Two very big thumbs up for Sword Dance, Saffron Alley, and Strong Wine by A. J. Demas. Fantasy romance.
A disabled soldier and an (apparently-)enslaved genderfluid eunuch meet at a house party in a beautifully-drawn fake ancient Mediterranean. (The hostess is an ex-pseudo-Vestal-Virgin who now owns a fish sauce factory; where has this author been all my life?) There’s trouble afoot, which may have to do with their fellow guests: a cadre of absolutely hateful but extremely funny philosophers. After I read Sword Dance I unhesitatingly plunked over my lucre for the second and third books because I wanted to see the characters get their happy ending, damn it. Spoiler, they do, but there’s a lot of incident (including multiple murders, a political plot, and massively frustrating roommates and family) before they do. I didn’t love books 2 and 3 quite as much – I was a bit sad the characters are mostly kept apart by Events – but don’t let that stop you; I still binge-read them with an enthusiasm I have not felt for any fiction in some time. Absolutely recommended for any reader of queer romances.
“A little bizarre?” Gelon protested. “A retired Maiden of the Loom runs a fish-sauce factory, and a retired First Spear of the Second Koryphos is her customer! It’s like something out of one of those modern novels that everyone wants to ban for corrupting the youth.”
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