I received an ebook version of this from the publisher for a fair review.
I was definitely interested in reading this as I gauged from it's description that it was a gay fantasy and I had not read any of that particular genre. I found however that I had pigeon holed this inaccurately. This book takes the idea of gender roles and throws them out the window. It is a love story taking place in a world that does not limit it's inhabitants to male or female roles but talks of them as individuals based on themselves. Although I found this at first disorienting I came to appreciate the diversity that it allowed the characters to display in what in a traditional story would be guided usually by the character's sex. It was a refreshing look at the relationship between two people learning to become the people they are meant to be and finding that love can blossom anywhere.
The best part of this story is that it was a bloody good read as well. The author has taken a previous short story and evolved it into a deftly written fantasy narrative with characters that will draw you into a court full of political intrigue and betrayal that will lead one young man into a decision which may very well cost him his life and a King who must come to realize his self punishment may cost him the one thing he never hoped to find again. A story of affronts meant and those unconsciously made and the reactions that cascade into moments that could cost people their very lives. I would recommend this to anyone who has the mind to read well written fiction that is not afraid to ask you to see past the lines drawn on the wall to the greater picture.
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