The Vibes:

—actual factual enemies to lovers (as in, enemy of the state)

—KIDNAPPING!!!

—Ancient Rome, naturally

—high as hell stakes

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

When an attempt to escape a horrible forced marriage goes wrong, Julia, sister to Rome's emperor, is taken captive by Alaric, King of the Goths. He wants freedom for his people; she wants freedom for herself. As much as they hate each other—an alliance could be in order.

The Review:

Is that... a historical romance set sometime and some place other than the nineteenth century in England? Um, shockingly enough, yes! And boy does it wring every bit of tension and world it can possibly get out of that world? Also yes.

The thing about Enemy of My Dreams is that it actually is a legitimate enemies to lovers novel, which is harder to find than you'd think (these days). Alaric spent fifteen years prior to the story killing Romans, essentially. Julia's brother wants him dead. Julia is very much taken against her will! Alaric very much doesn't see her as anything more than a hostage... at first.

It's all quite delicious, and you really feel the push-pull between the two of them throughout the novel. Because, even when they develop feeling for each other, the conflict and distrust doesn't automatically go away. You still have this tension between two people with fundamental differences, as well as different motivations.

And they're fun people, by the way. Alaric is, frankly, quite hot—he's a big alpha warrior type, but also a strategist. Williamson avoids the barbarian stereotype, emphasizing his cunning and knack for manipulation. The trouble is that he's coming up against a fellow manipulator, though Julia... rather adorably, isn't the most experienced at it. There's an age gap, and you feel it when she hurtles herself into plot after plot, only for it to not quite land because she's a bit of a young hedonist.

It's incredibly endearing. I love Julia; in a lot of ways, this book is her journey as much as it's her romance with Alaric.

Make no mistake, though. I can make a couple of critiques regarding pacing, but generally speaking, this one harkens back to old schools in the best ways. Peoples' lives are at stake. We have a classically hulking and dangerous hero and a defiant, beautiful heroine way in over her head (but she's gonna fight anyway). We have a broad cast of fun characters. It's an old school vibe updated for modern sensibilities... But not TOO updated.

The Sex:

Alaric and Julia's loathing and lust lead to several different hate sex encounters, as well as looooovemaking sex. It's explicit, though Williamson does often use euphemisms and avoids super anatomical descriptions. Regardless, the chemistry between the leads makes each scene FAB.

I'm excited to read more from Jenny Williamson. This is a novel both unique and a throwback. It's plenty exciting—check it out!

Thanks to NetGalley and Canary Street Press for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'll lead with: I loved this. If you're an avid reader of old-school bodice rippers but just wish they weren't so, well, problematic, this book is going to be your catnip. Frankly the cover should have Fabio in a loincloth, with a red-haired model in blue eyeshadow and a carefully-draped toga swooning in his arms. It's that kind of book - fun, adventurous, and over-the-top dramatic. Williamson's updated for the twenty-first century, however; not only our heroine Julia but other women have agency and excellent characterization, there is always consent between the hero and heroine, and several secondary characters are queer. Williamson presents many of the Gothic tribes as fairly egalitarian, with women warriors, women leaders, and unproblematic queer relationships.

That said, holy shit did a lot happen in this book - and most of it in the last half. They're here, they're there, they're in love, they're apart, they're on this side or that one... it was a lot and got occasionally hard to track, particularly since the first half of the book had a much more granular timeline. It felt hard to figure out what was going on politically or militarily; Williamson focuses on the small-scale battles and I couldn't figure out what that actually meant for the big picture.

I'll also note that despite the historical vibe and presentation, historically accurate it is not (much as I hate that term used to describe romance novels). In many ways it felt more like a fantasy novel set in a vaguely Roman world, with a depiction of Gothic tribal life which felt kind of idealized for a modern audience. Given how little we know about the ancient Gothic tribes this was actually fine by me. That said, Alaric didn't marry a Roman princess - his brother-in-law Athaulf (who does appear here) did, and her name wasn't Julia.

Over all, I'd classify this book as a historical fantasy in the nineties bodice ripper vein: a tempestuous Roman princess (fictional) meets a handsome Visigoth warlord (historical) and they fall in love (fictional) and live happily ever after (also fictional). Very fun and very readable but very, very much a romance novel rather than historical or mythological fiction.

This was an okay book. I was not wowed by it, but I did find it entertaining. I did find it a bit confusing at times, but not so much that I was lost.