Divine Misdemeanors: Meredith Gentry, Book 8

A Novel

By: Laurell K. Hamilton

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

You may know me best as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Or perhaps as Merry Gentry, Los Angeles private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, my life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama. Among my own, I have confronted horrendous enemies, endured my noble kin's treachery and malevolence, and honored my duty to conceive a royal heir - all for the right to claim the throne. But I turned my back on court and crown, choosing exile in the human world - and in the arms of my beloved Frost and Darkness.

While I may have rejected the monarchy, I cannot abandon my people. Someone is killing the fey, which has left the LAPD baffled and my guardsmen and me deeply disturbed. My kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. I must get to the bottom of these horrendous murders, even if that means going up against Gilda, the Fairy Godmother, my rival for fey loyalties in Los Angeles.

But even stranger things are happening. Mortals I once healed with magic are suddenly performing miracles, a shocking phenomenon wreaking havoc on human/faerie relations. Though I am innocent, dark suspicions of banned magical activities swirl around me.

I thought I'd left the blood and politics behind in my own turbulent realm. I had dreamed of an idyllic life in sunny L.A. with my beloved ones beside me. But it becomes time to wake up and realize that evil knows no borders, and that nobody lives forever - even if they're magical.

©2009 Laurell K. Hamilton (P)2009 Random House

She " Mailed it In"

This episode in the series felt like filler until LK figured out how to move on from Merri not acsending to the throne of the dark court. Not one of my favorites.

Everyone has a "off book"?

I love all the previous Merry Gentry books, but this one seemed to just drag on. I hung in there but it never really got great.

I like the book...

I struggled with the person speaking.... she is annoying. She tried to use different voices... they did not sound like the description by the author.

Good story, awful narration

I have read this book a few times and enjoy it. This narrator is not the right one for this book. Her voice is very distracting. I would suggest reading the book and skipping the audio version.

A lazy disappointment

Hamilton is always makes me vaguely sad- such a fantastic imagination with wonderful concepts but never, ever enough story and always too much pointless, repetitive sex. We get it, the heroine is strong and sexy, but those scenes lose their impact and become eye-rollingly annoying when we follow her into her boudoir over and over in every book.

Add to that an overly breathy, moany narrator and I threw in the towel halfway through. After wading through dozens of Hamilton books to pick out the meaty bits of story, this just might be the last time I indulge in my dirty little secret indulgence. (though I've said that before...)

Incidentally, although I recognize that there are only so many ways to describe certain acts, if I never hear anyone talk about 'spilling' (out of clothes, over passionate edges, etc etc) ever again it'll be too soon. :)

Don't pay for this version. Narration is awful.

Accents and voices changed in every narration, they went from pronouncing names one way to another. It's frustrating and jarring. Even more off putting is the change of narrators.
I liked the books....Hate the narraters... all of them... in this entire series.

there is one more auto book after this one. At this point I am so disgusted with the narration to this point, I'm not buying it. I'll reread my Kindle edition. At least there are no random accents and the over excited narraters won't spoil my book.

What happend to Laural Merlington ?

What didn’t you like about Laural Merlington’s performance?

This is not the same Laural Merlington that read the other books, her voice is too shrill, she sounds like she does not care about the story, she sounds lazy

Do you think Divine Misdemeanors: Meredith Gentry, Book 8 needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Does not matter since there is a book 9

Any additional comments?

Please find another reader, because I don't know what happened to Laural Merlington voice, maybe she is tired of Meredith.

Love the series

I love this series and have read it many times, I hate the fact that they change narrators, but I usually get used to them. I barely made it through a chapter with this one.

Umm, unnecessary much?

Ok, I started to read Hamilton's Anita Blake series first and then started up with the Merry Gentry series, interested in the world of faerie. I enjoy learning about the politics and the different twists in the plot. I believe that it really does spice it up. What I find doing the exact opposite of spicing up the series is the sex scenes in practically every chapter. I understood her need to have sex when she was trying to get pregnant, but her sexcapades now are completely pointless. I get that she loves her men. Great. But that was just ridiculous.

She wakes up. She has sex. She eats breakfast. She has sex. She goes to change clothes. She has sex. She says 'hi' to one of her lovers, which obviously has to lead to sex. She hasn't seen one of her lovers for two days: of course sex has to be in the plans.

I want to give up on this series, but there is still something that I can't seem to let go of. I think I really just want to know what happens in the courts. I hope the next book is better.

As for the narrator. I like her all in all. I first laughed when I heard her interpretation of a male voice, but grew use to it, allowing me to get more into the plot because its easier to differentiate between the male and female characters when they speak. I can't, however, stand it when she squeals in a high voice when she is quoting a demi-fae. Seriously, I don't know if my ears or my speakers can take it when she does that. Their small and have small voices, I get it. Stop trying so hard.

back to the first narrator and the detective work

Well, they returned to Laural Merlington as the narrator on this book who if you see my earlier reviews, she leaves a lot to be desired. It's a better story than how it comes across. I like that they went back to working at the now Gray & Hart Detective Agency. It's less steamy than the other books in the series but still has it's moments. I just wish the pregancy was further along. At this rate we'll be on book 12 by the time we see the twins! So is it credit worthy? Not really. But if you have the kindle, the whisperlink feature is quite handy. I've used it for all the books in this series, except for one, and they are less expensive that way too.