I'm kind of surprised by all the vitriol for this book. I think it's silly to be totally enraged that a piece of historical fiction with a totally invented character isn't 100% accurate.

Anyway, I feel like parts of this book were great and parts were really weak. The main character, Claudia, has prophetic visions that she can't control. Once she gets to be about 14, the visions barely get mentioned. They do come up, but not nearly as often, to the point where I wondered for a while if the author had just forgotten about that aspect.

It was also kind of silly that Claudia fell desperately in love with Pilate, to the point of using a spell on him, and then she I guess falls out of love with him even though it's clear he's actually quite fond of her (staying married to her even though he could've divorced her like 4 different times), and then she has an affair with some other guy. I mean, it's silly that her character did that, but it's interesting writing. The really silly thing is the guy she has an affair with is totally boring. She keeps talking about being so totally in love with him, and that she has NOTHING without him, but he has almost no personality and they have no real interactions besides him thanking her and then they have sex and a bath. It just got more and more annoying to read her pining after this guy who's said and done nothing particularly interesting, and then her wasting away because she has nothing without him, forgetting her child, her wealth, her position, and her husband who loves and respects her.

My main complaint is the number of typos in this book, though! That's certainly not the author's fault. The editors and publishers are supposed to catch the typos and correct them. But there's just an absurd amount of typos. One or two in a professionally published book, fine. But there's at least 10! Things like verb tenses being wrong, incorrect pluralizations, and spelling character names wrong - there's a character named Holtan whose name is spelled Holton at least once. It's quite annoying.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the main character got on my nerves the longer the book went on. If you're a huge history buff who gets annoyed by things being wrong, steer clear of this book - a few pieces of historical timeline are off a bit, and things like them giving the "thumbs up" to save a gladiator when historians are pretty sure thumbs down meant to save them. It didn't bother me at all, but from the other reviews, clearly some people are just utterly enraged by that kind of thing.

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I wish I could honestly give this book more stars. I was absolutely captivated by Claudia's story up to the very end, where the lovely portrait of the Roman Empire painted by May was corrupted by the ridiculous view of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus of May's first novel was not the Jesus of history, that educated people know to be true. ( )

I enjoyed this book. It had just a touch of "mysticism", but nothing too over-the-top. I liked that the book gave some insight into what was going on in the Roman world during the time of Christ. ( )

I really don't recommend this book unless you have unlimited time for reading. It is an ok book, but JUST an ok book and there are so many better books out there.

I don't like the main character, Claudia. She is headstrong and willful, and while she started out as honorable and brave, by the end of the story she is just self-centered, doing whatever she wants no matter who she may hurt, and not learning from her, or others, mistakes.

Also, the book crosses the line from historical fiction, which is based in fact, even though there is quite a bit of embellishment, to fantasy. Not much is apparently known about the real Claudia, so the author took great liberty with her imagination. One of Claudia's best friends is Miriam (Mary Magdalene) and Claudia attends the wedding of Miriam to Jesus. Miriam spends the night of the crucifix in Claudia's quarters in Pilate's palace. It just felt more like 'name dropping' than good fiction. ( )

Pilate's Wife has some real promise. I was intrigued by Claudia's character and her "visions" which predicted Jesus' death. Her life was extremely interesting and tragic. I might have scored it 4 1/2 or 5 stars if she hadn't taken liberties by writing that Miriam (Mary Magdalene) and Jesus got married. Otherwise an interesting book when kept me reading. ( )