I struggled a bit with this one. The premise sounds interesting but it halters when it comes to the writing. The writing style makes it hard to read and I don't think it matches with the story. I also don't like that it's written in first person narration.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Choice is a largely active driven tale with morally grey characters and a developing political backdrop interwoven with complex morality and questions of power. I am confident that there is a niche group of readers that will absolutely love this book. Unfortunately, I do not fit into that and this was just a painful slog to get through for me.

There are several criticisms to discuss here (as I really feel like I need to give justification to my rating on this one).

First and foremost is the prose and writing style though as that’s the one area I just could not move past. Dialogue was stilted and I found it difficult to buy into many of these conversations; they just didn’t feel like things real people would say. The short and choppy sentences really impacted any flow and made it tough going to sink into this.

There were also some bold and risky stylistic choices made here and I just don’t think they paid off. The poetry/verse chapters were painful and I found myself skimming them as quickly as I could because they threw me out of the story (and I wasn’t particularly immersed before these chapters, but these sections just disrupted any flow I had managed to find).

Now onto the biggie, the choice to use first person narrative. First person is notoriously difficult to do well and this just didn’t work for me. I found it jarring and it made a story I was already struggling to feel engaged even more of an uphill battle to get through. There are too many limitations with this style and it just really stunted any emersion I had with the story.

This leads me onto my second point, the use of first-person narrative negatively impacted my view on the world building. I feel confident that there is a rich world here but I just couldn’t get at it. I didn’t know what anything looked like, or felt like, I didn’t even know what the main characters looked like. I constantly felt as though I was on the edge of learning about this lush fantasy world but I could never quite reach it.

Overall, this was not the book for me at all. Needless to say I won’t be reading the rest of the series. I am hesitant to be too negative though as I know there are readers who will love this. This was an ambitious novel that certainly sets up a lot for future works, but unfortunately did not deliver for me. I have never DNFed an ARC but I came very, very close with this one. It felt overly long and difficult to sink into.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley and Underground Group LLC for the ARC. This book sounded interesting but I didn't enjoy the prologue as it was poetry which is not my type and then the rest of the book, I didn't really enjoy the writing style, it was more show than tell.

This had that magical element that I was looking for and enjoyed the way the world worked and how everything flowed well. The characters felt like they belonged in this story and had that element that I was hoping for. Lucius Tarquinius was able to create a strong story and worked well in this genre. It left me wanting to read more in this series as this was wonderfully done.

compelling blend of historical fiction and fantasy, set in an intricately rendered ancient Rome where power is not just political—it’s supernatural. Tarquinius introduces a unique magic system based on ancient Roman religious practices. Characters gain abilities through intense rituals and offerings to gods, each deity conferring specific powers based on their domain. This magic system deepens the political intrigue, as wielding power means not only gaining divine favor but also risking wrath or losing oneself to ambition, and greed.

The protagonist’s journey, caught between political ambition and ethical dilemmas, is heightened by this mystical influence, forcing him to choose between the price of power and his own humanity. Tarquinius captures the era’s nuances with historical accuracy while weaving in fantasy elements that feel both natural and essential to the plot. Choice is a masterful story of loyalty, ambition, and the heavy cost of choices that linger in both the mortal and divine realms.