Throwback Thursday, is a new feature created by Tenacious Reader with the aim of  highlighting books from your reading past. This can be virtually anything, a book that you previously read and loved, a book that you want to highlight again, maybe it’s a book in a series and the next book is due out shortly so you want to focus some attention on the series.   Anything goes – so long as your book isn’t a current release as there are already plenty of ways to highlight the latest books.  

The book I’d like to shine the spotlight on this week is : Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey.  This is the first in Phedre’s trilogy, a series I loved.  I thought I’d highlight this today because if you haven’t read this – you should by the way – there’s a new book planned, no firm dates yet, possibly to be released in 2020.  I was so excited when I saw tweets about this last year – basically this is going to be a retelling of Kushiel’s Dart from Joscelin’s point of view.  Okay, breathe everyone.  Anyway, the idea of Throwback Thursday is to highlight books for one reason or another – so, if you’ve not yet read Kushiel’s Dart – you could give it a try now, there’s still time to read the series before this new release so this is a very timely post.  Joscelin has to be one of my favourite characters and so the idea of reading from his POV has me doing somersaults.  Here’s the announcement from Tor.

So,  here’s a little more about Kushiel’s Dart to get you started:

The land of Terre d’Ange is a place of unsurpassing beauty and grace. It is said that angels found the land and saw it was good… and the ensuing race that rose from the seed of angels and men live by one simple rule: Love as thou wilt.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission… and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel’s Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair… and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel’s Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.