Swallowing Darkness

Title: Swallowing Darkness by Laurell K. Hamilton
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Gothic, Romance
Rating: 4/5

Swallowing Darkness, the seventh book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series, picks up just after A Lick of Frost left off. Merry, now pregnant with twins, has been raped by her uncle, who claims that her bodyguards are a threat to her and her children, which he claims as his own. On top of that, there are those that will go to great lengths to keep her off the throne of the Unseelie Court. However, Merry is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her children and her lovers.

I really enjoyed Swallowing Darkness. It seems like the series may be returning to its roots and giving more attention to the plot rather than to the many and various ways in which Merry can couple with her guards, as in some of the more recent books in the series. Although I still think Hamilton took the easy way out in deciding the parentage of Merry's children, I do find that it emphasizes the fantastical elements of the series. More importantly I was caught up in the intrigue and found myself waiting for each new twist. The book rounded up several of the storylines and with its beautiful ending, would have been a good place to finish the series. However, there are a few things that have yet to be dealt with and I hope that Hamilton deals with them as nicely in Divine Misdemeanors, which will be released in December 2009. There's a good chance I might reread Swallowing Darkness at some point in the future and I think this might be the book to bring back some of the readers who gave up the series when it became too graphic.