BERKLEY Daughters of Rome: 2

Très bon roman historique par une très bonne auteure.

This was the 2rd book in the Empress of Rome series. I am on the 4th book now and loving them all!

Libro usato, ricevuto in ottimo stato dopo pochi giorni dall'ordine. Sembra un libro nuovo. Il servizio è stato davvero eccellente.

On the surface, this isn't the most original storyline. Four young girls, blood relaives and all very close to each other, are living in a time of political turmoil which they become caugt up in as they experience love, death, danger and a test of their friendship.Yeah.But what makes this book stand out is the characters.The complexity of the character's in Daughters of Rome was really great. In the author's earlier book Mistress of Rome, in spite of the male narrators being convincingly flawed and thoroughly likable anyway, female main characters could feel a bit black and white. Who's ever met anyone quite as egocentric, uncaring and incapable of feeling others pain as Lepida?Particularly with her apparently lucky life circumstances and happy life before the book. In this book, on the other hand, the main characters Cornelia, Marcella and Lollia are all vividly drawn ,thoroughly believable and never annoying.Supporting characters are mostly the same and Galba, Otho and Vitellius, the first three emperors of the year are all portrayed originally enough to make them interesting. And whilst they might fit the "four devoted sisters" prototype(in spite of not all being sisters) the main character's relationships with each other are not idealised. They frequently have rather nasty, judgemental thoughts about each other.Most impotantly, the ending is NOT what you would expect of that type of book. In fact, I really recommend you don't read this before you do Mistress of Rome because without knowing what happens in that book, the ending to this will not make you happy.One of the best things about Daughters of Rome was that when one of the characters does something that makes you dislike her you actuaully understand why-it all makes sense in terms of the values she was raised with or something unsatisfactory in her life. This is particularly true for Marcella-I thought the author did a very good job of explaining why she ends up acting in something of a villain role.In spite of all this,there were still some things I didn't like about this book. First, i agree with other reviews that Diana was a bit of a letdown compared to the other three narrators. I would say the book would do better without her except that she is very important to the "Marcella" plotline, both in terms of Marcella's development and changes and to her eventual conclusion , though in a way that makes me sympathise with Marcella even when I don't think I'm supposed to. Lyn ap Caradoc, the major character in the "Diana" plotline, was rather too similar to Arius in Mistress of Rome in lifestory, if not in personality.and then there was the role of Domitian in this book. Don't get me wrong, his early character here is fascinating and the scenes in which he appars are some of the best, although I'm not sure how they'd read to someone who hdn't read the first book. It's just that I'd been hoping we'd find out more about his relationships with his father and brother which if you read Suetonius, are really intersting and there was very little on this. You can actually find out more about his older brother Titus by reading Mistress of Rome than this one. Domitian's father Emperor Vespasian was a "wit" who used most of his jokes to make fun of Domitian in public, but here he is portrayed mostly positively. In the end, there isn't much choice from this book other than to say Domitian must be "naturally evil", since there is no explanation for his twisted behaviour and I always think that makes the least intersting baddies.But I still think that Daughters of Rome is the one of the most intersting historical fiction books you're ever likely to read.

Amazon says this is the second Rome book but you should read it first as some characters are repeated in Mistress of Rome.Then it follows in chronological order.I didn't know this and was annoyed by amazon saying it is book two.I guess one should check the reviews first!