Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton

Meredith, or Merry, Gentry is the niece of Queen Andais, the Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Unseelie Fae. She and her brutal cousin, Prince Cel, are struggling to succeed Andais as ruler of the Unseelie Fae. To do so, though, one of them must prove themselves fertile, either by getting pregnant (Merry) or impregnating another Fae (Cel).

Three of Merry's guards have been called into a lawyer's office to testify for supposedly having raped a female Seelie Fae of the Royal Court. However, none of them are guilty, and Merry knows this. She's wondering why her uncle Taranis, King of Light, would go so far as to try and have her guards accused of rape. What could he possibly want from her?

The lawyers question her and her guards in the presence of Ambassador Stevens, the United States' Ambassador to the Fae. But Merry doesn't know him very well, because he has never been to the Unseelie Court, only the Seelie Court. And it soon becomes obvious why when the Ambassador seems to become unwell and accuses Meredith and her guards of being monsters. The culprit for the change seems to be a watch given to the Ambassador by King Taranis, but being exposed to her and her guards as monsters is tearing away the Ambassador's sanity. The lawyers call help for him, and then call King Taranis, who seems to want Merry for some reason. When her guards remove her to keep Taranis from ensorcelling her with his magic, Taranis lashes out, injuring them.

But Taranis, too, is dragged away from the mirror by his own guards, and one of the Seelie Fay of the Court, Sir Hugh, tells Merry that King Taranis is not well, and that he and many of the other seelie would offer her the throne if they could.

Merry doesn't agree and ends the call, then accompanies her guards to the hospital, where they are treated. As soon as they return home, she calls Queen Andais by mirror to tell her of the offer from the Seelie Fae. Andais, however, has already heard and is enraged by the news. She has taken out her wrath on another Guard that was formerly Merry's- Crystall. Merry tells Andais she did not accept the offer, and her aunt does not believe her, until Merry swears the most potent oath the Fey can make. Then, she tells Merry that she, Andais, is close to hating Merry because of how she seems more Seelie than unSeelie. And that Andais's guards seem to want Merry to rule more than Andais or Cel.

Merry hasn't been feeling well, and this isn't putting her in a good mood. She thinks she's caught a cold, and compared to her guards and the men she loves, including Frost and Darkness, she will grow old and die, being merely mortal, while they stay young and beautiful forever. When she shares this fear with Frost, however, he tells her he will love her even when she is old and gray, for that is how he came to be.

For he was once Jack Frost, but fell in love with a peasant girl who had Faerie Sight. When she and her mother fell on hard times, he brought them food and wood. And when they were accused of being witches, he saved them, although her mother died, and he beseeched the goddess for a fully human form, and ended up marrying the girl and loving her all her life. It was love that formed him, more so than magic. Merry feels better and has sex with him, only to find Andais peeking in on them.

She and Merry talk some more, and then Merry must leave to prepare for having sex with two Redcaps who want to lie with her for the power she will bring them. And since she owes them a favor, and they will use their powers for her, she agrees. With them comes contingent of Redcaps, one of whom Merry knows. But she doesn't even have to touch them to bring their powers to the fore, and those of the Redcaps as well. But Frost, the man she loves, becomes a white Stag, fated to be sacrificed.

Afterwards, she goes outside to rest, and is kidnapped by her Uncle Taranis, who hits her so hard he gives her a concussion. He brings her back to the Seelie faerie mound, where she discovers that she is not sick, she is pregnant, with twins, and that each of her babies has three separate fathers. But can she deal with Taranis, now completely insane and wanting to marry her and proclaim himself father of her children, and can she keep her wits together and let the world know what has been happening to her, even as she grieves over the loss of her love, her Killing Frost?

Laurell K. Hamilton has recieved a lot of flack lately for writing more about sex than actual plots or romance, but in this series, I don't find all the sex distasteful or too much, because in the context of the characters of the book, it all fits the characters. Sex, to the fae, is affection and caring, and even just about sex, sometimes. This attitude towards sex is evident in the scene where Merry is being quizzed about her guards and their sexual habits. First, she sees nothing wrong with talking about sex, and isn't embarrassed to discuss it, and 2) she feels no shame in discussing the intimate details of her sex life with people who are, to her, strangers.

Plus, she *is* trying to get pregnant, so having lots of men in and out of her bed is not only acceptable, but something she needs to do: have lots and lots of sex and get pregnant, But sex also ties the men to her with bonds of obligation and affection. She is the only sexual outlet they have, except for masturbation, which she allows them, but Andais did not. The fact that she doesn't abuse them during sex, as Andais did, only makes them love her more.

And of course, now that Merry has won the race for the Unseelie throne, she's also lost the man she loves, Frost, to the magic she's brought back to the Fae. And by the end, she's won it. She's pregnant. She knows she won. But was it worth it, to lose the man she loved, her killing Frost? Mercy certainly doesn't seem to think so. Her daughter will never know her father, and Mercy can only feel sadness.

Reading this series takes Mercy through a gamut of emotions, from joy and exaltation to loss and sadness and fear, but I have enjoyed reading the series from the beginning. Although there is an element of "Sex adding powers to her repetoire", it's more the other way around here. Except for one instance, Mercy doesn't get powers from having sex, she gives them to others. I find this series fascinating and fun to read, and I'll recommend it to others. Yes, a lot of it is bound up in sex, but here, it comes with the territory.