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Book Review of A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Bk 4)

A Stroke of Midnight (Meredith Gentry, Bk 4)
soraidh avatar reviewed on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3


I'm not sure where to start. I love Hamilton, have loved her for years. But honestly, she's writing porn. And it's not even good porn. It's porn trying to be literature and failing miserably. It's not bad writing, she seems to have improved from the 650 page exposition that was Incubus Dreams, but it still feels like the plot is trying to claw its way out of the bloody pages of the book. I'll still read the next one because, no matter what else she does, she's made me care about and be fascinated by these characters. But I'll probably borrow the next one again and wait for the paperback to come out.

The one thing I actively disliked about this book is that it takes place immediately following the last. Virtually no time has passed between Caress of Twilight and The Stroke of Midnight and where does she come up with these titles? It feels as if she could have made the two books into one longer one, worked a bit more on the oh--plot and still kept all the sex (metaphysical though it appears to be) intact.

Okay, so what did I like? I saw hints that perhaps not all is as hopeless for our Merry's remaining guards as it would appear should she become pregnant. I liked that power is returning to the faerie and that even the rather unflappable Doyle is mystified by some of it. (And I am, if nothing else, firmly rooted in the Doyle/Merry camp.) I enjoy the political wrangling that Merry has to do and the force of power she seems to wear easily. And isn't that at base the reason so many find these books readable? A woman with power that isn't afraid of it, a woman that enjoys sex and isn't afraid of that either. It certainly can't be all the sex she's getting; how many of times have I heard the complaint about too much sex not enough plot? How many times have I made the same complaint? Yet we're still reading.