Beanbag Love read and liked Shannon's review of Divine Misdemeanors (Meredith Gentry, #8):

"I'm not really sure why I read this series anymore. The actual mystery of the novel is shoved aside for the better part of the book to make way for arguing, sex, and pissing contests. And if it's not that then the rest of the book is made up of hair ...more I'm not really sure why I read this series anymore. The actual mystery of the novel is shoved aside for the better part of the book to make way for arguing, sex, and pissing contests. And if it's not that then the rest of the book is made up of hair and eye color descriptions for all the various characters. Hamilton's fascination with hair down to the ankles and with the varying heights of the characters is mind-boggling. She seems to spend more time thinking up these various combinations than actually working on the plot.

Merry's decided she's going to be a detective now that she's been exiled to California. She gets called in to help the police with a case where faeries are being murdered and arranged and posed to look like pages out of a fairy tale book. Merry's men don't want her to get too involved since she's pregnant, but Merry is stubborn and wants to know who's killing her people. About 250 pages go by after this initial setup and we arrive at the conclusion of the story. The mystery is figured out and wrapped up within the last 30 pages or so. Just about everything that happens in between is either a rehash of old events, pissing contests between the men, or Merry running around trying not to get herself killed.

Doyle and Frost, Merry's two main men are little more than bodyguards in this book. She doesn't sleep with them and Frost barely says a word at all. Doyle's main phrase throughout the book is; "Once I was the Queen's Darkness ..." while Frost's phrase is; "I was once the Killing Frost ..." They both like to wax poetic on how badass they used to be but it just seems silly now. It's gotten to the point where I honestly like Sholto better, his character is more developed and he actually has a personality. Doyle and Frost seem castrated and I've grown bored with them.

My biggest problem with this book though is the repetition and constant explanations that are unnecessary and bog the book down. There are so many phrases and scenes in this book that feel lifted from the previous novels that at times it feels like Hamilton copied and pasted to fill up the pages. There would be times when someone would say or do something wrong and this would be pointed out to the reader and then someone would say, "what did I miss, why is that wrong?" and then it'd be explained.

Then, if things weren't being explained constantly, Merry was arguing with her men about who was in charge. And if Merry wasn't arguing about who was in charge then the men were arguing with each other. I don't know why Hamilton thinks this moves the plot along because it doesn't. It's frustrating to say the least.

The men Merry sleeps with in this book are mostly secondary characters and it's gotten to the point where it just doesn't make sense anymore. She claims to love Doyle and Frost as her main men but hardly spends any time with them. She's pregnant now so she doesn't have to whore around so much but she chooses to anyway and I don't see the reason for this other than Hamilton wanting to write all the different and strange sex scenes. I have to say that probably without the sex scenes this book would be even weaker than it was though.

This series has so much potential and each book it just seems to be wasted. The main mystery is forgotten for most of the book and then neatly wrapped up within the last few pages. Hamilton's writing suffers more and more with each book and she could really benefit from a new editor, or maybe even a break from writing all together. I'm mostly disappointed because I thought Swallowing Darkness was actually a step-up from the previous books, but now it seems like that was just an anomaly. I honestly don't know if Hamilton will ever change her writing though, because she does sell her books. I can hope though.(less) "

Beanbag Love read and liked Kathy's review of The Smoke Thief (Drakon, #1):

"I came home from work, grabbed a handful of cashews (um, dinner), fed the dogs and the son, and dove in to finish. This was great. Love, thieves, London, sex, dragons. I mean, what more could you ask for? "