Kushiel's Dart

Well, this book was not quite what I expected. To be fair I was not sure what I expected, as this book has been on my to-read list for some time and to be honest I did not know much about the series of books.

A simplistic summary would be:

Set in a fantasy reality based on medieval Europe, primarily in the countries of Terre D'Ange, Skaldia, and Alba ( roughly France, Germany and England).

Phèdre is a young girl brought up as an indentured servant in a high class brothel. She is unique inasmuch as she gets pleasure from pain. Her bond is sold to a patron, who educates her, has her trained as a high class courtesan, and uses her as a political tool to spy on her patrons whilst plying her trade as a courtesan.

It follows her career as an apprentice courtesan, her loss of her virginity, and her development as a high class courtesan, leading on to her involvement in the political machinations of the era, and eventually into the resulting war.

What I didn't expect were the soft porn S&M sex scenes. After several of these episodes, and around 30% into the book, I was starting to get bored. Luckily I stuck with the story, and the latter half of the book improved greatly (with the occasional bit of sex thrown in for good measure).

Surprisingly I enjoyed most of the book, which initially, I didn't think I would.