Book Title: Mistress of Rome
Pages: 470
Publisher: Berkeley Books
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance/Drama
(Scale Explanation: 1) Meaning awful, 5) Meaning not good, but not bad, equal, 10) Meaning wonderful)
PLOT - 10
CHARACTERS - 10
BEGINNING - 10
ENDING - 10
FLOW - 10
OVERALL - 10
What I liked about this book:
I loved the time period and the politics and such involved in that time period. Ancient Rome was so full of luxury and outrageousness that it is such an excellent time period to read about. I loved the various relationships that happen throughout the book. Each one is definitely unique to the people involved and the reason why the relationship is even existing. It was such a delicious plot that I devoured the book in a matter of a few days. If not for the common distractions of a normal life, I would’ve sat and read this book in one sitting. I am so compelled to go back and read it again just because it was that good. So, buy it, read it, and leave reviews so that everyone finds out about how amazing this book truly is.
What I disliked about this book:
I wouldn’t call it something that I disliked, but it was definitely something that upset me, even though it added extra juiciness to the already tasty plot. I do understand that it was necessary to have it in the book, so therefore, it is something that I liked even though the actions made me angry. What’s a book that doesn’t make you angry at some point? It adds to the overall experience. When Paulinus gets tangled in Lepida’s web. That’s all.
Who I would recommend this book to:
Anyone and everyone on the planet Earth and anyone that may exist on other planets as well. Anyone that enjoys books set in ancient Rome. Anyone that enjoys a delicious romance tied into a dramatic historical fiction novel. Anyone that reads. (I’m a bit biased, huh?)
What I felt the book was about:
This is going to be so hard to tell a reader what the book is about without giving too much away and wanting to drone on and on about how awesome this book truly was. I want to read the book to the person(s) reading this review just so that they could enjoy every single aspect of the book that I did, but unfortunately, I cannot do that, since you are where you are and I’m sitting in a three-bedroom house in a California desert town of 160 people. So, oversimplified, not giving this novel any justice, here goes:
Thea is a slave to Lepida, they are around the same age, 15, in the beginning. Lepida is a terrible witch and Thea cuts herself and spills her blood just to escape her horrible life, one that she has been given after escaping a slaughter of Jewish people that she was a part of in Judea. She feels very bad about it because she thinks that she was the only one to have survived because she was to cowardice to commit suicide like the rest of the people that lived there. Lepida is obsessed with the gladiator games and Thea goes with Lepida to watch them.
A new gladiator makes his debut that day and makes an impression on the people of Rome, he becomes Arius the Barbarian, though he doesn’t want to be, because he doesn’t want to kill, and quickly gains success, money, and anything he wants, other than freedom, due to his efforts in the arena.
Lepida wishes to tumble with him and learns a frightful fact that Thea and Arius are desperately in love and sells Thea to a brothel in Brundisium. Thea has become pregnant from her time with Arius and therefore only works at the brothel for a few months before she is showing too much to work as a whore, so she is sold to Larcius, a praetor who desperately loved music and the arts. Larcius makes Thea into a singer and she gets to perform in front of the Emperor Domitian.
Domitian becomes smitten with Thea and makes her his mistress. It’s nice at first, but then she goes on holiday with him to Tivoli where he unleashes a side that has been whispered, but Thea hadn’t known it existed. She is subjected to strange abuses, not completely specified, though scary just the same, and they still give the reader that terrifying effect.
Meanwhile, Arius has battled in the arena for 8 years and has made an enemy out of the Emperor. He goes to the arena one day and his only friend, after Thea, is murdered right in front of him. He goes into a rage, angry with everything that the Emperor has subjected to him and at the loss of Thea. After his rage, he starts a fire, and is saved from the halls of the coliseum by Flavia Domitilla, Domitian’s niece. She takes him to her estate where he dyes his hair and grows a beard and portrays a gardener named Stephanus. Unbeknownst to him, Flavia has already taken in Vix, Thea’s and Arius’s son. Thea goes to visit him whenever she can, but that is not very often.
Meanwhile, Lepida has married a very wonderful senator named Marcus Norbanus. He has a son named Paulinus who quickly falls under Lepida’s bewitching spell and has an affair with his step-mother. Marcus and Lepida have a daughter that has epilepsia, her name is Vibia Sabina.
Thea endures 5 years as Domitians mistress and one fateful day that she visits with Vix, she meets Stephanus and it’s one of the most beautiful moments in the book as their love for one another shows in the actions of anyone watching the reunion. Vix finds out that he is Arius’s son and is awestruck because he wants to be a gladiator and he loves the games.
At one point, Lepida finds out that Thea’s body slave has laid with her in her bed after a night with the Emperor to soothe her because she is on the brink of suicide, not wanting Domitian to find out about Vix and Arius.
Domitian makes a pretty public display of throwing her out, but that same night Vix has been brought to the dinner by Flavia to get a small meeting with his mother. Vix storms the Emperor after he lands a few blows to Thea’s face and it is discovered that Vix is her son.
Domitian throws Thea out and takes Vix as his new pet. Thea makes her way back to Arius and they get with Marcus, Paulinus, Calpurnia, and the Empress to devise a plan against the Emperor to get their son back and to get revenge for everything that he has taken from every one of them. Paulinus, due to his exemplary display on the battlefield in Germania, has become the Emperor’s number one man.
In the end, Rome is set straight, I don’t want to give too much away about the ending, because it is colossal. There is also a huge twist that I have not said anything about that gave me the chills, the shivers, made me tremble, tear up, laugh out loud, and feel like something amazing had just happened. It was incredible.
Favorite excerpts or quotes from the book:
There are so many quotes, so many, that I would love to put right here, but I don’t want to give all of it away, or at least any of the important parts of the story. I shall post just one, but believe me choosing the one was hard as hell to choose!
“Arius, Arius, Arius, Arius,I love you. I love you.
“I love the way you rub the scar on the back of your hand when you’re nervous. I love the way you make the sword into a living part of your body. I love the way you burn your eyes into me, as if you’re seeing me fresh every time. I love the black streak in you that wants to kill the world, and the soft streak that is sorry afterward. I love the way you laugh, as if you’re surprised that you can laugh at all. I love the way you kiss my breath away. I love the way you breathe and speak and smile. I love the way you make a dance out of death. I love the confusion I see in your eyes when you realize you are happy. I love every muscle and bone in your body, every twist and bend in your soul. I love you so much I can’t say it out loud in the daylight. I love you. I love you. I love you.” – Page 82
BUY THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!
