Anne Bishop

Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions.

Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence--and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men--sworn enemies--know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love--and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining...
--back cover

The Black Jewels Trilogy

Pepper

I love, love, love The Black Jewels Trilogy. It is dark, disturbing, haunting, and so many of the characters in the books have suffered and been abused so much and some of the concepts are entirely too horrible to even wrap your head around and YET the series is compelling because there they are - these characters in this world that has declined and gone so grossly awry in its values but they fight. They fight for something better, they fight for their values, they fight even if there is no point. And I think this series is also a bit about self esteem. About how no matter what has happened to you or what you have been forced to do you are still worth something precious and you need to fight for yourself and those that love you. 

The characters themselves are wonderfully engaging. There is Saetan Sa Diablo - the High Lord of Hell and the two sons who he was seperated from when they were very little by the schemings of his evil ex-wife. I love the relationship between these two half brothers! There are also a wealth of secondary characters like Surreal, Andulvar (Saetan's best friend), Memphis, Prothvar and later on Janelle's friends - the Queens and their escorts.

The Black Jewels Trilogy

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