Review – Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey (4/5 stars)

This is the second book in the trilogy that takes place in the same world as Phedre’s trilogy, but this time from Imriel’s point of view.

In this book Imriel makes good on his promise to marry Dorelei and try to solidify a peace between their two realms. The story is epic in proportions and a lot happens to Imri in the course of this book.

This book was again well-written and the story was thoughtfully progressed. I was a little disappointed at how little Sidonie was actually in the story. I constantly felt bad for Dorelei and I wearied of Imri’s constant “trying”.

I did not find this book to be as engaging as the last one and kind of had to force myself to finish the end of it. There is just a lot here again. Either too much took place for one book or some of it didn’t need to be there, I don’t know which. I actually didn’t think the book picked up pace until Imri returned home.

I am not sure if the story is just lacking or maybe if I am just not as engaged with Imri as a lead character as I was with Phedre; but for some reason I have been finding this trilogy of books somewhat tedious and slow to get through.

So in summary, beautiful writing, lovely story, but somehow I am finding it a bit tedious and lengthy to get through. I don’t find myself quickly turning pages but instead looking ahead to find where the end of the chapter is so that I can stop reading. It’s hard to say anything bad about this series because, in general, I love it so much. I’ll read the next book and hope that it is faster paced than this one.