Reviewer: Andrea
The Summary:
During a time of bloody gladiator games and treacherous schemes, a secret society of lycans live amongst the Romans.
When Ulric, a lycan gladiator, meets a mysterious human woman with green eyes, he’s drawn to her fiery beauty, enraptured by her alluring aroma. Unfortunately, Ulric and the beauty are slaves. To make matters worse, he can mate only with someone marked with the sign of the wolf.
Cassia’s hidden wolf mark burns in the presence of the handsome gladiator. While her heart yearns to be near Ulric, logic warns her against it—having a slave as a mate is against the lycan society’s plans for her.
In spite of the lycan society’s rules and the emperor’s brutal plots, their love grows … but their passion just may cost them their lives.
The Review:
When I began writing this review, I had a hard time defining the genre. While it is historical, it is more of an alternate history and definitely paranormal. I loved the concept of lycans in ancient Rome, but hey, I like the idea of werewolves anywhere! I’m a huge werewolf fan, so maybe I had unrealistic expectations for this one because it fell short of my hopes.
The novel was complicated. It seemed as though I had missed the first novel though this is the first in the saga. The terms and categories were confusing at times and not completely or clearly defined. The whole saga revolves around wolf maidens, so I began this novel assuming there were no female lycans. Why would there be a need for a human mate if there are she-wolves? I assumed that all lycans were male and was confused when I discovered otherwise. Also, what exactly are the Lupercii? Are they lycan or human? Several times, I found myself questioning the “rules” of the werewolf world.
There were also some errors that grated on my internal editor. Blame it on my seventeen years of teaching English, but there were recurring punctuation errors that can be expected in an ARC but not a purchased copy. I understand style and using fragments for style, even stretching some comma rules, but the errors began to overshadow my enjoyment of the novel. Also, twice the author uses “distain,” which I assume was utilized for its archaic value. However, I don’t think it was used correctly as “distain” is a verb but was used as a noun. Also, why use “chirurgery” but also use the modern “surgery”? Some of the phrasing was awkward as well. It went beyond historical style and caused me to reread passages for clarity.
All of that aside, the love story between Cassia and Ulric was endearing. There is something captivating about an eternal love and a fierce warrior willing to destroy whatever or whoever threatens his lady love, and Gordon does a great job capturing the duplicitous Roman world where intrigue and poisoning were commonplace.
