4.5 stars 
 Despite its length of over one thousand page, I found Kushiel's Dart to be a surprisingly quick read. It's one of those books that you sit down to read a few chapters and, before you know it, two hundred pages have gone by. The fast-paced plot, political intrigue, amazing world-building and frequently changing locations kept my interest, though I did get a little confused with the numerous members of the nobility early on. (The list of characters at the start of the book is, quite frankly, terrifying!) I'm not a fan of BDSM, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this aspect of Phedre's character, but Ms. Carey doesn't shower us with every gratuitous detail the way an erotica novel might, so it felt appropriate to the story and to the world the author created. 
 On the negative side, there were a couple of minor plot contrivances that I felt were somewhat forced, and sometimes I couldn't entirely get into Phedre's head. She seemed to under-react to some events, and over-react to others. Also, I couldn't get into her relationship with the 'Big Bad' at all. Another thing that bugged me was the way the author continually dropped hints on what was to come, and I mean continually! For example, Phedre might think to herself about a random conversation: "If only I had understood the significance of his words, but that came later." This isn't an actual quote, but sentences like this occur regularly throughout the book. It was seriously overdone and I found it off-putting. 
 However, despite a few niggles, the book was a very enjoyable read and well worth the page count.