Picture
for a moment, Ancient Rome and the media that’s depicted it. Did the romance genre come to
mind? For a few of you it may have, but for most I highly doubt the romance
novel was the first form of media imagined. I’d like to change that by
introducing you to a little know eBook
author named Letitia Coyne. I
discovered her through a romance reader app called ever after and became hooked
on her work immediately
The
book I’m going to review is called
Hispania. Technically it’s the
second book in the series, but the first, Britannia
suffers from traps associated with first books, so it isn’t quite as good. Hispania, on the other hand, is excellent
and stands on its own. The story is
about a young noblewoman named Marella who joined the priestesses in the temple
of Diana to avoid an arranged marriage. Shortly after she joins the temple she’s
raped by a corrupt, Druidic priest and becomes pregnant, but refuses to abort
the baby. To cover up his crime, the priest accuses her of what is essentially fornication
and having a baby out of wedlock. This dishonors her brother, Sarnicio who
hires people to execute her for her crimes. She’s saved by a kindhearted man
named Marc with a dark and troubled past of his own. Together they go on the
run so both of them can survive. The problem is a slew of people are chasing
after them including her bother, the priest and people from Marc’s past.
What I love
most about this book is not only the unusual setting, but the characters. Both
Marc and Marella are damaged characters with plenty of angst to go around.
However, it never feels melodramatic. It’s
handled in a truly realistic manner, especially the post-traumatic stress and
physical damage Marella experiences after being raped and brutalized. That being said, this is not
a light-hearted romance and contains many potential trigger warnings, so it isn’t
for everyone. For instance, Marella is terrified of men, especially High Priest
Leucitius because of her trauma. Marc suffers from war PTSD himself and is
still grieving the loss of his first wife. This makes reaching her and Marc’s
happy ending difficult. However, as the conflict builds (in a really well-paced
manner, by the way) they realize that the only people they can trust in the
world are each other. Because they depend on each other so much, their
relationship is believable and I rooted for the two of them the entire story,
even when I wanted to scream at them to communicate and talk about their
traumas and issues at times.
As for
the other characters, Marella’s sister in law, Suelta is the most developed. She’s
not quite as strong as Marella, but tries to help her to best of her ability. Without spoiling anything she plays a huge
part in the climax of the story that leads to Marx and Marella’s happily ever
after. She comes with her own trigger warning, as she endures a lot of physical
and emotional abuse from Sarnicio.
The two
main antagonists are Sarnicio and Leucitius and honestly they aren’t really
developed at all beyond horribly, vile, irredeemable men who exist purely to
antagonize and abuse women. Their lack of development doesn’t take too much
away from the story though, since I couldn’t help but enjoy hating them and
wishing them to suffer a horrible, painful death, so Marc and Marella could
earn their happy ending.
The
other secondary characters include Marc’s son and some old war buddies of Marc’s
who appear to add to the rising action, but don't receive too developement since they’re
returning from the first book. Marc’s
son disappears early on and doesn’t reappear until the end. He’s defiantly the precocious
child type, but isn’t in the story enough to be annoying.
All and all I’d give this story a 4 out 5 purely based on the fact that it isn’t for
everyone, but an excellent story overall with two great leads.
Hispania can be found for free almost anywhere you can purchase eBooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment