Reviewed by Elizabetta

TITLE: A Novel Arrangement

AUTHOR: TC Mill

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 86 pages

BLURB: The city of Salvation’s Masters own everything—including the bondspersons who serve them in exchange for support and protection. The summer he turns eighteen, Nicolas expects to become a Master and inherit da Silva House. Instead, his mother holds onto power, forcing him to leave. Nicolas seeks refuge with Master Hiro Inoue, his former lover, and willingly becomes his slave. Affection and even passion remain between them while Nicolas is Hiro’s bondsman. Yet love between two Masters, natural rivals, will be impossible.

But Hiro’s ambitious plan to end the most vicious aspects of life in Salvation gives Nicolas hope that he can also change their society—by transforming their relationship into something new.

REVIEW:

In Salvation city, there are harsh distinctions between the haves and the have nots. Several Families or ‘Houses’ hold great wealth and power and people are motivated by political gain.

At the forefront are the da Silva, Inoue, and Davis families. Of course, where there is power there is feuding, and the Davis family seems to be making moves on another House by culling their bondspeople (a type of indentured servant or slave). It’s never made clear exactly what happens to these bondspeople but it, of course, weakens the Family and is cause for alarm. There is also a Security Force with agents called Protectors who act as policers, but apparently aren’t immune to taking bribes from the Families.

Nicolas da Silva has just turned eighteen and expected to take over his House as Master, but his scheming mother decides to hang on to the reigns. Nicolas is loath to work for mom and decides to break with tradition in a daring move by offering his services to the Inoue House as bondsman. Things are complicated because the Inoue family is now headed by nineteen-year-old Hiro, an old childhood friend who also used to be Nicolas’ lover.

It would be a coup for Hiro to have the heir to another great House um, under him, so he agrees to a contract. He wants Nic as a consort, wants to resume their affair, but Nic needs to be legit and earn his way with honest work. Hiro is no slouch, he has big plans for his House. He makes a move with the help of the Protectors that will shake Salvation society up and hopefully eradicate all the infighting. We never get Hiro’s POV so he remains an enigma; I really want to know more about what makes him tick.

I kept asking myself what the point of this story is. There is a simmering tension that underlays everything. There really isn’t much action, per se, but there is turmoil. This is a world on the edge of something else. Or, maybe this is nothing more than the creative maneuvering of two young men as they redefine their relationship into a ‘novel arrangement’.

The romance is fine (sometimes there’s too much talking about sex and not enough doing it), but I want more of the political intrigue and power-play. Nic and Hiro forge a new way of operating in this rigid society, they certainly look set to be shaking things up. But what are they going to do with their audacious plan?

While I enjoyed reading this, it feels unfinished. More backstory on this world, how it came to be the way it is, and where it is going would have been great. I would be keen to read a follow-up, to see the path that Hiro and Nic have chosen for Salvation.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press