The Gladiator’s Honor

Book Fifty-one:  ”The Gladiator’s Honor”, Michelle Styles, Mills & Boon Historical, 2006, Hardcover, Large Print

Outstanding Romance!  Author Makes Excellent Use of the Historical Setting!

     "The Gladiator’s Honor” could have only happened in Rome at the time the story takes place in 65 BC.  The gladiatorial situation was very problematic at that time. Just eight years before in 73 BC the gladiator Spartacus lead a slave revolt that ravished the countryside with a 70,000 slave army which may have been able to sack the city of Rome if it had tried. Likely, for Rome Spartacus choose to flee north to escape rather than attack Rome.

     The Roman public had a love/hate relationship with gladiators. They did not want gladiators housed in the city of Rome. It makes sense that the story has Julius Caesar placing his gladiators in his client’s homes.  Caesar made great use of public spectacles which included gladiators. In other words, the plot makes excellent use of the historical times.  In an historical novel I like to see the historical setting woven intricately into the plot and not just serve as background wallpaper of a story which could have happened in almost any period. Michelle Styles really makes excellent use of history.

     I should point out that the gladiators in this book have been romanticized and sanitized while the violence has been minimized. The result is a compelling romance that builds to a climax that will have you coming out of you seat and cheering with the crowds in the arena. The ending is almost like a “perfect romantic” storm with all the story elements coming together at the end to product the most emotionally satisfying ending. I felt elated like I did at the end of the Rocky movie where Rocky wins the fight to end the picture. 

     If you like historical fiction with a strong warrior hero who is highly honorable, then ”The Gladiator’s Honor”  is hard to beat. All the elements you’d expect in a great historical romance are here and very well executed. The atmosphere is excellent. Michelle Styles really has the day-to- day life in Rome down pat. The story has lots of little details about food, clothing, shopping, the Roman baths, furniture, travel and so on. For example, there’s even a little detail like having the heroine, who has overslept, waking up and comparing where the sunlight is casting shadows in her room in order to estimate what time it is. That's just what you would really do without clocks to tell time.

    The hero was from a very noble roman family but he was a reckless and irresponsible youth. He went into the army to grow up. He was then captured by pirates, and when his father failed to pay a ransom, he was sold into slavery and became a gladiator. The heroine is a noble lady who was forced, because of an arranged marriage, to marry a man who beat her. She divorced him which was unusual at the time and which makes her much less likely to marry well again. She has a reputation which is not a good thing for a high born Roman lady.

       The heroine’s father is one of Caesar’s clients and is asked to put up a gladiator in his home. Caesar had some of his clients house gladiators in their homes for the Games he was going to put on in honor of his father. The first gladiatorial contests were said to be performed at funerals to honor the deceased person. They were very expensive and were a way of displaying one’s wealth. Often at funerals there would only be two gladiators.  (The word ‘gladiator’ comes from the word gladus which was the short sword the Roman army used so effectively in battles that it changed  the then nature of warfare.)  The hero is assigned to the heroine’s home.  

     "The Gladiator’s Honor”, has exactly what I look for in a great historical romance. Interestingly, it is very different from the author’s second Roman historical “The Roman's Virgin Mistress” which I reviewed last year and  which I counted in my top ten best books read in 2007. If you liked one of these books, you’ll surely like the other even though you’ll be surprised by how much unalike they are.

     Michele Styles has a Viking historical out this month which I will read soon. I hope Harlequin will release more of her Mills & Boom books here because all I’ve read so far have been excellent.

Excellent

Author Makes Excellent Use the Historical Setting

Thanks,

Vince

“Romances are the emotional vitamins of the soul.” Vince