Kushiel’s Dart
GUEST RECOMMENDED: Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey is $2.99! This is a highly recommended fantasy novel and we have a great guest squee from a reader named Betty:
This book was the first of a trilogy and there is a damn good reason the series is listed among the best of its genre. It is like Lord of the Rings with anal sex. It is like The Wheel of Time with BDSM. It is like The Wizard of Earthsea with un-emphasized and natural bisexuality. It was Game of Thrones with less incest and more consensual sex.
Seriously, I loved Kushiel’s Dart.
The land of Terre d’Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that 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.
Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission… and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel’s Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.
Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair… and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.
Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel’s Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.
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Wolf’s Ascension by Lauren Dane is 99c! This is the first book in the Cherchez Wolf Pack series and features a heroine who has been newly declared a werewolf queen. Some readers found the heroine on the TSTL side. However, others say there is plenty of plot to keep you entertained. It has a 3.8-star rating on Goodreads.
Attacked by werewolves. Mated to the Alpha. Declared a queen. Kari is having an unusual day.
In the Cherchez wolf pack, loyalty is earned, not given. For Andreas, the pull he feels toward Kari cannot be ignored, a physical bond immediate and unbreakable—though Andreas wants to win Kari’s heart as well as her body. But someone isn’t happy about his new mate, and Kari’s just beginning to trust him and the pack when attempted murder threatens their newfound happiness.
Andreas brings out the deepest hunger in Kari, a sexy, passionate side of herself she never knew was there. And her new life as werewolf queen is turning out to be surprisingly emotional in other ways, as well. The bond she feels with Andreas extends to the others in the pack—others she’s now bound to defend.
And as the pack’s enemies are about to discover, Kari will do anything to protect her new family.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Beyond the Stars
Beyond the Stars by Stacy Wise is 99c! This is a new adult contemporary romance between an actor and his personal assistant. Readers say this is a great book for those who like their romances cute, funny, and with some fluff. However, others wished the pacing were a bit better. Have you read this one?
Falling for him wasn’t in the plans…
Most girls would kill for the opportunity to work for Jack McAlister, Hollywood’s hottest actor, but twenty-one-year-old Jessica Beckett is ready to kick him out of her red Ford Fiesta and never look back. She should be spending her junior year in France, eating pastries and sharpening her foreign language skills. Instead she’s reluctantly working as Jack’s personal assistant, thanks to her powerhouse talent agent aunt.
Jack is private, prickly, and downright condescending. Jessica pushes his buttons—she’s not the type of girl to swoon over celebrity heartthrobs, precisely why her aunt thought she’d be perfect for the job—and Jack pushes right back.
But as she begins to peel away his layers, Jessica is shocked to find she craves her boss’s easy smile and sexy blue eyes. The problem is, so does the entire female population. And what started out as the job from hell soon has Jess wondering if a guy like Jack could ever find love with a regular girl like her.
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Hamilton Affair
The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs is $1.99! This is a work of historical fiction that focuses on Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler’s relationship. Redheadedgirl mentioned that she’d read this one in a previous Whatcha Reading. She found it “good, but disjointed.”
Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Revolution, and featuring a cast of iconic characters such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the Marquis de Lafayette, The Hamilton Affair tells the sweeping, tumultuous, true love story of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler, from tremulous beginning to bittersweet ending—his at a dueling ground on the shores of the Hudson River, hers more than half a century later after a brave, successful life.
Hamilton was a bastard son, raised on the Caribbean island of St. Croix. He went to America to pursue his education. Along the way he became one of the American Revolution’s most dashing—and unlikely—heroes. Adored by Washington, hated by Jefferson, Hamilton was a lightning rod: the most controversial leader of the American Revolution.
She was the well-to-do daughter of one of New York’s most exalted families—feisty, adventurous, and loyal to a fault. When she met Alexander, she fell head over heels. She pursued him despite his illegitimacy, and loved him despite his infidelity. In 1816 (two centuries ago), she shamed Congress into supporting his seven orphaned children. Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton started New York’s first orphanage. The only “founding mother” to truly embrace public service, she raised 160 children in addition to her own.
With its flawless writing, brilliantly drawn characters, and epic scope, The Hamilton Affair will take its place among the greatest novels of American history.
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Kushiel’s Dart is an interesting book. The people who love it, just love it SO MUCH and I thought it was awful.
@Hope: I feel that way about almost everything.
I’ve tried a few times to read Kushiel’s Dart. It’s… dense? I didn’t dislike it, I just kind of get fatigue and put it down, and by the time I remember it, enough time has passed that I have to start all over. I don’t necessarily recommend it, but I don’t NOT recommend it either, because I feel like it’s definitely somebody’s cuppa. I keep trying anyway.
@Dora: This sums up my feelings. I tried to read it when I was a senior in high school and had trouble getting through it. It’s definitely one of those books I want to go back and try to reread now that I’m older. Maybe I’ll have a different experience.
@Hope:LOL! It was truly awful.
I enjoyed it in an over-the-top seriously-suspend-my-disbelief kind of way. I had a co-worker who liked it too, and we tried to speak in D’Angeline dialect.
E.G. ‘Rotfl’ became “I am overcome with mirth and must repose myself upon the floor’.
It also led to terms like ‘sangoire snuggie’ 😀
I only read the first Kushiel’s Dart, and I mostly enjoyed it. I’d say it’s really similar to A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) or the Black Jewels series. Which is, in all of these books, only half of it makes coherent sense, the characterizations can be iffy and the plot is balls-out insane, when there actually is one. But. If you just buy into all that, it can be a fun ride.
At first, I wondered if The Hamilton Affair was trying to capitalize off the musical, which made me a bit squeamish, but it’s clear that it’s not. I may go ahead and pick it up for this price.
I got Kushiel’s Dart ages ago and really need to get around to reading it.
I loved Kushiel’s Dart, and have read all the books in the sequence. The book is long, and the first half DOES go a bit slowly as the intricate world and plot are established. But then shit hits the fan, and much of the carefully established worldbuilding and exposition starts paying off big time. This book is ideal for those who love their fantasy with lots of courtly and political intrigue. At the same time, each book in the series is an opportunity to explore different countries and cultures in Carey’s alternate world (based on our own). And I loved the world Carey builds, with its central culture deeply founded in sexual practices that are consensual, variable, and unshameful.
The Hexbreaker by Jordan Hawke is free at ARe today and tomorrow – m/m PNR historical. I’m reading it now – I like it better than the first novella in the series. The world building is a little light and so is the plot, but it’s engrossing and so far at least, it’s slow-burn I hate you but I can’t stop thinking about your hair type romance.
I loved Kushiel’s Dart. I’ve read 5 of them. I will admit, the first 100 pages was a struggle. To figure out the complicated world building. But once you’ve got it you’re in. Unlike The Black Jewels which took me the first two books to really understand what was happening.
I looool Rd Kushiel’s Dart. The flowery language is my kinda thing. I wish there were more books in the series.
Looool I meant looooved. Ah , that is embarrassing.
I tried to read Kushiel’s Dart and had something akin to a rage quit about half way through. I’d been warned about the nature of heroine, and was even willing to go along with it. But once it went from, indentured if consenting courtesan, to actual sex slave I loudly went “NOPE!” at a very early hour of the morning, shut down the e-reader, and had a fantastic sulk that it was an e-book, and therefore couldn’t throw it at the wall as punishment for wasting my time. Maybe I’ll try it again someday, now that I know better. But not before the book has to sit in time out and think about what it’s done for a good long while!
I bought Beyond the Stars nad DNF. Whate a terrible writing. The heroine shoud be adult and inteligent and capabel im some scen and than she lacks basic knowlage and is mega childisch. I can read sweet and simple stories like: sweet and innocent meets jaded Hollywood hero but on that book some fakts jus doesn’t sume up in logical story and personalities. Sorry for my english – it’s not my firts language but the book got me sooo angry I just have to tell someone abolute it!
I remember really enjoying Kushiel’s Dart back in college, and then feeling meh about the second book. I recently read the third book in that series (Kushiel’s Avatar? I think?) and just got so fed up with it. It felt too repetitive and just a total slog to get through it.