Comments on: REVIEW: Liberty by Kimberly Iverson

By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:01:36 +0000

And there's an older novel I reviewed a while ago called "The Raven and the Rose" which has a slave co-hero.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:00:11 +0000

Moth, you might want to try Lindsay Townsend's novella with a slave hero. I mean to try it one of these days.

By: Moth

Moth — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:36:34 +0000

*sigh* Well, I got the book from the library yesterday and dove right in. I’m sorry to report I was disappointed.

I agreed with the AAR reviewer (http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=5905) when she said:

Rhyddes has been sodomized, is standing naked on the slave block, while Marcus fondles her breasts, checking out the merchandise. But because he is The Hero, Rhyddes gets all tingly inside? Nope. I didn’t believe it. Not in that situation.

This too was a wall-banger moment for me. I actually threw the book down at this point and didn’t read it again for a couple of hours. I picked it up to try again (because I really, really love Rome and gladiators especially. They’re fascinating to me). So I soldiered through for a couple more chapters, and, while I found the gladiatorial aspects interesting and well-portrayed I found all the parts with Marcus the Hero rather uninteresting.

I think I’m just rather sick of the Roman nobleman as gladiator trope. Give me some honest to goodness slaves as heroes if you’re gonna do gladiators! Where’s my Spartacus? I guess that’s just not glamorous enough for Romancelandia, tho.

The romance also didn’t hook me at all, I actually found myself oddly disassociating while I read those parts, like I was mentally pruning them out of the story. I did like Rhyddes, though, and the paternal relationship she developped with her trainer was a nice touch. *sigh again* I really wanted to like this, but it just wasn’t working for me.

Ah, well, back to the stacks…

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:20:26 +0000

I’m happy as a clam when someone reads one of these older reviews. Occasionally I have to close comments on one of them because spammers decide they love to post to them but I hate it when I’m forced to do that. Really, really hate it.

By: Moth

Moth — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:05:51 +0000

Have I ever mentioned how much I love it that you guys will reply to comments left on old entries? Because I do. I love it.

I <3 DA.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:07:25 +0000

I ♥ libraries.

By: Moth

Moth — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:04:49 +0000

Yup. I has a most wonderful library system in my area. :D

By: Jayne

Jayne — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:44:44 +0000

Oooh, can you do an online library check thingie? I love being able to do that.

By: Moth

Moth — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:30:21 +0000

OOH. I love Ancient Rome. Gladiators especially. And my library actually has a copy of this. *happy dance*

By: Jayne

Jayne — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 20:18:48 +0000

jmc, I was amazed by the AAR review myself. Maybe that reviewer didn’t enjoy the political machinations but I loved them too. I jut got the cover flats from Kim Headlee and the old one (that I mistakenly thought was the UK cover) is gorgeous. I’m almost sorry it wasn’t the final choice but it probably would have been impossible to get a man to read any book using it. [grin]