Product Description
I am Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the throne in the realm of faerie, onetime private investigator in the mortal world. To be crowned queen, I must first continue the royal bloodline and give birth to an heir of my own. If I fail, my aunt, Queen Andais, will be free to do what she most desires: install her twisted son, Cel, as monarch . . . and kill me.
My royal guards surround me, and my best loved–my Darkness and my Killing Frost–are always beside me, sworn to protect and make love to me. But still the threat grows greater. For despite all my carnal efforts, I remain childless, while the machinations of my sinister, sadistic Queen and her confederates remain tireless. So my bodyguards and I have slipped back into Los Angeles, hoping to outrun the gathering shadows of court intrigue. But even exile isn’t enough to escape the grasp of those with dark designs.
Now King Taranis, powerful and vainglorious ruler of faerie’s Seelie Court, has leveled accusations against my noble guards of a heinous crime–and has gone so far as to ask the mortal authorities to prosecute. If he succeeds, my men face extradition to faerie and the hideous penalties that await them there. But I know that Taranis’s charges are baseless, and I sense that his true target is me. He tried to kill me when I was a child. Now I fear his intentions are far more terrifying.
C. Good @ 9:33 am
_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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J. E. Schwartz @ 10:13 am
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.
Graves @ 1:07 pm
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.
T. Jordan @ 1:52 pm
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.
Aurie @ 2:28 pm
I should probably mention that I considered A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6) to be 2 1/2 stars instead of three–which is better than I’ve thought of any of Laurell K. Hamilton’s novels in a long time–but I rounded up instead of down to be nice.
A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6) begins a month after where Mistral’s Kiss: A Novel ended, and right from the beginning leaves the audience feeling as though they’ve missed an entire novel. But since we haven’t, LKH spends much of the book trying to bring the readers up to speed and it becomes exhausting to keep track of. The book starts amid a heated scandal, with Taranis having accused several of Merry’s guards of raping a Seelie Court noblewoman.
From there, the plot quickly dissolves into a less than coherent mass of events: Taranis quickly reveals himself to be an all-too-powerful nutcase, Merry receives a generous offer from an unexpected source (which accomplishes nothing more than the solidification of her Mary Sue persona), and her magical powers reveal a potential to remake the faery kingdom at the loss of someone she deeply loves. Much of this may have been appropriate for a longer novel, but for a book just shy of 300 pages, it quickly begins to lose structure and fluidity, subsequently coming off as much too hurried.
While the plot points are quickly run through, the dialogue and description retains its turtle-like pace, becoming overwhelming for a book this thin. Readers are left with a lot if descriptive paragraphs which only slowed down movement throughout the narration and dialogue which sounded so clinical, it should have been in a text book. Both could have been cut to flesh out more of the plot. Hamilton’s use of unnecessary clarification was the greatest sin of all, interrupting the flow of dialogue to a frustrating level. The words “I don’t understand,” quickly become tiring to the point where one wonders if Merry needs flashcards and sing-along tapes to comprehend what’s going on.
Hamilton’s main character Merry became even more of a two-dimensional figure in this novel, while she succeeded in providing insight into some of her love interests. Merry became the least sympathetic in this novel more than any other novel in the series, lacking emotion and conviction to the point where I found it hard to sympathize with her as a first person character. Her Mary Sue-ness had reached new levels and she became so powerful, so overwhelmingly righteous, it was the equivalent of Hamilton putting a halo around her head and exclaiming “PERFECT!” Perhaps Hamilton put most of her focus into characters like Frost and Rhys, who were revealed in ways never previously shown and who’s inner conflicts were touching as they were tragic. These characters have an emotional quality to them which manages to greatly overpower Merry’s–something which should never happen in a first person narrative.
A Lick of Frost (Meredith Gentry, Book 6) did have some moments where it seemed that Hamilton became very in tune with her writing, and these parts of the book shine. Merry’s scenes with Doyle and Frost are absolutely some of the best Hamilton has penned in a while–to be honest, I’d actually forgotten she had the potential to write in such a way. Her attempt at plot was also more than she’s done in several of her last books, and while the effort shows, it was simply too much for the page count.
A Lick of Frost is an improvement, but certainly not up to the potential it could be.