'Seduced by Moonlight' by Laurell K Hamilton, 7/7/10

The quest for Meredith to become pregnant and to inherit the Unseelie Courth throne continues in this third installment of Laurell K Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry series. This particular story takes place about 3 months after the Queen of Air and Darkness, Meredith’s aunt, gave the challenge to her niece and her own son…whomever provides a child gets the throne. However, the queen’s son, Cel, is still incarcerated for another 3 months before he begins competing.

Pressure is on for Meredith. In the beginning of the book she still has 5 of the queen’s immortal guards as her lovers and the possible future father of her child, but the Queen is growing bored with the lack of progress.

Because of the reconnection to the fey courts and her magical lovers Meredith’s powers are growing and because of that she has been able to make those who sleep with her more powerful as well. This is both a scary and intriguing development. Magical items that were once thought lost are randomly appearing at Meredith’s home and by bringing powers back to her guards, which were once gods, she is creating strange weather patterns as well.

But again, the Queen is bored because there has been no progress and has insisted that Meredith travel to the Unseelie home, outside of St Louis, for a ball. While there, Meredith adds about 10 more guards to her quest, is almost assassinated 3 times and has to fight to prove her ability to lead. She still has to go to a ball at her uncle’s house, the King of Light and Illusion, at the Seelie Court, in a matter of days. Her guards, as well as her, feel that there is another motive for her uncle wanting her to visit….but that is left for a future book.
This story covers the course of only a few days. There was a lot of description about what the powers are doing and what Meredith sees while bringing about powers to her lovers. On that level it is really well written and highly entertaining, like all of Hamilton’s stories.