Kushiel's Dart

First off, I really think that people who dismiss this as just erotica or as trashy romance lit are missing out on a lot of the book, because I absolutely adore this series and I'm not really one for smut with no plot. That said, I'm reviewing all six books in the series here, and just giving stars to the others, so read at your own risk.

This is a series of six (really long) books that narrowly rides the line between fantasy and romance novel. Then, midway through the first book, it goes BAM Politics! Court shenanigans! Murder and mayhem! Politics! Travel to distant lands! Torture! Religious experiences! Even more politics! And continues in that vein for pretty much the entire series. The first three books are about Phèdre, while the second trilogy are about a prince named Imriel, and while I prefer the Phèdre books (I'm biased toward female narrators), Imriel's story is just as engrossing. Oh, and everyone is bisexual! There are gay people in my fantasy! Some of them even survive! No wonder I like these books. But what really gets me is the worldbuilding. Short version: it's amazing. It's set in a universe where the half-divine Elua, the apostate grandson of God (yes, that God), and his fallen angel Companions chose to live and love among the mortals. This means that Christianity never became a dominant religion - though there are still those who practice it - and so other cultures kept on worshipping the older gods, which, as you might guess, affects the religious landscape of Europe and nearby countries, which therefore affects the political world, which therefore affects everything. The author does a stupendous job in extrapolating this out realistically and well, and honestly, the universe she created is at least half of why I love these books so much.