I guess I had two major issues with this book:

1) it was too drawn out. this actually made me put down the book a couple of times. i can't even believe i'm gonna say this, but fewer pages would have done the story good; and

2) cate. i felt it was a way too convenient character. the story had no elements of fantasy or paranormal, and them bam - there she was, a god-like creature to save te day.


Other than that I really enjoyed reading this story: the writing style is pleasing and the characters are interesting - I specially liked Wulfgar, can't wait to read his story! ( )

This book surprised me. The synopsis made it sound like another medieval slave falls for his new master story. Nothing wrong with that, of course (I’ve enjoyed many such “romances”), but it never hurts to get more than you’re expecting. The authors gave it a less common take which I enjoyed far more. New slave falls for the current slave! This makes the tale more believable for me, since a relationship based on coercion doesn’t scream romance. I enjoyed the book from the start, but it really started to suck me in about a third of the way. The characters started to come alive off the page and I was suddenly immersed in their tale.

The setting is Britain, sometime during the Roman Empire. Wulfgar is a thane perusing his vassals, when he notes a particularly prosperous crofter who shorted him on his tithe. The crofter’s son Aron steps forward to face the music, and the very real possibility that Wulfgar will burn his home down. Instead, Wulfgar offers a terrible choice – his family faces the winter with next to nothing, or he spends the next year as Wulfgar’s thrall (something of an indentured servant). Accompanying the thane is Roman, a slave. Roman is something of a mystery – how did he come to be a slave when he is so obviously educated? Why does he seem to enjoy the attentions of the thane? As Aron becomes accustomed to his new role, he begins to ask these questions himself and in the process he rattles Roman to his core.

This is a romance, so the two fall in love, but the obstacles facing them go beyond the angst found in most M/M romances – though there is a fair share here too. Aron will have his freedom in a year while Roman faces a future of perpetual slavery without the one who stole his heart. Though Aron and Roman are the main characters, Wulfgar’s role is more than just master. He plays an important role in the romance, and his character is completely three-dimensional. In fact, all three are fully realized, and likeable (even the thane!). They are realistic for their time and setting. The plot is well developed, with some of the usual themes, but also unlikely twists and even a alight supernatural element. There is a lot a fair amount of sex (they are both sex slaves after all), but I wouldn’t classify this as erotic romance. The sex is explicit, but not nearly as graphic as in many M/M romances and it fits into the storyline. The authors spend a lot of time building the relationship between Roman and Aron. Overall, it was an excellent novel that I will certainly buy in print when it is finally released and the sequel, "Lotus In The Wild" when it is available this spring. Highly recommended! ( )

It was an hard fight with myself to convince me to read this book. When first I saw it released I had almost an immediately compulsive need to click the buy button, but then I wavered, and made a pro and and cons list: pro, it's an historical, I know the authors and liked what I read by them, it's a new epublishers and I like to try new thing; cons, for sure there will be a rape. 3 against 1 and my compulsive clicking stopped. I was in the right mood to read about rape? and even if I managed to go through it, what about the obvious menages? Yes since the story is about two men who find themself enslaved by the same lord, and so this lord should be consider in the total... And so I admit, I didn't buy it since someone told me: why haven't you read it? And I felt guilty, since I hadn't given to a book, and to the authors, a chance they deserve, given that it's not simple to write an historical with a rape... late (and very missed) Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and her The Wolf and the Dove still bear the weight after 25 years.

Roman is a bed slave for a northern English thane (actually the authors never mention English or England, but I need to place him, and don't know enough of English ancient history). Roman, as the name let guess, was the young son of a Roman citizen who made a huge mistake some years before and now is a lifetime slave; it's quite interesting to read how the proud but careless young roman turned in an apparently willing pet for his master. Maybe it helps that Wulfgar (yes, same name as the main character of The Wolf and the Dove) is not a truly villain... oh, yes, he is merciless and he first forced Roman, and now Aron, into slavery; not only that, he used them without remorse, in bed and out of it, parading them as beautiful pet, his treasures, as he calls them. But we have not to forget that Wulfgar is a warlord of a pre-medieval period, it can't be a gentleman, he has to be pitiless and strong. And clever.

Cleverness is something that Wulfgar now well, on the contrary of young Aron. Aron is the son of a crofter who didn't pay what he was due to the thane; when Wulfgar comes to ask reasons, Aron challenges Wulfgar's champion and loses. Wulfgar gives Aron two options: burn down his father's home or being Wulfgar's thrall for an year, serving him in anything he wishes... and here is where Wulfgar is clever and Aron not, since Aron doesn't ask to Wulfgar what he meant in details and accepts to be a thrall. And so Aron finds himself forced to share Wulfgar's bed. His only aid is Roman, who can only mitigate the discomfort, but not prevent the rape, since of rape, even if we don't read it, we are speaking: doesn't matter that Wulfgar was not a bad character, doesn't matter that he is true to his history setting, it's a rape, but well, what else can you expected? The unlikely expedient that Mrs Woodiwiss used 25 years ago (who read the book knows it); no, sorry, even if I'm a romantic at heart, that was an expedient that clashed with all the historical reason, and I loved it, but it was not realistic.

And so also Aron faces his sad fate, but he does it in a very different way than Roman; he didn't surrender like him. Roman is a cultured man, he is strong but he is also very proud, and culture and proudness together would have killed him if he hadn't found a way to shield himself from the reality: Roman killed his proud self to not kill himself. Aron is as proud as Roman, but he is less cultured; I don't want to say that he is not intelligent, only that he is not so fine like Roman, and maybe even less careful, and so he fights against Wulfgar, and yes, maybe Wulfgar feels guilty for what he did to Roman, and so he treats in a different way Aron, he doesn't try to break him, but allows him to take his proud, even if he steals him the possess of his own body.

Anyway there is a love story, and the love story is between two men, Aron and Roman, and Wulfgar is not part of it. When the love is still absent, there is in some way a threesome, with Wulfgar in the role of the puppeteer and Aron that is still driven by his body and by his newfound desire for a man, Roman. When love comes between them, both for Aron than for Roman, having Wulfgar between them becomes almost intolerable, but they still can't do nothing to prevent it. With their bodies... but with their minds it's all another question, and yes, even if in a world that is only for lovers, they find a way to be faithful to each other, even if with their bodies they still have to play the role of Wulfgar's pet.

The story is very long, I can't possible write all it left me, but is enough to say that the book, and the authors, convinces me that they deserve the chance I gave them; I'm happy to have read it, maybe since it reminded me so much a genre I was very fond of, the savage romance.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0039W58EE/?tag=elimyrevandra-20