Mistress of Rome

There has rarely been a time that I have read a book and thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. I told you before that I usually have 2 categories for books. Well, I just read an OMG, I can’t put this down, book. It is by a new author in her debut novel. Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn is definitely the best book I’ve read this year. And that includes some pretty stiff competition from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Kristin Cashore’s Graceling.

Mistress of Rome is the love story of a slave girl and a gladiator in Rome during the reign of Emperor Domitian Flavius. If you are a guy, don’t cast aside this book just because I used the words love story. Kate paints a pretty good picture of the violence and blood of the coliseum and the plotting of an Emperor’s assassination. If you are a fan of movies like 300, Gladiator, or the Starz TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand. This is right up your alley. Not only does it have the violence of the coliseum, but the blatant promiscuity during the height of the Roman Empire.

The story centers around several main characters. Thea is a slave girl. She was captured as a child in Judea (yep, she’s Jewish) and made a slave. When the story starts up she is fourteen and has just been purchased to be the slave of a spoiled, rich fourteen year old girl. Thea is casually used by the father for sex, as are all slaves, and abused by the daughter for fun. Lepida is the spoiled, rich girl. Her father is in charge of the gladiatorial games. She has her father wrapped around her little finger and is an ambitious, conniving bitch. Arius is a slave and gladiator. He was also captured as a boy in Britania, and forced into slavery. He becomes the greatest gladiator for some time. As you can imagine, gladiators do not have a long life span, but Arius (also known as The Barbarian) manages to survive longer than most. He and Thea meet when Lepida decides that she wants him and forces Thea to deliver messages to him. Over the course of some time, they fall in love. Marcus Norbanus is an older senator. He is a powerful voice for the people and becomes the husband of Lepida. He has a son Paulinus that is only a couple years older than Lepida. Paulinus is a praetorian guard and will eventually become the Prefect (right-hand man) to the Emperor. The story unfolds between these characters view points. The Roman history is compellingly woven in with the fictitious life of these characters.

I have never been a fast reader. What may take some people a few hours to read takes me a few days. Keeping in mind that I had to work, take care of my family and sleep, I finished this 466 page book in 3 days. This is probably the first book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows that I had a hard time putting down. I was actually mad yesterday that I couldn’t take any time at work to read because I was too busy with classes. At about 10:30pm last night I had 100 pages left. I decided that I didn’t care if I was tired today or not, I had to find out what happened. At midnight, I turned that last page. I am so glad that I stayed up. What a great book. And the best part….there looks to be a sequel. I can’t wait to crack open the next book by Kate.