Review of The House of the Red Balconies by A. J. Demas
BlurbHylas 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.
What do I 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 book 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. It was immersive, evocative, and I adored it from start to finish.
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 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 the room Hylas has rented is in the oldest and least popular of the tea houses, The Red Balconies, the man 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 to face. Being chronically ill and suffering from pain on most days, he struggles to keep up a smiling face and entertain clients. When he is threatened to find a patron failing which he 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 of their 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 bug me. In the end, they’re both consenting adults, and their life experiences have created enough impact on both.
This story was like a breath of fresh air to me. If you love queer characters, and romances, you should read this one.
