Not to mention the story was so twisted and just dark and wrong, that I couldn’t help but keep reading. I felt like Quinn was true to the period and true to the brutal and often violent, ancient world.

I liked that Quinn went with the darker side of Roman culture and society instead of the easy traditional route. It wasn’t the same old cliche hero and heroine. Oddly enough while I wasn’t especially attached to the characters and didn’t especially ‘like’ the story….I was glued to the pages for one reason….it was different. So that said, you would think that I would give this star a low rating right? Wrong. The Barbarian was too dark and also too guarded to really see him as a ‘hero’ or ‘romantic’ interest. I mean I didn’t like ANY of the characters….but still I kept reading. I didn’t really like any of the characters….Thea was so guarded that I never warmed to her even in the end. Lepida was a vengeful bitch but as the villain that’s the be expected. I wasn’t sure what to think or expect after the first chapter but I was willing to give it a fair shot. From the opening line, it became clear that this wasn’t going to be a happy tale….cutting and ‘bleeding’ one’s self is hardly the beginning of a happily ever after romance, which was what I was expecting when I picked up the book.īut I kept reading. It was much darker and sad that I thought it would be. This book wasn’t what I was expecting at all. So I decided it was time to dive into the ancient world again and give this one a go. This book keeps coming up on my radar….tons of people in this historical fiction blog world love this book and highly recommend it. What Lepida can’t know is that Thea will eventually capture the attention of the most powerful man in Rome….the Emperor. When Lepida finds out, she is blind with jealousy….what could Thea have that she doesn’t? So she sells Thea as a prostitute. When Lepida sends Thea with a note to the Barbarian, Thea and the fearsome fighter begin a tedious friendship which gradually turns to love. Women throw themselves at him and yet he refuses them. While watching a fight, the crowd is captivated by a fighter known only as the Barbarian. Lepida’s father is in charge of coordinating the gladiator games in Rome and often Lepida and Thea follow him to watch the carnage of the fighting pits.

Sold as a slave from Judea, the young Jewish girl now lives in Rome and works in the house of a cruel mistress, Lepida. Thea has known nothing but pain for most of her life.

Mistress of rome series