Genre: Historical, Fantasy, Romance
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Rari
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About The Book
Hylas has come to Tykanos to build an aqueduct. He has not come to enjoy the island’s main attraction: the six houses where the companions of Tykanos, courtesans both female and male, offer tea and elegant conversation. Yet he cannot ignore them as he finds himself renting a room in one of the tea houses and meeting his neighbour, the beautiful, chronically ill companion Zo.
Over breakfasts in Zo’s garden, the two men begin a friendship that transforms the isolation of their lives. But Hylas’s aqueduct project is threatened by bureaucratic delays, and Zo is pressured to secure a rich patron to help support his failing house. When they have begun to hope that they have found a home in each other, the world seems intent on forcing them apart.
The Review
Hylas is an engineer in his fourties who has come to the island of Tykanos to build an aqueduct project. He’s not interested in the tea houses—euphemisms for the houses of pleasure where companions both male and female are there to entertain the guests, and where NO actual tea is served—but the governor of the island seems to want to take him on a tour of all six.
When it turns out that the room Hylas has rented is in the oldest and least popular of the tea houses, The Red Balconies, he despairs of ever being able to finish his project. More intimidating than anything is his neighbour, the ethereally beautiful Zo, a “companion” in the house.
But Zo has his own problems. Being chronically ill and suffering from pain most days, he struggles to keep up a smiling face and entertain his clients. When he is threatened to find a patron, failing which could jeopardise his safety, Zo has no one to turn to.
I loved how Hylas and Zo are both flawed people who at the same time strive to do good. The growth oftheir relationship is slow, and while I’m usually not a fan of age gap romance—Zo is in his twenties while Hylas is forty—this one didn’t bother me.
In the end, they’re both consenting adults, and their life experiences have created enough impact on both.
What to say about this one? I’ll start with the disclaimer that while I love queer books, I’m not the best audience for a pure romance book. By that, I mean a tale where romance is the central theme.
That said, this was a book that I couldn’t put down. The slow pace didn’t bore me, and the characters’ developing relationship didn’t make me want to skip ahead.
This story was a breath of fresh air. It was immersive, evocative, and I adored it from start to finish.
The Reviewer
Rari is an author and editor writing under the name of Niranjan K. She is an avid reader of all things fantasy, and loves to discourse at length about her favourite books as well as shows. This blog is the space where she will be sharing her views and insights of the books, shows and movies that she likes.
