This book was phenomenal and heart breaking and heart making. It only takes so many pages before I remember why this woman has always, always, always been one of my top favorite writers no matter how long its been since I read one of her books.

This new character is so completely different and yet amazing. I fell in love with her naivette and how she learned. Everything. Her new cohorts. Those she lost, those she loved, how she saw The Lady and The Lord and her Bear. And everything. ( )

I'm always nervous when a favorite author breaks away from her original, beloved characters to extend a world's story in a different direction, but "Naamah's Kiss" is a worthy successor to the stories of Phedre and Imriel.

Moirin's story is filled with adventure, passion, danger, and the mysterious but constant calling of her destiny. It is less complex and intricate than Phedre's story, but I found it more satisfying than that of Imriel. I look forward to the next installment. ( )

Naamah’s Kiss is the beginning of the third and final trilogy in the Kushiel’s Universe series. The second trilogy had taken place shortly after the first trilogy and followed a character we’d already met. This one, on the other hand, is set about 100 years later and introduces us to a brand new character, Moirin. Early in the book we learn that she’s the great, great granddaughter of Alais.

I spent the first couple of pages mourning all my favorite characters from the previous two trilogies, but then I became wrapped up in this new character’s story. I think the author’s writing continually improves throughout these books. For the most part I was engrossed, and that was despite not always liking Moirin’s decisions and also finding some of the secondary characters to be a bit annoying. I still liked Moirin herself and cared about what happened to her, and there were other secondary characters that I did like. The story was good, and it made me smile or laugh several times.

I did think Moirin adapted to the changes in her life too easily to be believable considering her past, so that sometimes pulled me out of the story to scoff, but I was mostly able to overlook it. I also like how the author has made each trilogy's main character and story distinct, with different types of magic and different types of problems. Sometimes things start to feel repetitive or recycled in a long series, especially if it has subseries that each focus on later generations, but I haven’t had that feeling with this one.

I’m giving this 4.5 stars and rounding up to 5 on Goodreads. ( )

Loved it, Moirin is wonderful heroine and I loved the scope of magic and travel in this novel-can not WAIT for the next book! ( )

Very good, love the places she travels to. ( )