Overall rating: 3.5 stars This is an anthology, where all the stories are focused around love and death. I know, extremely surprising, based on the title. I will write a tiny bit about each of the stories, and conclude with my general impression of the anthology as a whole. It’s a really long post, what with me writing about 17 different stories. If you’re interested in my write-up, the review is here.
#9 Kushiel’s Dart: A new favourite for the bookshelf…
Phedre was abandoned by her family to the Night Court, where the religion-sanctioned courtesans live and train to fulfill the precincts of their pleasure-promoting god. Yet she is destined to tread a more unusual path: a scarlet mote in her dark eyes marks her as an anguisette, one who derives pleasure from pain. When she is adopted by Anafiel Delaunay, a prominent member of the royal court who realizes what she is, she is trained not merely for pleasure, but also as a scholar… and a spy. […]