Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn

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Wow. I stayed up late and got up early to finish this book and then I had to take some time away from it to process because there was a whole lot of information given throughout this story.

I will tell you right now – do not be deceived by pretty covers. This story was brutal in parts, from describing the Gladiator fights to describing the Emperor and his twisted forms of entertainment at the cost of his slaves.

Kate Quinn does a fantastic job of breathing life into some very interesting, complex characters. Thea (Leah/Athena) is a strong-willed slave who takes as a matter of course her life’s burdens as a slave and doesn’t spend time bemoaning them. She just lives her life – as I would imagine all slaves had to do during that time. She has her secrets though.

Arius the Gladiator was.. frightening. He had some unexpected sides but out of all of the characters, he was the most predictable.

And oh.. how I loved to hate Lepida, the original owner of Thea. She was so wicked and written so well that I ached to just slap her!

I will say that the first 50 pages or so really dragged along for me, but I don’t know if that’s just because the old Roman names are just so difficult to get straight? I can tell you I sped through the last half of the book, devouring the story as quickly as I possibly could and was satisfied at the ending given to us.

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