Kushiel tome2, The Elected - Jacqueline Carey

Summary : Sold when she was a child, Phèdre nó Delaunay became the property of a noble who recognized the red mark adorning his eye - the sign of Kushiel worth it to experience forever pleasure in suffering. A unique gift and cruel, making it the most coveted courtesans and exceptional spy.
Then, to save his country from a dark conspiracy, Phaedra had to sacrifice everything, and poets sing his exploits today. But the gods have not finished with it.
If the people of Angelin loves his young queen, others think only rob him of the crown. And the plotters who managed to escape the wrath of the powerful more than ever lust for power and revenge ...

Edition : Bragelonne

My Opinion : This is the direct result of volume 1 chronicled here . The cover of the book is still connected as successful I think. I must say that I found with pleasure the further adventures of Phaedra, the first volume having really marked me, I hoped much of the second volume.

We find our hero in direct continuation of the first volume, in fact the end of La Marque had left our protagonists with a win but with the certainty that other conspiracies were being hatched in the shadow of the throne. Phaedra donations will start to play its role as a spy and try to unravel the thread of intrigue, secrets and betrayals that revolves around the Earth Angel queen.

The writing of the author is always rich, fun to read, lively and manages to give some consistency to the situation she describes. You turn the pages eagerly to know what happened and never detect or lengths, or boredom. The story is compelling and include characters with great pleasure that we had left in the previous book.

The plot has a certain resemblance in substance, with the first volume. A plot is the Angel Land and Phaedra decides to conduct its own investigation to bring the truth to light. This similarity has no adverse reading, the author has managed to recreate a new completely different story the previous volume. Also here Phaedrus undergoes less events and the author can even accentuate the adventure look for our greatest pleasure.

The characters are still as engaging and perfectly developed. This second volume even offers a pleasant evolution of characters and even some questioning of some. The author did not resume as heroes, they really live and move his characters in different situations. Political systems are very well crafted and complex, one feels that the author has perfectly worked his universe and the various countries that Phaedra will visit.

While it's true that in this volume at times we find ourselves more spectator player in the plot, especially with the pirates. But writing the author is so captivating that we do not even notice it and once the closed book that was one wish, read more.

Abstract : The charm is in this second volume still as captivating. It is far from a second volume to the plot warmed, Jacqueline Carey managing to renew and evolve the characters over the plot. I must say that I found with pleasure Phaedra in this second volume.

My rating : 9/10