It was good but I have read similar books to this before and feel like they offered more. It was by o means a bad book and I'm glad I read it, but it needed more originality to the story.

I really struggled with the writing style in this book, I really liked the story idea and the setting was great but sadly the characters and writing let this down.

I love historical fiction but I had a hard time finishing this book the authors writing style was hard for me to follow

I love reading fantasy books and historical fiction with LGBT characters but I haven't come across one that's set within the time of the Roman Empire which is a time prepaid I definitely need to read more of! I loved the setting and the time period as well as the brothers relationship; although it was more graphic than I thought it would be and sadly I found it really cheesy and predictable.

I was looking forward to reading Karrie Roman's Sons of Rome because it takes place in a time when Rome was trying to conquer and rule the world. I have visited many Roman sites in the U.K. and even took a class on deciphering Roman carvings, and it is not every day that historical M/M fiction travels to Rome, so I dove into this one with loads of anticipation. Karrie Roman does a nice job of developing the setting and describing life in a Roman soldier’s camp, but when it comes to the characters, this book is boring. Very, very boring. It simply could not hold my attention. I struggled to get to the halfway point, and, despite that being the place in which the anticipated ambush finally begins, I had no interest in continuing to read.

Neither Drusus or Caius, the main couple in Sons of Rome, have any spark or chemistry. They are about as exciting as wet paint. The first quarter of the book is Drusus admiring Caius and leading him on, then backing off because he’s afraid of getting his heart broken. The next quarter of the book is Drusus throwing his fear aside and taking Caius as his lover. Unfortunately, this does nothing to improve the characters. Caius is a wallflower. He has no personality, and nothing that reveals what it is that attracts him to Drusus with such unwavering focus. The way his character is written leaves him flat and completely undeveloped. The scenes between Drusus and Caius are repetitive and break down to nothing more than Drusus admiring Caius’ young body and then engaging in some fairly standard, frills-not-included sex. Their attraction is based on physical appeal and has no substance.

I had no interest in the rest of the story. I couldn’t bring myself to care about whether Drusus and Caius had a happily-ever-after or not. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it beyond the 50% mark. Apologies to the publisher. I appreciate the opportunity to read this ARC, but this one ended up on the Did Not Finish pile.

I wanted something different when I picked this up and I kind of loved it. I've got to give Roman major kudos for conveying a unique tone with tons of historical flair while also delivering the hot Roman legions romance, too.

✓ (with a side of ±): Drusus is a stoic, and his narrative voice, actions, and dialogue reflect that. I loved the distinct voice and how well it fit his mentality. (And I generally liked him.) That being said, he could also be a little frustrating and his narration bordered on dull at times, but it's in character! Because stoicism.

✓: Such historical flavor! I loved the side politics that played such a huge role in the overall plot and added intrigue, and how Roman commented on slavery and the conscription of the legionaries and how while the two shared similarities, they still had differences and privileges of class.

✓: The story just doesn't revolve just around the romance or only on Drusus and Caius. Their century's journey and mission probably takes up as much page-time as the romance, and Dru's men and his brother serve important roles in the story, too. Also, while not as central as the romance, Dru's relationship with his brother plays a b-plot point.

✓: I liked the pacing and overall plot of this. Especially considering this involved a military/adventure plot, I expected a specific Plot Pattern A or Plot Pattern B, and instead found something different and much more pleasing overall.

✘: This is my preference and a slight criticism, but probably the biggest flaw I saw was that I thought the story would've been better with a second point of view and maybe like 100 extra pages. Admittedly, I'm much more accustomed to that format, but more than anything, when you're combining instalove, off-balance power dynamics, and a guy that's a little too perfect (Caius, who's a natural fighter and the most guy beauuutiful Dru's ever seen and innocent and smart and so empathetic and ridiculously good looking and etc.) and a guy who's stoic, it would've been nice to balance out Caius's perfectness and Dru's more stoic, alpha personality with his POV. I think it could've taken a ~3.75 book to like a 4.5 to 5.

✘/±: It's maybe not a huge con overall, but I really hated one plot point towards the end. (Spoiler on Goodreads)

✘: Again, this is a personal preference, but I sort of shipped Dru and his BFF more and thought they had more chemistry? I liked Dru and Caius together, but I think I would've preferred it if that relationship had been the thing that sparked Dru and his BFF hooking up and falling in love? (But I did ship Dru and Caius, I promise.) Maybe this could be another story with different characters from one of the other centuries? It could be called it Brothers of Rome? I mean, it could be a thing, right? I'd read the hell out of it. (Obviously.)


tl;dr: I loved this. Can lgbtqia Roman legionaries be a thing, please? Also, I really want Karrie Roman to write more historical romance, because she killed it.


Disclaimer: Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for the free ARC, with no incentive or coercion on your parts.

Reviewed excerpted from my blog post over at PanCis LGBT2SQ+ Romance Reviews (https://pancis.wordpress.com/2019/11/14/sons-of-rome-by-karrie-roman/)


Overall Rating: 3.0 stars

Library recommendation: Recommended for public library LGBT2SQ+ historical romance collections.

Warning: Hereafter, you chance spoilers. I will try never to reveal major plot points, but to review any book, you must reveal some parts of the story.



Number of titles I have read by this author: 1

Love story speed: Instalove

Relationship dynamics: The Ancient Roman Centurion (H1) / The Subordinate Legionaire (H2)

Sexual content: Some, including masturbation; “on-screen” and explicit

Gender Identity: Cis (H1) / Cis (H2)

Sexual Identity: Gay (H1) / Gay (H2)

Triggers: Slavery (normalized due to time period); significant age difference; graphic descriptions of battle/close combat; post traumatic stress disorder (supporting character)

Acceptance Rating: 5 stars

Acceptance Rating Explanation: Even if it is historically inaccurate, the attitude in the book towards homosexual relationships is completely accepting (my reading notes say “it’s all good”).

Grammar/Editing: My ARC had some typos and awkward phrasing, which has hopefully been fixed for the published version.

Review: This fast-paced novel is set during the events of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. While most of the historical context in the novel appears well-researched, there are a few details that the author has taken some (unacknowledged) artistic license with, so aficionados of Ancient Roman history should be willing to suspend some of their disbelief in reading this story.

The modern equivalent of the relationship between Drusus and Caius is an office romance: the boss is reluctant to violate his professional ethics, but his employee wants to throw ethics out the window. This novel is written almost exclusively from a single point of view: that of Drusus. As a result, Drusus seemed quite well-developed, while Caius seemed one-dimensional in comparison. Their relationship, while somewhat sweet, therefore fell quite flat for me. There is little that is more disappointing in a romance novel than one of the main characters feeling like a generic paper doll. This is further unfortunate because some of the supporting characters – Cal and Marcus, specifically – are as compelling as Drusus is, and are as thoroughly developed. In several respects, these characters rescued the plot for me and compelled me to read through to the end.



Full disclosure: I received a free advance review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love historical romance, but I don't think I've ever read one set in the Roman Empire before. It's not a time period I have a ton of experience with, beyond the basic stuff I learned in the Alabama public school system. Plus, my Master's in History was focused on Colonial America so this is set waaaay before the time I studied in college. (Speaking of, if y'all know of any good historical romances set in the colonial period, hit me up.)

Sons of Rome takes place in Germania in 9CE. Drusus Tuscus is a Centurion with only 3 years left of his manditory 20 year military career. He left his mother and 4 year old brother behind, and now all he wants is to wait out the last of his military service and go home. A fresh group of recruits are brought in to bolster the Roman legion before they move further into Germania for the summer, and with them comes his younger brother Calpurnius and his friend Caius. Now Drusus has to focus on leading his century while keeping his little brother safe and dealing with his undeniable attraction to Caius.

As I said before, I cannot verify the accuracy of the historical aspects of this novel, but I think my lack of expertise helped me immerse myself more in the story instead of focusing on its accuracy. I want to start with the relationship between Drusus and Caius. We stay in Drusus's head the whole time, so we get a lot of his thoughts, his worries, and his dreams. There is a bit more of a disconnect when it comes to Caius. We see Caius some in the beginning, and we experience Drusus thinking about Caius, but don't get much of his thoughts and dreams until about halfway through the book.

At first, I was worried that Caius was going to stay a cardboard cutout of the person for the entire book, but Roman pulls it around toward the middle and made me more invested in their relationship. I likes that the other characters got more attention at that point as well. In the first half, the only secondary character we get much of is Marcus, who is Drusus's right hand man and who has been secretly in love with him for years. Once the story starts to really pick up in the latter half of the book, more secondary characters are expanded on. I think the lack of personality in the secondary characters might be one of the biggest weaknesses of the book overall.

One of the biggest strength, though, has to be the casual acceptance of a gay couple in a historical period. And I don't care if some people get mad because historical accuracy demands that all queer folks be miserable and die unhappy deaths, alone and unloved, yadda yadda. If I wanted to be depressed I would read the news. This is a romance novel, and I came here to be entertained and be hand-fed a happy ending. I loved that the century just accepts that Drusus and Caius are together. I love that they can hold hands openly once in a while and it be fine. I love that Caius meets Drusus's mother and it's fine. Happy queer stories are becoming more common now, and the queer community deserves to see more and more piled on every year. Bring me all your happy queer stories and you can keep all your "historical accuracy" over there.

I think Sons of Rome is a pretty solid story, with a sweet romance between two men who are making due in the best way they can.

This was well done. I’ve read a little about this time period, and it was pretty accurate to the true events. Cai and Dru were a very sweet couple, that I was very happy to see get a happy ending.

The premise sounded intriguing and while I love this setting/time period, the characters left me wanting something more.

I've never been a fan of insta-love, to be honest, so it was difficult to get over that for me. The characters generally seemed a bit too flat, but it gave the book a kind of history book vibe I guess, which maybe was the point? Basically all of the conflict was external, there's no real character development so much as the characters continuing forward as is. It was a fun read, but nothing particularly memorable. The premise is great so I just wish it had been a little bit more interesting.

A decent love story set in ancient Rome. I enjoyed reading this one, but I don’t think there was anything especially memorable for me.

This was a great book!! Love set in the Ancient past, it had great characters and a engaging story that kept you interested through out the story.

I began this story this morning and couldn’t stop reading it. It seemed a simple premise at first, but I found the writing completely engaging and I loved the characters.

When Drusus was a young man he left everything he knew behind him for a life in the Roman Legion. He’s Centurian when his younger brother, Cal arrives as a new recruit. Cal is with his best friend, Caius. Drusus is immediately drawn to Caius but keeps his distance. He already knows that he will find it difficult to watch his younger brother fight… he doesn’t want to lose his heart to someone only to be constantly worried about him in battle.

Caius proves himself to be a formidable soldier… he can definitely take care of himself. Drusus’ defenses, however, weaken and he finds himself getting involved with Caius.

I can’t speak to the authenticity of the writing about the Roman Legion… I haven’t read enough history to have an opinion. It was certainly authentic enough for me to get caught up in the time and not question it. The battle scenes were pretty horrifying and there was a real sense of desperation at some points. I had a lot of sympathy for the characters and their plight. I can’t imagine living in a society in which I had to commit years of my life to an army without having a choice.

The relationship between Caius and Drusus is quite lovely in spite of the difficulties they are facing. Their dream of living on a farm together and growing old… is a lovely one. There are many times during the noel that their future is uncertain and I really felt for them. A lovely story that I would gladly recommend.

I really loved this, packed full of chemistry and romance, it’s steamy, fast paced and such an enjoyable read. I didn’t put it down and completed this in be sitting, once you start you are enveloped in the characters world completely, the descriptions are so good, you could almost be back there with them. Highly recommended m/m romance.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

A hot, steamy ride, Sons of Rome has everything you could possibly want: an angsty romance, age difference, and historical accuracy! With a fluid writing style and sympathetic characterizations this is a must read for fans of m/m romance.

Read Sons of Rome in one sitting and I honestly found it easy to dive into and entertaining.

Karrie Roman's smooth writing style conveying a narrative filled with sweet, tender moments, and some gore filled battles accenting a typical plot, actually made this period piece romance endearing and enjoyable.

I'm no history buff, so I can only say that I feel as though this story carries the air of a sort of a defanged Gladiator... as in, if Gladiator wasn't tricked out in epic Oscars, was m/m at its core, and that its concentration was on a band of Roman soldiers on their way to battle, and not about violent clashes set against a dramatic Coliseum backdrop.

Thumb up for me 👍