well, if you're squicky about sex then they're probably not. But I'd just be interested in your point of view. On the one hand, a courtesan doesn't sound like the most feminist of characters, but the books are magnificent, sweeping epics, and the plot is intricate and confounding at times, but never contrived.

I was never big on conspiracies and the like, but the books (at least the first three starting with Kushiel's Dart) are some of my all-time favorites.