REVIEW: Slave Princess by Juliet Landon
SHACKLED TO A SLAVE!
For ex-cavalry officer Quintus Tiberius Martial duty always comes first. His task to escort the Roman emperor’s latest captive should be easy. But one look at his fiery slave and Quintus wants to put his own desires before everything else…For Princess Brighid, her powerful, battle-honed captor has her head in conflict with her heart. Bound by a new-found bondage of emotions, it’s not long before Brighid wonders whether she wants to come out of this perilous journey to Aquae Sulis with her virtue intact…!
Dear Ms. Landon,
The first book of yours I ever read, “The Warlord’s Mistress,” still remains my favorite one. I’ve always enjoyed books with an ancient Roman/Britain setting so I was excited to see this latest offering listed at Harlequin (though I had to end up buying it from Amazon because it is still pending at Harlequin). Unfortunately it didn’t take long before I began to have my doubts that I would like it as much as “Warlord.”
The initial scenes were great. There was camaraderie between Quintus and his two junior officers tasked to work with him on a tax issue in Bath, sly humor in the scene of Quintus receiving his marching orders from his emperor and I liked the way that the real life quarrels that Emperor Severus had with his eldest son were worked into the story.
What I was not happy with from the start was Brighid’s lack of agency. She swoons from hunger into Quintus’ arms, she gets carted around, she gets paraded in front of bitchy Roman matrons for fun – though she does slay that witch with her intelligence. Quintus keeps her on a short leash and thinking she has to ingratiate herself with him so he won’t sell her as a slave.
I guess I really should have paid more attention to the blurb which states that Quintus always puts duty first and his desires before everything. He uses and manipulates Brighid from the get go and his pet name for her of “Barbarian,” and the way his use of her title is more sarcastic than respectful say a lot about how I perceived he sees her. Even with the two Army CPAs acting like a Greek chorus reminding us that they think Quintus is falling hard despite everything he might say or do, I found it difficult to think of him as anything but a dick.
The story has an Old Skool feel. One kiss from Quintus is all it takes to put the love whammy on Brighid. I get that she’s seen a lot of fornicating – or at least heard it while living in the communal Brigantian buildings – though she’s never even been kissed but she’s got the resistance of used Kleenex if Quintus starts kissing on her and feeling her up. Really it’s like sexing chloroform.
As the relationship between Quintus and Brighid grows, I can tell their feelings are changing towards each other but hers seem focused on how he makes her dissolve with his caresses while he seems more possessive than truly in love with her. He does have a care that she, as a virgin, is ready for sex but makes it – almost too – good for her. Earth moving, fireworks going off, heavenly chorus and all from her first time.
I was delighted to see two gay characters and also the fact that the Romans think nothing of such relationships by which I mean, it’s entirely accepted and normal.
The plot threads seemed to appear and then vanish. Things were mentioned then not a part of the story for another hundred pages. Then at one point, a character disappears. Other characters are initially frantically searching for him, then when they discover what might have happened to him – and the implication is he’s being abused by his captors – there is a collective shrug and decision made that if he hasn’t turned up in a day, they’ll shake the place down for him. WTF?
The finale ties all the disparate plot points together in a way that makes sense though the actions of one character added late to the mix seemed odd to me. He has knowledge of dodgy doings which he knows would be of more than passing interest to authorities and he does nothing to pass on that information. Huh?
The resolution of Quintus and Brighid’s relationship didn’t work for me either. After a books worth of him ordering her around, silencing her – to his point of view – inconvenient demands to discuss her future with swoony kisses and sex to the point where she – who acknowledged to herself that she loved him – was truly thinking that leaving him for another man was her best bet, his sudden declarations that he’s loved her all along, he can’t do without her and they’re getting married rang false and as not enough to change my opinion of him. I loved the setting but I finished the book thinking Brighid deserved so much better. D
~Jayne
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I love Roman settings too, but for some reason the first sentence of the blurb made me laugh ( in caps no less) and when I finished your review, yeah no not for me. Thanks Jayne.
I am just finishing a glom of Starz’s TV show Spartacus (I have to use my subscription for something while Outlander is on hiatus), and I have been on the lookout for ancient Roman romance. I will give this one a pass, I think, but I will try The Warlord’s Mistress. Any other recommendations? A lot of books in this genre seem to be either time travel or inspirational, which are fine, but not what I am looking for. I have had a couple of other books recommended to me, but since you are a fan of this genre I would appreciate hearing what your favorites are.
@Lammie
If you are willing to read outside the romance genre try anything by Rosemary Sutcliff. She is the queen of Roman Britain stories. Start with ‘Eagle of the Ninth’ or ‘The Silver Branch’ or ‘The Lantern Bearers’.
In mysteries, try Rosemary Rowe (that series has a bit of a romance thread) or Ruth Downie (also has a bit of romance for our Roman doctor hero).
Sorry I can’t think of anything in romance–I keep looking and being disappointed.
@ Jayne: I think I’ll give ‘Warlord’s Mistress a try. Though I will definitely avoid ‘Slave Princess’!
Joan Kayse has a Roman historical romance series. I just started Patrician’s Fortune and the opening is gripping. I also loved Kate Quinn’s Mistress of Rome. It straddles the line of historical women’s fiction and romance. Epic and emotional. I could totally see it as a miniseries adaptation.
@Lammie Lindsey Davis has written an excellent mystery series set during the reign of Vespasian, featuring informer Marcus Didius Falco. Falco gets paired off with an amazing woman, Helena Justina, very early on in the series, and their romantic relationship is a huge part of the story. There are 20 books in the Falco series, and now she’s writing a new series about his adopted daughter, Flavia Alba, set during Domitian’s reign. I really recommend them.
@Barb in Maryland and @jeannie Lin
Thank you both for the recommendations – I will check these out.
@Floating Lush
Thanks also for the rec – I should have refreshed the page before I replied the first time. Lots of books to check out!
Gillian Bradshaw’s Island of Ghosts is about a Barbarian prince in Roman Britain serving in the army, and how he resist being ‘Romanized’. It’s more mystery than romance, but I loved it.
I adore Ancient Rome as a story setting with all my heart, but other than Lindsey Davis and a select few other authors, I’m always disappointed by the wacky fantasy movie-set the stories seem to take place in–especially for romance or erotica.
Sorry, that sounded very grumpy! I usually like Gillian Bradshaw and like mystery novels, so maybe I’ll try @Kate Hewitt‘s suggestion :)
https://dearauthor.com/tag/roman-britain/ – here are the other books with Roman-Britain as a tag that have been reviewed here. The other Landon and the Merline Lovelace would be ones to start with, IMO.
https://dearauthor.com/tag/ancient-rome/ – and here’s the list of reviews (some film ones) for ancient-Rome.
@Kate Hewitt: I saw your comment a few months ago and plan to try this one in the new year.
@Floating Lush: Love, love, love me some Falco and Helena Justina. @Barb in Maryland: I read “Eagle of the Ninth” eons ago and enjoyed it. I’ve always meant to go back and try more of Sutcliff’s books. I’ve also got the first Downie book in my endless TBR pile.
@Sirius: The ALL CAPS line made me giggle too.
@Jeannie Lin: Ooooh, the Kayse series looks interesting. Thanks for mentioning it! And look, a boxed set at Amazon of all 3 books ….
Seconding Barb’s recommendation of Sutcliff’s books – nobody wrote / writes Roman Britain like Rosemary Sutcliff! I read “The Eagle of the Ninth” when I was eight or nine, and Sutcliff has remained one of my favorite authors ever since. Earlier this year I discovered that many of her books are now available digitally and started to re-read several of them. Around the same time I also visited a reconstructed Roman fort that was once part of the German Limes. It truly was the strangest thing: walking along the path between the barracks, I had passages from Sutcliff’s books echoing in my head and felt this sudden, keen connection to her characters. The feeling was so strong that the sight of the eagle standard nearly moved me to tears…
Kate, thanks for the Gillian Bradshaw rec – I read her Arthurian trilogy as well as The Beacon of Alexandria (also set in Roman times) several years ago and loved them. I’ve no idea why I’ve never picked up any of her other books.
I’ll leap on the Rosemary Sutcliff train, too. The Mark of the Horse Lord is my personal favorite; still gets me teary-eyed to think about that one.
I love all of Gillian Bradshaw’s books. She has written in a variety of different time periods–6th century Constantinople, ancient Mongolia (not sure exactly when) and various periods in ancient Roman history, as well as the English Civil War. Everything is well-researched without being dry. I enjoyed Render Unto Caesar and The Horses of Heaven in particular. I haven’t actually read her Arthurian trilogy because I tend not to like books about King Arthur, but Sandra, would you recommend them?
@Kate Hewitt: Kate, it’s been ages and ages (20 years?) since I read Bradshaw’s Arthurian trilogy, but I remember that I loved her retelling of the Arthurian legends best of all the other retellings I had read. My other favorite is Sutcliff’s “Sword at Sunset,” which I only read this summer. Bradshaw’s retelling has more fantasy elements (if I remember correctly) and the three books are told by different 1st-person narrators, while Sutcliff’s version is a strictly historical novel & is written in third person.
One of the difficulties I now have with Arthurian retellings (and also had with Sutcliff’s novel) is that you know it’s going to end badly. And that’s rather, er, depressing. (I had to skip large parts of “Sword at Sunset” because I just couldn’t bear it. But I still cried buckets over the ending. *sigh*)