- Hardcover: 435 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books (Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0345423399
- ISBN-13: 978-0345423399
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 577,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
A Kiss Of Shadows
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Product Description
Product Description
"All it would take was my true name being mentioned after dark, and it would float back to my aunt. She was the Queen of Air and Darkness, and that meant that anything said in the dark was hers to hear, eventually. The fact that spotting the missing Elven American Princess had become more popular than spotting Elvis helped. Her magic was always chasing blind leads. Princess Meredith skiing in Utah. Princess Meredith dancing in Paris. Princess Meredith gambling in Vegas. After three years I was still a front-page story for the tabloids, though the latest headlines had been speculating that I was dead as the King of Rock and Roll . . ."
Three years ago, Princess Meredith fled the court of her cruel Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness, leaving that garden of decadent delights and backstabbing intrigues for the comparative calm of Los Angeles. Using her magic to pass for human, Meredith began a new life as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back--whether she likes it or not.
The product of a marriage designed to cement peace between the rival Seelie and Unseelie courts, Meredith has always been scorned by both factions in spite of her royal blood. But that blood is behind the Unseelie Queen's surprisingly urgent summons.
For ever since the fey's exile from Europe to America, their power and purity have been fading. Desperate to renew her race, Queen Andais now pins her hopes on a contest between Meredith and her own son, the sadistic Prince Cel. The first to produce a child will win the throne.
The loser's reward will be death . . .
Laurell K. Hamilton's bestselling series of novels featuring Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, established her as one of the hottest new writers of dark fantasy and erotic horror. Now, in a thrilling adventure of unbridled imagination, Hamilton turns her talents to the glittering, myth-drenched lands of Faerie and brings them brilliantly into the postmodern age. Enter a thrilling, sensual world as threatening as it is beautiful, replete with the titanic passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods or demons. Full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, Laurell K. Hamilton's A Kiss of Shadows will hold you under its hypnotic spell.
Three years ago, Princess Meredith fled the court of her cruel Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness, leaving that garden of decadent delights and backstabbing intrigues for the comparative calm of Los Angeles. Using her magic to pass for human, Meredith began a new life as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back--whether she likes it or not.
The product of a marriage designed to cement peace between the rival Seelie and Unseelie courts, Meredith has always been scorned by both factions in spite of her royal blood. But that blood is behind the Unseelie Queen's surprisingly urgent summons.
For ever since the fey's exile from Europe to America, their power and purity have been fading. Desperate to renew her race, Queen Andais now pins her hopes on a contest between Meredith and her own son, the sadistic Prince Cel. The first to produce a child will win the throne.
The loser's reward will be death . . .
Laurell K. Hamilton's bestselling series of novels featuring Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, established her as one of the hottest new writers of dark fantasy and erotic horror. Now, in a thrilling adventure of unbridled imagination, Hamilton turns her talents to the glittering, myth-drenched lands of Faerie and brings them brilliantly into the postmodern age. Enter a thrilling, sensual world as threatening as it is beautiful, replete with the titanic passions of immortal beings once worshipped as gods or demons. Full of earthly pleasures and dazzling magic, Laurell K. Hamilton's A Kiss of Shadows will hold you under its hypnotic spell.
From the Back Cover
My name is Meredith Gentry, but of course it's not my real name. I dare not even whisper my true name after dark for fear that one hushed word will travel over the night winds to the soft ear of my aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness. She wants me dead. I don't even know why...
I fled the high court of Faerie three years ago and have been in hiding ever since. As Merry Gentry, I am a private investigator for the Grey Detective Agency: Supernatural Problems, Magical Solutions. My magical skills, scorned at the courts of Faerie, are valued in the human world. Even by human standards, my magic isn't flashy, which is fine by me. Flashy attracts attention and I can't afford that.
Rumour has it that I am dead. Not quite. I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. To speak that name after dark is to call down a knock upon your door from a hand that can kill you with a touch. I have been careful, but not careful enough. The shadows have found me, and they are going to take me back home, one way or another.
So the running is over. But the fighting has just begun...
Rich, sensual, brimming with dangerous magic, A Kiss of Shadows is a dazzling tour-de-force where folklore, fantasy and erotically charged adventure collide.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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First Sentence
TWENTY-THREE STORIES UP AND ALL I COULD SEE OUT THE windows was grey smog. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
TWENTY-THREE STORIES UP AND ALL I COULD SEE OUT THE windows was grey smog. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A KISS OF SHADOWS is hot, hot, hot!!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Kiss Of Shadows (Meredith Gentry 1) (Paperback)
A KISS OF SHADOWS is the first book in Laurell K. Hamilton's new series on the fey. It features Princess Meredith NicEssus, aka Merry Gentry, a politically-savvy, kick a** heroine. Merry, a mixed-blood, has been hiding in Los Angeles for three years, from her wicked Aunt Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After botching up a case at the Grey Detective Agency where she works, Merry is discovered and forced to go back to the Unseelie court at Cahokia, Illinois, accompanied by Andais's personal Darkness, Doyle. There, Merry discovers that times have changed at the court. The fey grows weak, and the Queen wants Merry to bed some of the most gorgeous sidhe men in the world. In a race for the throne against her sadistic cousin, Cel, Merry has to produce a child within three years. The loser will die... I think that this book was even better than LKH's Anita Blake series. Why? Well, Ms. Hamilton introduces a bunch of gorgeous sidhe males, like Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Barinthus, Galen, etc. Most of the Ravens (Queen's Guards) lust after Merry badly, since the cruel Queen makes all of them celibate. My personal fave is Prince Cel, Andais's darkly handsome, evil son. I just LUV bad guys in black! However, this book is NOT for kiddies. Meredith seems to have sex or sexual activities with almost every male in the book. All in all, it is definitely much more erotic, much more sensual than the Anita Blake books. Merry is 33, and not shy at all with men in sexual matters, whereas Anita had been initially uncomfortable with her sexual status. Throughout this book, readers get a sense of Merry's growing powers, as the Princess of Flesh (just as Anita's power had grown). I can't wait to read CARESS OF TWILIGHT, the 2nd book in this fascinating series!!!
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant, unputdownable read.,
By
This review is from: A Kiss Of Shadows (Meredith Gentry 1) (Paperback)
This is the first book by the author I've read. I intend to get as many more as possible. It's a thriller, part fantasy, but grounded in the world as we know it. It is extremely well plotted, in fact it has so many sub-plots going on you occassionally have to turn back a page, to make sure you haven't missed something. It also explores sex and sexuality and its politics and, refreshingly touches on some of the sides of sex that are generally not talked about. Ms Hamilton also creates really great characters. Given she's already written a series, I do hope she feels another series coming on. Don't miss it.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How long 'till the sequel?,
By A Customer
This review is from: A Kiss Of Shadows (Meredith Gentry 1) (Paperback)
I couldn't put this book down from the moment I started it. I am a massive Anita Blake fan and LKH has now introduced us to a different world and a whole new set of characters in this book. The world is as enthralling as in the Anita Blake series and the characters just as strong. However, this book was obviously just an introduction, and the ending has left me screaming to read the next one....immensly frustrating and unsatisfying as the story only just seems to have started. Also, the book is very focused on sex, sex and yet more sex....something a little different from time to time might have been appreciated, but even so a cracking read.
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