Games of Venus: A Novel of Ancient Rome [Paperback]

Camilla is a naive young woman when she meets Andrixos, a young Greek Roman legionary. She falls in love with him and he asks her to marry him, but her father refuses because he is Greek and poor, and forbids Camilla from ever seeing Andrixos again. Camilla, being young and in love, continues to see Andrixos anyway. However, tragedy strikes one day and Camilla is left without a family. Andrixos is sent off to Britannia, but his message never gets to Camilla, who will thereafter hate anything to do with the army. Camilla's uncle is now her guardian, but in a cruel twist of fate, sells her into slavery in Rome. She is bought by Zenobia, a courtesan or more specifically a hetaira, who will later teach Camilla the art of being a hetaira, which is not all about sex (it is somewhat like a geisha). This is what Camilla will do for the next couple of years, until she meets Flavius Valerius. Falling in love with him, she follows him to Britannia, where surprise, she meets Andrixos once again.

At first, in the beginning, the writing was a bit sloppy. For example, Andrixos was talking to Camilla, but all of a sudden he was remembering his past, but he was actually telling her that. I was confused for a moment because I didn't know what was going on and so I had to re-read that part to figure it out. Other than that and a few typing errors (most likely the publisher's fault), the book was very interesting. It was an original storyline that was kind of like a soap opera set in ancient Rome, but classier. Although I knew there would be a happy ending, I did not see all the plot twists in between. The characters are well done and it is a fun read. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good and fictional romp through the Roman Empire.