2022/37: Honey and Pepper -- A J Demas

2022/37: Honey and Pepper -- A J Demas

"Nothing we did in bed together changed the truth of who we were to each other -- you know, 'owner' and 'property'." [loc. 1866]

The first in a new series ('When in Pheme'), Honey and Pepper is the story of two former slaves, both trying to adjust to life as free men. Nikias has come to the city after the death of his beloved master, a country landowner who lived quietly in the mountains, and is now working as a short-order cook at a snack stand: Kallion was freed when his not-at-all-beloved master disappeared, believed murdered, and is making a career for himself as a law clerk. Each likes the look of the other, but both are dealing not only with the novelty of freedom, but with the lingering mental damage of having recently been regarded as property.

( Read more... )