Caress of twilight chapter 40

Plot pisses me off in any of Laurel K Hamilton's writing. 

Not because it is bad, mind you. No. It is because it is good. It is very good. I can see how all the points will connect, my dear loyal blog readers. I can see how a good writer would have woven things together had they been given this plot before the eleventh hour. And instead we get a facilitating plot contracted into less than ten chapters because the author can't be bothered to either outline or revise her fucking books.

Chapter 40 opens with everybody being amazed that Taranis is that crazy.

I am willing to cut LKH a lot of slack, but obvious plot thread is obvious. It is perfectly acceptable to have your MC roll with it and move on. Acting like it's a total surprise when your readership already gets it? Yeah, your MC just looks like an idiot.

(Note to writers: if being dense is a character flaw it is perfectly acceptable to do this. It shows the reader that density is a real thing)

What's really interesting is that Martyr of the Month Lucy Tate is apparently more on the up and up re:Fae than Merry is, because she immediately figures that Taranis wants Maeve Reed dead.

Also? This is the first time we find out that if a Fae fades, they are effectively doomed to wander the earth as a hungry life sucking ghost.

We are ignoring this plot to focus on Merry's fertility. Frankly, I think we're getting short shift.

And then we find out that Bucca kept his mouth shut until Merry brought her men around, and that having the men around was the only thing that motivated him to talk. Whatever the plot is, it revolves around Merry.

And then Bucca starts explaining how to talk the ghosts down, and...yeah, it's time to out myself.

It wasn’t a matter of magic words, more of magical intent and just knowing how to think it through.

In case my heavy-handed hints weren't enough, I consider myself to be a Christian Witch. It's nothing major, and the only reason I bring this up? Folks? THAT IS BULLSHIT. I read a lot on the subject FREQUENTLY. It does not work that way. Gods have rules, folks. Intent has a lot to do with it, but following those rules have even more to do with it, and I really doubt that Princess Merry is following any deity's rules other than her own.

(...yes. I am willing to answer questions)

ANYHOO. Bucca also reveals that Taranis is controlling the Nameless. Again: When your infodump is making more sense than your MC? It's time to rewrite the entire fucking plot.

Now. A normal protagonist would go "Deadly magic monster? In MY neighborhood? FUCK THAT SHIT" and go marauding with torches until the danger were ended. In this case we have to justify Merry saving one individual life, so Rhys says that the Nameless will go Godzilla over all of LA if they don't manage to stop it BEFORE it kills Maeve.

What is Merry's solution to Maruding killer magic monster?

“We’re going to go keep Maeve Reed alive. Maybe convince her that Europe would be good this time of year. Maybe just keep her moving ahead of it until we can figure out something else.”

WORST. HEROINE. EVER.

And then Merry has to borrow Lucy Tate's cell phone, and SOMEHOW Lucy Tate has Maeve Reed's personal phone number on hand in a notebook.

I want you to consume that for a minute. A RANDOM COP has a movie star's personal phone number IN HER POSESSION without any prior contact whatsoever. What the fuck, boys and girls?

Oh, but it gets so. much. better.

See, the Nameless attacked right when Merry calls Maeve Reed. 

  “Something’s here, something so psychically big I can’t even begin to sense all of it. It’s trying to get through the wards, and I think it’s going to do it.”

That's Julian talking. The chapter ends with Merry racing out to Maeve Reed's house to go save lives.

Yeah. If this isn't pulled out of someone's ass in the eleventh hour I'm a pumpkin.