Sword Dance by AJ Demas
Disclaimer: I'm not the author.
Author: AJ Demas
Links: Amazon, Goodreads
Summary: Five years ago, Damiskos’s brilliant military career was cut short, leaving him with a permanent disability and scars that are not all physical. Adrift and still grieving, he tries to find meaning in an unsatisfying job.
Work takes him to the remote seaside villa of an old friend, where, among an odd assortment of guests, he meets the eunuch sword-dancer Varazda. Enigmatic and beautiful but distinctly prickly, Varazda is the antithesis of the straightforward and serious Damiskos. Yet as they keep getting in each other’s way at the villa, their mutual dislike is complicated by a spark of undeniable attraction.
Then the villa’s guests begin to reveal their true characters and motives-no one here is what they seem-and Damiskos finds himself at the centre of a bizarre web of espionage, theft, and assassination. Varazda may need Damiskos’s help, but not as much as Damiskos, finally awakening to a new sense of life and purpose, needs Varazda.
Sword Dance is the first book in the Sword Dance trilogy, an m/nb romance set in an imaginary ancient world, with murderous philosophy students, sex acts named after fruit, and love blossoming in the midst of mayhem.
Available in: paperback, Kindle
Genres: historical, m/nb
Notes about book/series: This is historical fantasy, as in there's no magic, but the story takes place in a fictional world based on Ancient Greece. The political intrigue reminded me of Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling.
The spy is a genderfluid eunuch (he used to be a slave, but is now free) and there is major m/nb.
I'm definitely going to keep reading this series. Note for later: AJ Demas also publishes fantasy as Alice Degan.
Author: AJ Demas
Links: Amazon, Goodreads
Summary: Five years ago, Damiskos’s brilliant military career was cut short, leaving him with a permanent disability and scars that are not all physical. Adrift and still grieving, he tries to find meaning in an unsatisfying job.
Work takes him to the remote seaside villa of an old friend, where, among an odd assortment of guests, he meets the eunuch sword-dancer Varazda. Enigmatic and beautiful but distinctly prickly, Varazda is the antithesis of the straightforward and serious Damiskos. Yet as they keep getting in each other’s way at the villa, their mutual dislike is complicated by a spark of undeniable attraction.
Then the villa’s guests begin to reveal their true characters and motives-no one here is what they seem-and Damiskos finds himself at the centre of a bizarre web of espionage, theft, and assassination. Varazda may need Damiskos’s help, but not as much as Damiskos, finally awakening to a new sense of life and purpose, needs Varazda.
Sword Dance is the first book in the Sword Dance trilogy, an m/nb romance set in an imaginary ancient world, with murderous philosophy students, sex acts named after fruit, and love blossoming in the midst of mayhem.
Available in: paperback, Kindle
Genres: historical, m/nb
Notes about book/series: This is historical fantasy, as in there's no magic, but the story takes place in a fictional world based on Ancient Greece. The political intrigue reminded me of Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling.
The spy is a genderfluid eunuch (he used to be a slave, but is now free) and there is major m/nb.
I'm definitely going to keep reading this series. Note for later: AJ Demas also publishes fantasy as Alice Degan.