Amaranth & Ash by Jessica Freely
Well, this is for sure an author, and a novel, that was very lucky with its cover. Just looking at this cover I’d want to buy the book, no matter the genre. And well, even when I found out it’s a Fantasy, not exactly my preferred choice of reading, I read it anyway.
This is probably a book that lays in the middle, in every meaning of the word. It’s not strictly a gay romance, since actually, one character is bisexual, Ash, and the other is androgynous, with both sexes, man and woman. To tag it as “gay” you have to trust Amaranth’s words, and the simple fact that he identifies himself as a man. There is even a nice note at the beginning of the story where the author explains that for people like Amaranth she would have preferred to use the neutral pronouns of sie and hir, but it would have been difficult for the reader.
In any case, the world where Ash and Amaranth are living is strictly divided into castes. Ash belongs to the poorer one, the Chel, so lowlife class that they are believed to have not soul. Then there are the Pel, basically paid workers for the higher class of Elai. Above them all, or better cross, there the Vasai, the androgynous breed of Amaranth; they are both healers than prostitutes, since they were taught that they souls healing can be performed only through sexual contact. They are paid for what they do, but Amaranth is not satisfied of the nice apartment and warm clothes, he would like to really touch the souls or at least one soul.
When he finds a battered Ash on a cold night, he immediately understand two things: that what he was taught was wrong, since not only Ash has a soul, but he can also heal him without sex, and second that, if he doesn’t bring him home, Ash will be dead in the morning.
The difference in caste is not only political, Chel, Pel and Elai are different also in their body structure, with Chel being the smaller of them all. On the other side, Vasai are the taller of them all, and so, it’s quite strange to see the tall and lean Amaranth takes care of Ash as he was a little child, cuddling him in his lap. But aside from this, with Amaranth being the only one with also the female sex, he is for everything else considered the woman in the story. And yes, here there is for sure a man in a woman body, but also a woman in a man body, Amaranth is both of them. But even if Amaranth considers himself a man, he is kinder and more compassionate of most men, he has, in a way, the attitude of a Mother, who wants to heal all her children.
Once Ash is recovered, he will play the role of the man, but again, his attitude towards Amaranth is of respect and worship, he considers Amaranth like a precious jewel, someone who at first he thinks to have nothing in common. But as Ash will understand, and say to Amaranth, both of them are forced to do things they don’t like, they are forced in restriction they don’t feel. From the exact opposite of their world, they will find a common ground in the middle, and while the world around them will be upset by the change, they will basically walk away, letting other deal with it, while they will build an unlikely family together.
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Cover Art by P.L. Nunn