This book is classified as fantasy of manners, which means it is closer to "The Three Musketeers" and a Jane Austen novel than any popular fantasy book I've ever encountered. It has swordfights, high society talk, gossip, drama and intrigue. All of the action happens in a city called Riverside and the Hills, where the nobility lives. In this world nobles can challenge each other to fight with their swords to the death and they can hire a swordsman to fight their battles for them. Richard is a swordsman that gets caught up in the schemes of the nobles and his boyfriend, Alec, is the best part about this book.

It took me 120 pages to get really invested in this story, but it gets quite good after that. The characters aren't that well developed and Michael's scenes sometimes were a bit boring, but the relationship between Richard and Alec is interesting and so is the character of Diane de Tremontaine. Certain events start to connect near the middle of the story and it made the plot more fun even though it was still predictable at times.

Overall, it was a fun read but it takes some time to get into it and understand who the characters are and what is their purpose in the story. ( )

This is my second try on Kushner, and she's not for me.

I like the language and prose, and the world itself is interesting, but this one in particular was a little too sex-focused for me to like. And I guess she's trying to make nuanced characters, but mostly I just thought they were reprehensible (Alec in particular).

I think I understand what she's selling, but I'm not interested in buying. ( )

Sometimes I read a book that I am stunned that ever got published when it did. The Picture of Dorian Gray is one; this is another. It kind of restores my faith in humankind that we can allow such great stories to be published even if they are somewhat outside of the traditional, and allowable definitions. ( )

When I received my last shipment from Amazon, this was the fantasy book I picked up first. I was really looking forward to it.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT OF 2017!!!!!! (to date, anyway)

There were no elements of fantasy in this book......no magic, no mythology, just a fictional generic place with substance-free characters who take forever to do anything of interest........

The political intrigue was entry level and didn't have me wondering for even a moment; I could just tell that both Alec and the Duchess were obviously the puppet masters holding the strings.

I doubt that I will read another book by this author and have no intention of continuing the series.......unless of course I become dim-witted with age and crave simplistic and unchallenging stories in my dotage. ( )

Very good "fantasy of manners" novel. Nothing really fantastical, really, other than the fact that it's in its own world. Made me want to read related works. ( )