From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Carey's fifth book in her Kushiel's Legacy series, volume two of her Imriel fantasy trilogy (after 2006's Kushiel's Scion), is a moody tale of violence and divided loyalties. Phèdre nó Delaunay, the sexually adventurous heroine of the first trilogy, has become a placid foster mother to Prince Imriel, son of the unseen traitor Melisande Shahrizai. Carey's infamous explicit sex scenes now portray Imriel's illicit and often violent affair with Sidonie, daughter of Queen Ysandre. Their romance is frustrated by Imriel's obligation to marry Dorelei, an Alban princess, and beget future rulers of Alba. When Dorelei and her unborn son are betrayed and Imriel is badly wounded, he finds himself torn between his vow to avenge his wife and child and his desire to seek solace in Sidonie's arms. His inner conflicts are ameliorated by religious faith, a change from previous books that may please some readers and dismay others. Imriel serves well as protagonist, however, and events are clearly building to what promises to be a spectacular climax in the sixth volume. Author tour. (June)
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From Booklist

Starred Review Prince Imriel de la Courcel's parents were infamous traitors, and he was stolen and tortured as a child. Rescued and raised by Terre d'Ange's champions, Phedre and Joscelin, he's now third in line for the throne. He and the dauphine, Sidonie, have always been mutually cool, and then, when Sidonie is 16 and Imriel a little older, they suddenly see one another with new eyes. Both know that neither queen nor realm would approve their marriage, so Imriel agrees to wed Dorelei, the daughter of the Cruarch, to reinforce Terre d'Ange's alliance with Alba. But Alba's elders have foreseen what Imriel portends. Using his passion for Sidonie to bind him magically, they try to force him out. His sense of duty is strong, however, and surprisingly, he falls in love with Alba and with Dorelei. Treason and magic make murderous bedfellows, and when a shape-changing magician-bear savages nearly nine-months-pregnant Dorelei, Imriel swears vengeance—a vow that could kill him as well as his quarry. Carey brings Alba vividly alive again in another stunner in the Kushiel series. A multilayered plot and Imriel's complex inner life as he struggles with pain and loss in the present while trying to make peace with the past hook the reader but good. Luedtke, Paula
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