A Stroke of Midnight by Laurell K. Hamilton

If I am not mistaken, this is book 4 in the Meredith Gentry series. But a quick check of Alibris.com couldn't confirm that. I loved this series through the first 3 books. The series is the story of Meredith Gentry, or Merry as her friends call her, heir to the throne of the Unseelie Court of Faery by virtue of her father's lineage. There is no rule of primogenitor in the Unseelie Court, only the absolute requirement that the heir apparent must produce an heir prior to being named the heir apparent. Whomsoever helps the heir engender the child is the mate, by law, to the heir apparent.

Merry is half-mortal and inherited mortality from her mother. She seems human, but looks, as we know, can be deceiving. She has High Court powers attained hereditarily from her father. She has the ability to drain all the blood from her enemy without contact with that enemy, and she has inherited the Hand of Flesh. With a touch, she can literally turn an entity inside out. This holds special horrors for the Fae, as they are immortal and wearing their organs on the outside won't kill them. Eeeuuuww!

She has also been commanded by the present ruler, The Queen of Air and Darkness, to produce an heir. This command has also been issued to the Queen's son. The son was assumed to be the only heir, until Merry left her self-imposed exile and returned to the mound of the Unseelie Court. This just happens to be the last of the mounds still existent, save one. The only other Faery mound is that of the Seelie Court, the sworn and centuries long rivals of the Unseelie. Both mounds are located within the United States by treaty with President Thomas Jefferson, and that was because the Fae had literally been  forced out of every other country in the world. Since then, both courts have been in slow but steady decline.

Quick Faery lesson: The Seelie are what you think of when you envision Tolkien's elves. Tall, slender, agile, inhumanly beautiful....and inhumanly cruel. The Unseelie are literally everything else that is Faery, but not Seelie; gnomes, imps, fairies, etc. The Unseelie Court accepts all fae, the Seelie court only accepts full-blooded Seelie.

Merry has been making treaties with all the courts of Unseelie, pretty much so that they don't kill her. There are two ways to bind an agreement among the fay; blood and sex. Three guesses which one Merry uses most often. She has also been chosen, evidently, by the Faery deity, the Goddess, as the savior of her peoples, as signified by returning the mystical and powerful talisman of Faery to Merry's hand - The Chalice.

Ok, now that sets up, basically, the story going into this book. I was looking forward to more of the inner workings of t he Seelie and Unseelie courts, palace intrigue, Faery politics, and human-elf relations. There was almost none of that in this book. What this book is about is sex. Period. While I am not adverse to erotic storylines, I dislike most books about sex for the same reasons I dislike porn movies; lots of gratuitous sex, no story. That's the case here. There is no advancement of the story, no new revelations of the intent of the Goddess, no new treaties and background deal-making...just sex and lots of it. On the floor, in the dirt, in the mud, in the bedroom, under a fantasy tree...sex with just about everybody for absolutely no reason except to say that sex is power, especially among the Fae.

That being said, this chapter in Merry's Quest for the Throne isn't very entertaining. There's no palace intrigue, no behind the scenes politics or dealings, no development of relationships. There is the ceaseless statement that sex is power - over and over and over. If you're a devoted Hamilton fan, or like me, following the series, you'll probably want to read Stroke (an apt name). But if not, I'd give this one a bye.