In this fifth book of the Gentry series, Princess Meredith finds herself and her band of royal guards just where we left her in book four, Stroke of Midnight, still in the Unseelie Court, having yet to make her way to the Seelie court for their ball in her honor.  Merry is still bedding as many of her guards as possible and as often as possible in an effort to become pregnant before her jailed cousin Cel manages to get one of his royal guard pregnant.  Pregnancy assures the ascension to the throne for the winner and death for the loser.  So Meredith has quite the incentive. 

The first seven or so chapters of MISTRAL’S KISS have Meredith and her guards bringing magic and powers long thought lost forever back to her men and life back to the Unseelie gardens through various and varied sexual encounters with one guard or another.  Then, Meredith and company suddenly find themselves in King Sholto’s garden where danger surrounds them as they once again meet up with Sluagh King Sholto and his lovers/hags.  Having been betrayed in the fairy courts, King Sholto is unpredictable.  Merry and King Sholto’s little visit ends with a very climatic battle where Merry ends up calling on the aid of the goblins to save her and her friends.

On the plus side, MISTRAL’S KISS moves at a nice clip and ends with the possibility of Merry visiting the Seelie court at some point in the next few books.  Laurell Hamilton has a fertile imagination and the many sex scenes in this book, as in all her books it seems, are varied and intense with unexpected resultant surprises.  And as always, Ms. Hamilton’s incredible writing style keeps readers glued to the page waiting to see what she will come up with next.

On the down side however, this book is really quite short at just under 220 pages and probably could have been the last third of her prior book, Stroke of Midnight instead of a standalone novel.  If you can wait for the paperback version of this book to come out or manage to obtain a copy from your local library, it may be the better way to go simply because of the short length of the book and the high price of hard cover books.

Personally, this reader would have liked to see more interaction between Merry and the guards we have already become acquainted with such as Doyle and Frost, similar to their interaction in the first two books.  Though some interesting guards have been added to her roster in this book, Merry seems to be jumping from one man to the next in a magic raising sexual frenzy.  A touch more storyline would have been appreciated.  The biggest disappointment for this reader, however, came at the end of the book and involved her cousin Cel.  This reader had thought that when this scene ultimately showed up in print, it would have been given more than the two or so paragraphs it was given. 

Still, Laurell K. Hamilton remains one of this reader’s most eagerly anticipated writers and when her next book hits the bookshelves, an Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book by the way, this reader will be there purchasing her copy at the very first possible opportunity.  Why?  Because when Laurell K. Hamilton is in her groove and everything falls into place, it is very difficult indeed to find an author that can transport her readers into her intricately woven and vividly imagined reality quite the way that she can. 

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