
Touched by Venom by Janine Cross
I've been tempted by Touched by Venom for a long time. The cover art is sensual; the blurb is intriguing and contains a promising quote by Jacqueline Carey, one of my favorite authors. Something held me off, though, until recently, but I finally broke down and bought Touched by Venom used.
First of all... yowza. I thought I was into dark fantasy. Little did I know, compared to Touched by Venom, pretty much everything I've ever read is all rainbows and unicorns. This is definitely not a book for the faint of heart. Janine Cross doesn't shy away from the grit of a peasant's life (brutality, disease, excrement...) or from the scourges of racism, sexism, and classism. Our heroine, Zarq, is on the wrong end of all three of these big... Read More