SLAVE OF MY HEART by Roxanne Springer

SLAVE OF MY HEART
ROXANNE SPRINGER
Historical
Whiskey Creek Press Torrid
Sensuality Rating: Torrid Erotica (Controversial)
ISBN# 978-1-60313-040-0
332 pages
$5.99
eBook - Available October 2007

Rating: 3.5 Enchantments

Riana Septimus agrees to marry Antonius Cassius, First Senator of Rome, to grant her father his last, dying wish. She does not love the malicious and cruel man, but is resigned to spending her life as his wife. There will be no love in her life. Well, she will just be like the hundreds of other Roman noblewomen. Until the day her gaze falls on Tan, a gladiator and slave.

Loving a slave, and even bedding one, is considered treason in Ancient Rome. But Riana knows her heart will only belong to the handsome Tan. She convinces Antonius to buy Tan as her personal bodyguard. But in the privacy of her home, Tan becomes her lover, and the husband of her heart.

However, Riana has to marry Antonius, and the man she finds behind the closed doors of their bedchamber is sadistic, cruel, and perverted. Knowing that she is pregnant with Tan’s child, and unwilling to submit to her horribly Machiavellian husband, Riana and Tan escape from Rome. They find refuge with a band of nomads, Anubians who descend from Egypt.

They believe life is shining down on them, but Antonius begs to differ. He will set an example in Rome where his runaway wife and this slave of hers are concerned. Sparing no means to track them down, he unleashes his evil revenge on the couple, sentencing both to fates more atrocious than Hell itself could impose.

I have enjoyed this book. Ms. Springer writes with clarity, and her depictions of Ancient Rome and the life of the times are startling in clarity and descriptions. Realism is poignant, but unfortunately, many of the instances where the cruelty, perversions, and violence of the era were recounted were a bit too shocking and heavy for this reviewer. One would need strong guts to read this book, and the story is not for the faint hearted. The violence was a bit too crude and in your face in certain occasions. This fact makes the book not one that can be recommended as an entertaining read. Still, if you want a taste of Ancient Rome, it is the book for you.

Zee
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
September 2007