Though published by Luna Books, the sci-fi/fantasy arm of Harlequin, this book seems to have little in common with her romance novel sisters. There is romantic tension but very little in the way of actual sex. While I did come to this book hoping for a tawdry fantasy novel, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it, lack of sex notwithstanding. Dayton's world-building was wonderful -- even though a map and glossary was included, her narrative was thorough enough I did not need to refer to either.

While the plot is interesting enough -- a quest ultimately to destroy a demon -- I found the cultural world building more fascinating. The primary culture, Adaran, has a polyamorous family unit called ilian. It can be sexual, business-like, multi-generational, all of the above, none of the above. The main character, Kallista, enters into ilian with her male bodyguard, two male prisoners of war, a female defector, and a male merchant of foreign origin. Though Kallista feels intense sexual attraction with all of the males, the ilian is initially entered into contractually. The secondary plotline weaving through the story explores Kallista's feelings toward all the men and the evolution of the ilian.

Ultimately I was disappointed in Dayton's exploration of the ilian. Though the ilian is the only form of marriage in Adara, and requires four or more adults of any gender combination, there seems to be little change in sexual attitudes: all four men displayed no bisexual or homosexual interests and each man had intense jealousy at the idea of Kallista having sex with the other men. I know that romance novels have constraints, limits placed on the author by the publisher, but I found it slightly unbelievable that a culture used to polyamory would display rather traditional, Western, monogamous sexual mores.

That quibble aside, the story read quickly and I am eager to read the sequel. (I am assuming there will be a sequel; the ending seemed to beg for one!)