Naamah's Kiss is set generations after the last Kushiel book. When I first heard this, I was a little disappointed. The jump forward in time does make sense. It allows for a "happily ever after" for the first six books and allows for Carey to further explore her world. We are given more of a world view, including this world's version of the "New World". I love the alternate world that Carey has created.The central character of this book is Moirin who is likable and has an innocence that was wholly lacking in Phedre. Overall Carey does a good job of building Moirin's character; however, during parts of the last third of the book, Moirin sounds very much like Phedre. She has the same spark for learning languages; her tone shifts slightly. The voice isn't totally Phedre's, but it is no longer wholly Moirin's. It's a slight shift, barely noticeable but there. This is the reason why I am giving the book four stars instead of five.For me, the best drawn character in the book was Queen Jehanne. With her, Carey gives an excellent picture of a layered character. Instead of simply being a flightily "loose" women, Jehanne becomes a nicely developed and rounded character. In fact, Moirin is not the sole strong woman here, and Carey does an excellent job with tackling stereotypes, for instance in the two ladies who accompany Moirin on her coach journey.I also found Carey's use of the "twilight" interesting. It is strongly reminiscent of Sergei Lukyanenko and his watch books. It is nice to see an author empower a character but to also show the costs of such power, and this theme runs the course of the novel.For a reader who has avoided Carey due to the S&M in her previous books, there is none of that here. Moirin follows Naamah, so her tastes are far different. It is also not necessary to have read the first six books to understand this one. For the long time fan, Carey does let readers know about well loved characters from the earlier books, not just the royals but some minor characters as well.
