nelson is fascinated by Doyle and Frost. She can't help staring at them. Apparently she is being affected by their glamour.

U.S. Attorney Albert Veducci has had more contact with the faery than the others in the room. He has protected himself from such glamour. The other authorities are angered by the influence of the glamour, but Veducci explains that this power is inherent in almost every noble in the faery courts. Veducci lists several ways of protecting themselves against the glamour.

Ambassador Stevens has a breakdown during the meeting. Although denying the gift, he is wearing a Rolex watch given tp him by King Taranis. The ambassador is seeing the Unseelie as monsters. He accuses them of using glamour to hide their ugliness. Meredith and Veducci convince the authorities to reverse their coats to protect against the glamour, yet their perception of Meredith and her men doesn't change after doing so.

Ambassador Stevens, however, is still seeing them as monsters. He is taken away by building security and a physician. Meredith suggests that a licensed practitioner of magic check the watch before it is removed, for Stevens has been wearing it for years. Removal might cause even greater strains on his mind.

By then, the authorities are beginning to suspect the motives of King Taranis. Meredith tells them that the glamour projected by King Taranis is much more powerful than her own, even through the mirrors used for faery communications. Veducci gets the other authorities to tuck paper clips and other metal objects in their clothing.

In this story, King Taranis enchants the humans through the mirror despite their protections. Then he becomes very angry and tries to kill some of Meredith's men. Not only is Taranis capable of projecting glamour, but he can also cast deadly force through the mirror. The authorities witness all his actions and decide that Taranis is not truly sane. The charges against her bodyguards are eventually dropped.

The Seelie bodyguards subdue their own king to protect Meredith and everyone else in the conference room. Sir Hugh Belenus -- leader of Taranis's bodyguard -- even takes a deadly beam aimed at one of her men, but is not injured. Sir Hugh talks openly of deposing Taranis and implies that Meredith could be the Queen of the Seelie Court.

Meredith accompanies her wounded guards to the hospital and then returns to the Maeve Reed estate. There she uses a mirror to call Queen Andais at the Unseelie Court. Naturally, Queen Andais has heard about the Seelie offer and is rather perturbed with Meredith. She grills Meredith severely for a while, but is finally satisfied with her responses.

This story relates the downfall of Taranis. The Goddess continues to support Meredith with her magic and performs a few more miracles. And the reader learns more about the history of Frost.

Meredith is slowly progressing towards the throne of the Unseelie Court. This tale is interesting in itself, but is only another step in the storyline. The next volume is Swallowing Darkness.

Highly recommended for Hamilton fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of the Faery Courts, sidhe intrigue, and copious sex.

-Arthur W. Jordin

I'm re-posting this review since Amazon seems to have "lost" it along with 31 other reviews. So here goes:

While LOF is much better than Mistral's Kiss, it still misses the mark.

The good things:
1. The story moves along
2. The # of men are being culled
3. While there are sex scenes, they aren't overly long or repugnant.

The bad thing:
1. Way too short. She never really fleshes out a plot line with more than minimal detail and the story is jumpy. Now, I'm not expecting Tolkien or Michner, who would take 12 pages to describe a door knocker, but I would like more detail. It felt rushed like she had to cram a bunch of ideas in but only had 274 pages to do it. It read more like a movie script.

2. Needed to give more background & other info regarding the Seelie Court & Taranis. She jumped right into the Seelie Court saying "Hail, Merry! Hail the Queen!" without further detail. LKH ads minimal intrigue and leaves the reader with unreasonably unanswered questions.

3. She needs to unload the unimportant characters. Crystall, Onilwyn, Usna etc.

I have always preferred the Merry series to the Anita Blake series. Merry has always known who she was and makes no excuses for it. LKH set the bar high with the first two novels in the series. Both Kiss of Shadows and Caress of Twilight had the right mix of political intrigue, evil machinations, blood, gore, sex, well fleshed out characters and most of all: a fantastic story line. I compare all Merry Gentry novels to the first two. While I'm not at the point of writing them off (like Anita) I don't know if the Merry Books will ever regain their former glory.

YES. Finally something happens in the series. It took long enough but too bad it's not exactly the story idea that's awful, it's the writing in my opinion. I've never read a series filled with so much dry soap opera talking. The dialogue streatches on and on and on. It's relentless. Crooning. Mindless political rambling that we've heard OVER AND OVER AGAIN between the SAME characters. Same style, same fashion. Once again Merry talks to the Queen (OH and get this, it's via - guess what - the MIRROR AGAIN). Once more Merry talks to Taranis - guess what - the MIRROR again (at least until he gets her). The goblins - the mirror. It's the samething, same conversations (for the most part), and same people who like EVERYBODY else that Merry doesn't sleep with, want to stop her in some way but of course (cause it wouldn't be a proper world without Merry) still wants Merry.

More author-opinion inserts come along. Crooning - again. Piles and piles of descriptions of various body parts from hair to eye colors. Descriptions so sweet you'd get cavities at these supposed stunning men and all their natural glory *gag*. The characters lay around (or stand) ALL DAY AND TALK. TALK. TALK. TALK. TALK. AND MORE TALKING. Then when something happens it's like a slow moving snail because Merry has to describe something-freakin' ELSE that she's seeing in some mixed up analogy. Either that or dodge the WHOLE thing by running away or falling out. At one point Merry started to argue with a doctor about taking two of her men home after an incident and as soon her paragraph came where she got all honorific on the doctor... I screamed... literally... I was like "JUST LET HER TAKE THE GUARD HOME DOCTOR, JEEZ BEFORE SHE GETS STARTED UP AGAIN FOR CHRISTSAKES!!!"

The conversations are like pong. Back and forth, back and forth. Her word. Their word. Her word. Their word.

The writing just doesn't flow to me. It doesn't progress. It doesn't move. It doesn't pick up and have me rushing through the pages, partly because Merry is so monotone. Frost's background was the ONLY thing I found alluring. The sex is just there as usual. I can't seem to find any emotion in it that doesn't seem forced or fake, it's like a big *shrug* after I was done reading it. The series gets tougher and tougher to read even when you know something interesting is finally about to happen. And of course magic makes reason for everything dealing with Merry making things even more uninteresting between her men now that everybody pretty much gets the prize (you'll have to read it to understand unfortunately). Like anybody else, for the most part you just want to know what's going to happen in the series and this cash cow is about to keep on churning.

I wanted to like this book - really I did. Have read everything Hamilton has written, across all her genres. Have really loved the Meredith Gentry character in the past. All that said, this book is boring. I usually devour books. This book I could barely get through one chapter a night, and it's a ridiculously short book. There is so much prose wasted on the characters waxing poetic about life, love, sex and death in the Seelie/Unseelie worlds...and all this seems to happen just before the sex. And there's a lot of sex, so there's a lot of poetic waxing. Not interesting sex, just lots of sex. Never thought sex could be boring, but this is boring sex.

Have I mentioned that this book is boring?

I think Hamilton's books have gotten more and more like this over the past couple of years, and it's a real disappointment. I'm hoping she listens to her fans and gets back to the great, supernatural storyteller she used to be. Sex is fine, entertaining certainly, but not when it's the only thing she can write about. Lots of sex doesn't distract from not having a strong storyline, and this book is severely lacking in storyline.

I will give Laurell K Hamilton credit for consistency in both her series, though I would wish it wasn't for being disappointing and cliche. The 'wild sex' experienced by both her heroines is trite and unexciting for all its frequency. Thankfully, the Merry Gentry series does not promote itself as anything other than erotica, so the times plot is presented it is a pleasant surprise. This moved a bit further with that plot than the past two had, which was delightful. I am thankful I got this out of my library rather than purchasing it, and hope to see continual improvement on Ms Hamilton's part so that the sex is, at the least, varied.

While LOF is much better than Mistral's Kiss, it still misses the mark.

The good things:
1. The story moves along
2. The # of men are being culled
3. While there are sex scenes, they aren't overly long or repugnant.

The bad thing:
1. Way too short. She never really fleshes out a plot line with more than minimal detail and the story is jumpy. Now, I'm not expecting Tolkien or Michner, who would take 12 pages to describe a door knocker, but I would like more detail. It felt rushed like she had to cram a bunch of ideas in but only had 274 pages to do it. It read more like a movie script.

2. Needed to give more background & other info regarding the Seelie Court & Taranis. She jumped right into the Seelie Court saying "Hail, Merry! Hail the Queen!" without further detail. LKH ads minimal intrigue and leaves the reader with unreasonably unanswered questions.

3. She needs to unload the unimportant characters. Crystall, Onilwyn, Usna etc.


I have always preferred the Merry series to the Anita Blake series. Merry has always known who she was and makes no excuses for it. LKH set the bar high with the first two novels in the series. Both Kiss of Shadows and Caress of Twilight had the right mix of political intrigue, evil machinations, blood, gore, sex, well fleshed out characters and most of all: a fantastic story line. I compare all Merry Gentry novels to the first two. While I'm not at the point of writing them off (like Anita) I don't know if the Merry Books will ever regain their former glory.

I own every Laurell K. Hamilton book. I was a loyal reader. I loved the story lines and the characters. In the beginning, the stories were fun and over the top campy and packed with action. HOWEVER, after this one I will not be buying or reading any more of her books. This is the last one. I'm done with paying $25 for $0.50 worth of story. My patience and long suffering are spent, along with my cash. If she cannot be bothered to put a little more effort into a novel for fans like me (and there a lot of us) who have been there from the beginning, then I cannot be bothered to throw more money her way. I bought Lick of Frost after hearing that she was back on her game with this one. I will agree that it had a little more substance than the last few but nowhere near enough to earn my time, money, or any more of my loyalty. There are other authors in the genre who are a little less obvious about how easy it is to get us hooked and then start 'mailing it in'. I am completely embarrassed that I fell for it as long as I did.