Kushiel's Chosen by Jacqueline Carey

Synopsis:
The land of Terre d'Ange is a place of unsurpassed beauty and grace. It is said that the angels found the land and saw it was good, and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: love as thou wilt.

Phedre no Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye and sold into indentured servitude as a child. Her bond was purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with a very special mission--and the first to recognize her for who and what she is:one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phedre has trained in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Having stumbled upon a plot that threatened the very foundations of her homeland, she gave up almost everything to save it. She survived, and lived to have others tell her story, and if they embellished the tale with fabric of mythical splendor, they wern't far off the mark.

The hands of the gods weigh heavily upon Phedre's brow, and they are not yet done with their charge--for while the young queen who sits upon the throne is well loved by the people, there are those who believe that other heads should wer the crown. And those who escaped the wrath of the mighty are not yet done with their schemes for power and revenge. To protect and serve, Phedre will once again leave her beloved homeland.

From the sun-drenched villas of La Serenissima to the wilds of old Hellas, from a prison designed to drive the very gods mad to an island of immutable joy, Phedre will meet old friends and new enemies... and discover a plot so dreadful as to make the earth tremble, masterminded by the one person she cannot turn away from.

My Rating: 9/10

My Thoughts:
This is the second book in one of the greatest fantasy trilogies of all time. Though it's not quite as good as the first one, it comes really, really close. We are again faced with dire political intrigue and national crisis. Like in Kushiel's Dart we get to experience not only the beautiful country of Terre d'Ange, but we get to explore many other of the countries that had previously been only mentioned.

My biggest gripe (and possibly spoilor-y) is my favorite blond warrior priest spends most of the book either really, really pissed at Phedre, or seperated from her. The first time I read this book, the seperation worried me so much I flipped ahead just to make sure his name appeared later in the book, reassuring me he was in fact going to come back into the picture. He does.

Overall, this series is so, so amazing. Go read it now.