The Gladiator's Honor [Mass Market Paperback]

This book was very entertaining. The story was familiar, yet different. The heroine was gutsy but vulnerable. The hero was flawed but redeemed. I read this book in one sitting. I could not put it down I look forward to other books by this author. It kept me on the edge of my seat.

I picked up this book at the library because I like novels set in ancient Rome but this one was boring from the beginning. I don't read many romance novels but have read some good ones by Kathleen Woodiwiss years ago, but this author's writing style is banal to say the least. I recently read a romance novel called, "Gladiator" by Carla Capshaw which was beautifully written and this one pales in comparison. Save your money and borrow this book instead.

Finding this book, initially, was like a breath of fresh air. Rome, year 65 B.C., is certainly a world away from the Regency/Victorian romances I've been reading for the past year. And the Roman Empire is not an era frequently used (if at all) by romance writers. So, I had high hopes for a story that would match the unusual setting.

Well...the story is intriguing. Valens, the gladiator of the title, is actually Gaius Gracchus, the son of a Roman senator. Thanks to a plot engineered by his adopted brother Lucius, Valens was kidnapped by a pirate and sold into slavery, eventually becoming a famous gladiator. The kidnapping has left Valens thinking that his father ignored the ransom demand, and Valens' absence has left his father thinking that his son and heir had been killed.

In this mix is Julia Antonia, Lucius' ex-wife, who has been beaten and terrorized by him to the point of finally demanding and receiving a divorce. The scandal of the divorce causes Julia to be extra cautious of her reputation. Also, she's on the cusp of being betrothed again to a man her father and stepmother are very anxious for her to wed. All the more reason to avoid that sexy gladiator.

So far, pretty good. The author builds a potentially great story. The problem is, we don't learn anything about the betrayal of Valens and his kidnapping until the middle of the book. In the meantime, we have to plod through wooden, lifeless exchanges between Julia and Valens. I almost gave up on the book by page 7, because their first meeting is just so awful. Valens is alternatively smirking at and flirting with Julia, thinking she's nothing more than a bored Roman matron looking for a good time, and Julia's struck dumb by her instantaneous attraction to Valens. She's twittering and jittery as a heroine in a Harlequin Presents novel.

Julia calms down somewhat, and Valens gains some depth as a hero, but at least 70% of their characterization remains flat and uninteresting; therefore, when they finally have "that moment", they'd already lost me. I hadn't learned to care about these characters because they didn't give me reason to care; I wasn't emotionally involved in what's going to happen to them.

At one point, in her near-constant (over)emphasis regarding Valens' physical attractiveness, the author describes Valens as having shoulders as wide as a door frame. For me, reading this, it was: "OK, I get it -- he's a big, well-developed guy, please stop going on & on about his body!" As a reader, I prefer to project my own picture of a hero's looks.

Also, there are those modern touches that creep into the story. Julia twice refers to Lucius as her "ex"; a fellow gladiator talking to Valens refers to Julia as "your girlfriend".

I give the author credit for an original and gallant attempt to use the intrigues of the Roman Empire as the setting for a romance novel. Unfortunately, she still needs to work on creating absorbing, lively characters who can live up to her settings.

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