I feel as though 2020 might just be my year of long and meaty books. The Confessions Of Young Nero by Margaret George kicks this off for me. You see, I lowered my Goodreads challenge goal by about 50 books so I would not be nervous to take on some epic sized books. George’s The Confessions Of Young Nero is an intimate look at the Roman Emperor Nero, most widely remembered for allegedly fiddling while Rome burned.

The Confessions of Young Nero essentially follows Nero from about three years old all the way until the fire that burns Rome. This book does not shy from the controversial. Nor does it leave anything out. George paints Nero as a sympathetic character — but not as someone without flaws. I felt like she really did give Nero a fair shake. She does a wonderful job in the book’s afterword explaining her research as well as interpretation of the sources as not entirely infallible but slightly biased.

I think that although this book is long, it is interesting. There are times when it is a fast read– for myself, when Nero had his romantic entanglements and when he is training for athletics. There are also times when this book is a slow read. I think it will depend on your individual interests. On the whole, The Confessions Of Young Nero took me ten days to read. This is much longer than my typical time to finish a book. However, there is a lot to absorb within the pages.

The character development is very well done – and boy do we have an interesting cast of characters and historical figures. Although fiction, I do feel that my understanding of this time in Roman history is enhanced. Plus we get a chapter or two on the battle with Queen Boudicca which is just fascinating. Actually, after that bit I was thinking how interesting a YA book on either Boudicca or her daughters would be. This book really does also delve into the side characters. It also gives women a good portion of the spotlight too.

Overall, I absolutely would recommend The Confessions Of Young Nero. Be prepared for a long read — if you are a slow reader it might take you a month. It is worth it though for the depth within. I may be new to Margaret George’s work, but I will definitely be picking up more of her books. And now I may need a breather before picking up The Splendor Before The Dark, because these books are such a time investment.

Received as a early read via Netgalley in return for an honest review. My honest review is, quite frankly, this novel is just as incredible as any of other of Margaret George’s immersive deep dives into historical huge personalities. By reading this, I really understood Nero as a human being, and not a callously fiddling caricature. I am a polyamourous reader, reading several books at once, but once I started Confessions, no other book had my attention until I finished it. I cannot wait to read the sequel.
Also appears on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1813924161 5-star review

I thought I could make it through this, but it came to me at a time I was too busy to really absorb all the characters. George is a masterful writer who brings history alive, but that is done through rich historical detail and a large cast of characters. You need a little time to dedicate to this title to truly enjoy it.

Dear Margaret George:

I had the pleasure of being given a copy of your new epic novel, The Confessions of Young Nero. Admittedly I was skeptical about it. As strange as it sounds, I have been a Nero fan as long as I can remember. I always had the feeling he’d been misunderstood, and represented badly in histories written by the pet historians of successive dynasties (rather the way Richard III was written by the Tudors).

I read a lot of nonfiction when I was younger, and I felt I could see glimpses of a much more sympathetic and compelling guy between all the lurid propaganda. He was a brilliant engineer who loved technology and exploration; he decried violence in the arena, and tried to replace gladiatorial combat with plays, concerts and ballets; he was wracked with grief by the death of his infant daughter; and most fascinating of all, after he died he was popularly believed to come back like King Arthur. (L. Sprague de Camp does a decent job of summarizing Nero’s career here .)

Unfortunately, I never really found any satisfactory Nero in fiction. The closest was probably Mary Teresa Ronalds’ Myself My Sepulchre, which is a good yarn, both gothic and deeply romantic, though it has its issues.
However, now that’s all changed. You have written a novel about Nero for both L. Sprague de Camp and myself, and I’m very pleased. (I’m sure Mr. de Camp would be as well.) It’s a bravura performance—sincere, heartfelt and rich. It follows Nero’s character arc, from an innocent child to a brilliant and ruthless sovereign, taking special care with detailing his relationships with the women in his life. At first, he’s raised in obscurity by his tragic aunt Lepida, who had care of him when his uncle Caligula and his cousin Messalina tried to murder him. Then it tracks his relationship with his charismatic, abusive, narcissistic mother, Agrippina, whose use of emotional incest finally bleeds over into the real thing, and ends with Nero taking her life in a way that is ingenious, somewhat unhinged and amazingly amateurish, but ultimately understandable and tragic.

The two great loves of Nero’s life get a lot of attention, and I’m especially pleased with how you portrayed them. I’m picky about books set in ancient Rome—especially in regards to Nero, because of all the clichés that have built up around him over the centuries. But this book passes with flying colors, and I appreciate how savvy it is. It gives a middle finger to all the accepted tropes in Neronian pop culture, i.e. that he was a childish, fat lunatic, or a lecherous tyrant, or God help us, an ancient version of Trump. Nero’s girlfriends also have a horrible number of (often misogynistic) tropes and clichés slathered over them.

For example, Acte, Nero’s first mistress, is usually portrayed, vis-a-vis Quo Vadis, as a Christian doormat inexplicably in love with Nero (Tertullian said one of Nero’s mistresses was a Christian, although there is zero evidence that Acte was one). Thank God, you put the stake in the heart of this shambling zombie undead horse trope, and she’s portrayed as the worldly, clever, practical, pagan young woman she most likely was.

The other cliché you see with Acte, is that she’s a good girl enthralled by a bad boy, seduced and victimized by this wicked young princeling (i.e. Becky Lee Weyrich’s Rapture’s Slave). You get around this by having Acte rescue and seduce Nero, which delighted me to NO END. Yay, agency!

However, for all her heroism and savvy nature, Acte is also less aesthetically inclined than her paramour; there’s even a scene where she snarks about a theatre performance, irritating Nero with her lack of sensitivity, made me laugh. I could imagine a modern Nero breaking up with his girlfriend because she didn’t like Radiohead. Their break-up is imagined as a couple slowly growing apart, in part because he puts her on a pedestal and doesn’t want to reveal the skeletons in his closet, is believable, as opposed to evil Poppaea seducing him.

Poppaea, Nero’s great love, is depicted here with considerable nuance, and his relationship with her takes up the bulk of the novel. We’re a long way from Claudette Colbert as “Poppaea, the wickedest woman in the world” from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1932 film Sign of the Cross. Here, she’s vain and flamboyant, but also smart and sensitive, almost morbidly so, passionate about Judaism and the welfare of the Jews, and deeply involved with Pompeii, her hometown.

I was skeptical of how you might sell the romance with Poppaea, but I was pleased to see the end result. This is a meeting of two (somewhat problematic) souls here, playing out in epic fashion, rather like an Edward and Wallis style love story, but set two thousand years back. George’s Nero is a starry-eyed romantic, in love with love, very much in the mold of his great-grandfather Mark Antony, and fascinated by Antony’s affair with Cleopatra, as well as by the Trojan hero Paris and his affair with Helen (which ties in nicely with George’s previous books). It perhaps feels a little grandiose and idealized, but that fits this character. We’re not going to see Nero suffering from a bad hangover or Poppaea vomiting from morning sickness. It’s all beauty and truth and overwhelming tidal waves of emotion. It’s operatic, in the best way. (I could almost imagine them singing arias.)

All in all, this is a very romantic book, but it’s also, moreover, about surviving the dark tides of history. It’s a spectacular tour-de-force that draws you in to his world… I’ve never seen anything like it, especially in regards to Nero. It’s long, but don’t let that scare you off. It has something of a leisurely pace, but I loved it, and usually I hate anything that might be described as ‘leisurely.’ But it could also be described as seductive. It immerses you in his psychology, and the world he lived in, reveling in a thousand details, like the décor of the Domus Transitoria, or the necklace with nine gems given to Poppaea, his engineering projects, or his eerie, otherworldly visit to the Sibyl of Cumae.

The book is filled with exquisite, jewel-like prose, that is also not too fussy or labored. There is something dream-like about it, but it pulls you along, inexorably. Details build upon details, in a way that reminds me a more modern Oscar Wilde. The whole novel is steeped in aestheticism.

As for the research is quite well done. Ms. George, you do a fine job tying various strands together. The gods, the religion, the omens, the superstition, the more open attitudes to sex combined with that peculiar ancient Roman stuffiness… She wears her scholarship lightly too, and there’s a sureness of touch as well. But it’s not 100%. There is a questionable bit about Locusta’s academy for poisoners, which I found silly, and I was annoyed when she mentioned Wales and the Welsh, but I’m willing to give that a pass, since periods this distant are not easy to write. George really does a stupendous job. I can’t see anyone doing half as well, with a subject this tricky.

This is the first book of a duology, and it ends on a cliffhanger. The Great Fire of Rome is destroying the city, and Nero rides into city, ready to do battle. Dramatic chord! What adventures await our hero next? What will be his downfall? What tragedy awaits?

I do know what will happen, but I’ll be fascinated to see how you handle it. I cannot wait for the next book. Highly recommended!

The Confessions of a Young Nero was a balanced look at an Emperor who has been maligned in history, mostly because there were only three sources from which to draw on his life, and those were written many years after his death by people who seemed to have had an axe to grind. Nero's childhood was filled with his mother's ambitions for him, and life in the Roman court was all about who you were and who your ancestors were. He was crowned at a very young age due to "untimely" deaths, and he learned quickly that he must play the game to win. I am looking forward to the second book on Nero, as this one ended before the great fire of Rome.

This was my first book by Margaret George, and certainly won't be my last. I was blown away by this being a work of fiction because it had so much detail and information regarding the Roman society and of Greece, that at times it felt more like I was reading a well-researched nonfiction and biography (except not in a dense or dry way)-which I absolutely adored. I will admit, that I didn't know much about Nero to begin with-so when I started reading I was captivated at just how well George could place you in this story and bring back someone long gone to the present.

While you weave your way through this story, you cannot help feeling sympathy for Nero, during those turbulent times of power struggles in politics, murder, poisons and through scandals; however, as I kept reading, I was wary of how much I should really want to sympathize with him.

Overall, I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting a well-researched account of the Ancient Roman society, mixed with a little bit of art and humanities thrown in, and in a fiction setting.

Since I was so absorbed by this story, I went ahead and ordered one of her other book, The Memoirs of Cleopatra. I can't wait to read more from George.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest opinion. My thanks to Margaret George and Berkley Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review this book.

DNF. After hearing so many good things about Margaret George's books, and having the pleasure of meeting her in person, I was very excited to delve into her take on Nero. Unfortunately, I just had the hardest time getting into the story. Perhaps it's because Nero is so young when the story starts, and I'm not much of a fan of reading from a young child's POV. Or perhaps it's because I've been reading a lot of ancient fiction and this one just wasn't standing out. I found it to be incredibly slow going. I put it down around page 150, but I may give it another shot in the future.

I just could not keep all the characters straight and finally gave up on reading it.

First Line: This is not the first time I have been imprisoned.
Summary: Nero is a young boy in Rome. He is the future emperor but first he has to survive the backstabbing and dangerous politics of Ancient Roman culture.
Highlights: The topic and detail are very well done. There is so much history and nuances to fill in for this story.
Lowlights: It was slow moving and boring. Nothing has really happened. Nero is a child who is just watching things progress but not doing much yet.
FYI: I only made it about 25% of the way through before giving up.

This was my first foray into the historical crafting of Margaret George. The critically acclaimed author sets her current release in ancient Rome with young Nero as our protagonist. My knowledge of ancient Rome was mainly related to its art, but rather limited in terms of its leadership and politics. I was aware of the more legendary and salacious tales such as the depravity of Caligula and the ‘fiddling’ of Nero, however, was unaware of the finer details.
Confessions is an education in all things Roman. I found myself constantly fact-checking as much of its content is too wild to be believed. I found, however, that true history can be stranger than pure fiction. Nero proves to be a formidable subject for riveting history. What George does best, perhaps, is allows her readers to sympathize with a ruler who has been historically maligned. The reader’s journey begins with Nero as merely more than a toddler being victimized by his uncle Caligula. From there, Nero, initially a dreamer and poet, must learn to fight for his survival in a real game of thrones where those closest are often times posing the biggest threat.
I absolutely recommend this book for fans of historical fiction. It’s fascinating and riveting. It is, however, hella long with no detail left unexplored. It has consumed much of my winter reading calendar. It requires careful reading and a true love of knowledge.

You know that trend of turning a classic villain into an antihero? Think "Wicked", "Maleficent", "Suicide Squad", etc. This novel is kinda like that. Nero an evil dictator? No! He's a poor misunderstood victim of circumstance. Now, if you can accept this as historical *fiction*, it makes for a nice twist to the well-known story. In her Afterword section, George basically states that Nero has been unjustly maligned by history and this book is her effort to right a wrong. Now.....ok. She's probably right. Nero in popular culture is an evil tyrant. Many of the stories about him are probably exaggerated or flat out wrong. *BUT* George's Nero is a damn boy scout. I don't think he even did something kinda bad (unless, you know, you count adultery) unless he was defending myself, which is hard to count as evil.

But, like I said, if you can get past "nice" Nero and just take this as fiction, it's a entertaining read.

**I received this copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Margaret George books are usually 1,000 pages so I was super stoked that this one was only 500. Then I found out that it's a 2 book series, which made more sense. Especially in light of the fact that the first 200 pages were a borderline snoozefest with every little detail of Nero's young life explained. That's what George does. She goes deep.

It's kind of a wonder Nero survived childhood, actually. Caligula tried to drown him which meant he had the lineage to become Emperor, though there was plenty of competition. Ultimately, his aggressive mother made it happen for him.

I've read (and prefer) Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series, but that ended at Anthony and Cleopatra. This picks up the story a few Emperors later. I didn't know anything about Nero and as I read the book I presumed that it was an historically accurate portrayal of him. However, in the afterword George sort of says she's given him sympathetic treatment - he seems to have been sort of a Rebel Emperor and she's interpreted his characteristics as more positive that his historical reputation suggests. In other words, this may not be the Nero you are looking for.

I plan to read the sequel and also Quo Vadis is on my radar, so I will be interested the see the comparisons in treatment of Nero. He is indeed a unique guy and his story is interesting.

***This book was reviewed for the Manhattan and Seattle Book Reviews and via Netgalley***

George's Confessions of Young Nero humanises an oft demonised ghost from distant ages past, he who 'fiddled’ whilst Rome burned. We follow Nero’s musings about his childhood, and see how known and suspected events likely shaped the real Nero's life. This is the first of a pair of books, unusual for George, who specialises in rich historic fiction memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. It concludes with the burning of Rome.

George paints a picture of a Nero who is quite unlike the emperors before him. Where they enjoyed war, he enjoyed music. Where they enjoyed bloodshed in the gladiator arenas, he enjoyed the performing arts, and feats of athletic prowess. These preferences made Nero a most atypical Roman ruler.

Effectively orphaned as a toddler, Nero grew up during Caligula's reign. That alone would be enough to adversely affect the growth of a child. Following Caligula's death, the new emperor, Claudius, recalled Nero's mother from exile. In retrospect, perhaps it would have been better for the young Nero if his mother had remained in her enforced seclusion. As ruthless as the rest of her family, Agrippina’s machinations put her son at the head of the Roman empire. However, her plans of being de facto empress backfire when Nero asserts his rightful authority, and eventually makes one of the hardest decisions of his young life.

The Nero presented here is far from the 'insane’ man his name might at first conjure. He seems more introspective than his predecessors, a philosopher more than a warrior. Even with his love and appreciation of the performing arts, and Greek athletics, Nero strikes me as an introvert. Without certain influences of early life, and the viciousness of his family, I think he would have been a gentle-tempered musician.

Progressive for the times, Nero was generous to a fault, with a bent towards protecting and aiding the common folk. A romantic at heart, he frequently overturned traditions, to the dismay and confusion of the nobility. George has done an astounding job of bringing the enigmatic, wrongly vilified Nero to bright, vibrant life. I cannot wait til the second of this duology comes out!

🎻🎻🎻🎻🎻 Highly recommended if you love historical fiction, and tales of ancient Rome.

In the Roman Empire, after the rein of Julius Caesar, Nerō Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was born. Nerō was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius, Emperor, to become his heir and successor. As boy, there are attempts on Nerō’s life. He learns at a young age that life can be fleeting. He even fears his own mother, Agrippina, noting *“I knew then that to be her enemy was to perish—and that being her son would not exempt me.” He knows that she has murdered before!

Young Nerō loves art and sport. He loves to watch the races at the Circus Maximus and even talks his tutor into arranging for him to take lessons in sport. He tends to be able to have fun and be a child only when his mother is away.

This is book one and only covers Nerō’s younger years. Book two will delve into his final four years of life, cut short at a young age.

I tend to enjoy long “meaty” books, especially dealing with history. At 528 pages, this book qualifies however, I did find it dragged on in parts and could have been edited down at least 100 pages, perhaps more. I did read an uncorrected proof, so perhaps it went through more editing before publication, this month.

I did enjoy Margaret George’s writing and descriptions of life in the Roman Empire and do recommend it. I could tell that the book was well researched as well.

*Please note that this quote was in the uncorrected proof and may not appear in the published version.

When you think of Nero, what comes to mind? My guess is that you think of depravity, debauchery, and of Nero fiddling as Rome burns. As she so often does, Margaret George takes our assumptions of one of the most notorious characters in history and turns them on our collective ear. In this first of a two-part series, we meet Nero the child, the artist, and the Emperor.
There is a lot of reason to feel sympathy toward Nero - he had a difficult childhood. His father was dead and his mother, Agrippina the Younger, was forced into exile by Caligula leaving him to be raised by his aunt. After Caligula's death, Nero gets his mother back. This doesn't make his life easier; if anything her machinations force him out of his comfort zone and into a world that values him only as a member of the imperial family. He attempts to forge his own identity as an athlete and artist with a small modicum of success.
At only sixteen, Nero is declared Emperor of Rome. Although he chafes under the restrictions and scheming of Agrippina, he slowly begins to shape policy and make decisions for himself. After breaking free from his mother, he comes into his own as emperor and is determined to make a better life for his people and himself. He begins ambitious programs of architecture, infrastructure, diplomacy, and cultural enrichment. He also marries a woman he adores, embraces his love of poetry and music, and even performs in public. As Margaret George points out in her author's note, "Later Hadrian was to embrace many of the same things - Hellenism, extensive building projects, dabbling in the arts, wearing his hair long - and be admired. But Nero paid the full price of being ahead of his time."
Being immersed in Nero's world is to be part of love, beauty, art, intrigue, and murder. It is exciting and beautiful and sad and scary. It is a glimpse into a world of extreme privilege and a world of extreme loneliness.
As with all of her books, The Confessions of Young Nero is meticulously researched. In her excellent author's note, she details anywhere she deviated from the historical record and why. She also includes a partial bibliography for further research.
I highly recommend this novel. I have a new level of respect and empathy for the normally reviled Nero. I am waiting impatiently for the second book!

"There is no respect for hidden music. Whatever it meant, my life would be governed by it."

The Confessions of Young Nero was quite a fun book that allowed me to read and reminisce about ancient Rome and the three years of Latin I took in high school!

Although I have heard of the Emperor Nero, I must admit that I did not know too much about him. Basically, all I knew was that he “fiddled while Rome burned” and not much else.

So, was Nero really as horrible as history tends to portray him to be? The author doesn’t seem to think so, and the actual facts gleaned from historical evidence seem to point toward the contrary.

From the author’s Afterword:

"I was drawn to him as I sensed the vast gap between the perception of him and what he really was. It is possible, with the help of modern historical analysis, to blow the fog away and see a different person standing before you, not the madman who fiddled, the pyromaniac who burned Rome, the violent sex fiend and debauched tyrant, but a man of considerable talent, a visionary in many ways – in architecture and urban planning, engineering projects, diplomacy, and artistic freedom. He also was a man of integrity, ingenuity, and generosity."

Margaret George’s The Confessions of Young Nero is the first in a historical fiction duology of this often-misinterpreted emperor of ancient Rome. The story gives the reader an introspective look at the young Nero: from his days as a boy learning athletics and in love with chariot racing, to the day he became emperor at the tender age of sixteen, to the day Rome famously burned. It was an interesting insight into the mind of this character from ancient history, and I enjoyed learning about him, other historical characters, as well as the events surrounding him.

Although Nero lived a fairly privileged life, I still couldn’t help but feel sympathetic toward his plight. Yes, young Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus became Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus, able to enact his will unto the people with little more than a blink of an eye. But the journey toward fulfilling the destination was rocky, to say the least: fraught with cunning, deceit, and murder (not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily by his own hand).

"It was my first, and must brutal, lesson in what lengths to which evil people will go, and for what flimsy reasons. I have never forgotten it, nor let down my guard since. Let them call me cruel. Better that than dead."

The Nero that the author portrayed was unlike the Nero that I thought I knew. This Nero was traumatized from an early age (the very beginning of the book shows his attempted murder by the then-Emperor Caligula), living in a society where murder was an acceptable means to an end, and constantly going against the grain with his love of performing, chariot racing, not wearing a toga, and wearing his hair long (all of which were against the societal norms of the day).

This was a long (528 pages!) but rewarding read. The author did a good job of making Nero – as well as the other characters – relatable, complex, and interesting. If you’re interested in ancient Rome, seriously, give it a read. Margaret George is a wonderful writer, and I cannot wait to see how this book will conclude in its sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review!

How could I resist a story of Nero one of the most famous of Rome’s Caesars from his childhood to the heights of his days as emperor? Well I couldn’t and I’ve always wanted to try some of Margaret George’s historical fiction. This was a slow build story introducing a broad cast of colorful characters and set against a deftly painted background and a carefully constructed plot. But patience during the early pages was worth it because I felt I was able to really know the Nero of this story and truly feel sympathy for the character.

The author argues in her notes that the Nero we are familiar with is the one told from the perspective of only three of the myriad historians and others painted him and his actions quite differently. I would suppose this is true to I was willing to be persuaded to put a more positive spin on many of his actions, though that said, this Nero was no saintly innocent, but could get as dark and brutal as any in his family tree when he felt threatened or there was something he really wanted.

The Confessions of Young Nero begin when he is a very small child and carry through to his time as Roman emperor. He has known what it is to be in danger of his life as a child and to see his mother ruthlessly clear the way for his rise. As a teen, he is married to his cousin and also step-sister since his mother married her own uncle, Emperor Claudius. Then he falls for a freed Greek woman and they share a special love all in secret. As long as there are other family descendants and his manipulating mother is around, Nero cannot be safe so he does something about it. Ruthlessly. Nero is taken with the arts of music and drama and with Greek sports and chariot racing, but what he is not taken with is making war. Much of his life, Roman is at peace, but Nero faced war in Britain with Queen Boudicca and helped gain peace in the east with Parthia. During this time, he falls in love again and it is deeply with his friend’s wife who is willing to divorce Otho to have Nero. Nero uses his power to divorce his wife and have his Poppinaea.

So, this was a long one and it begins with Nero’s family history and situation. I was a little lost amongst all the names and past situations that were mentioned. Then I settled when it moved forward with Nero’s own story. Interestingly, this is told first person and mostly by Nero, but there are two other brief narrators, Locusta the Poisoner and Acte his first love. Both of their outside perspectives were good for seeing him through other eyes.

When I read a historical fiction, I am quite aware that it is- well, fiction. What I want to see is a story that is convincing that it could actually happen that way. Or when it is about a person, that it could be true of them. I felt this book did that. Other famous people were part of this story and played their roles in Nero’s life and the Roman history at the time.

The main character, Nero, was portrayed as a man of his times and their ways were different from our modern ones. He truly believed in the Roman and Greek gods, in curses, in signs and fortunes as did the people. Though that said, Nero saw value in other races and in other classes. It was interesting to see things as the people of that time saw them.

For most of this book, Nero is young, but he is also forced to grow up fast. There are orgies and parties, but the author drops a veil over that side just like she stays vague about the brutal side.

Nero appears as a romantic figure and one who wishes to do good by his people. He walks the path alone much of the time because of his heritage and his exalted rank, but he wants true love, friends and he wants to have earned the accolades he is given. He was a great favorite of the common people. I’m a bit of a romantic, too, because reality or not, I enjoyed seeing this side of Nero. I’m actually on Team Acte and not to thrilled with the one he ended up picking for himself, but there’s more to the story so who knows maybe my gal will win in the end.

This is only part one of the story and it ends abruptly on an ominous note promising things are about to get a bit crazy and bad. Because it’s history, I’m well aware what comes in the end. I was glad to have gotten all this earlier history and to know Nero as a man and not just emperor. I would recommend this one for those who enjoy historical fiction and particularly fiction centered around a famous historical figure.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the fact that it was about Nero. He is Italian….need I say more. The second thing was the gorgeous cover. The crossed laurel wreath on the front as well as the Roman Forum in all its glory I found beautiful. I know very little about the emperors of Rome other than a few of their names. Fear not, I have already purchased a book about the history of SPQR and intend to read it and absorb every morsel of knowledge that it has.

This book is written almost in diary form. There are no days distinguished but the way it is written, to me, makes it feel like Nero is writing down all of his deepest thoughts to a secret friend. One that will not spill the beans so to speak. It is also formed from two other people’s thoughts, but they are few and far between. The book begins as Nero is a young boy living with his aunt outside of Rome. He is living with her because his father is dead and his mother, Agrippina, is in exile. He goes to live with his aunt because his uncle Caligula tormented him. Throwing him into a lake without him knowing how to swim. He made fun of him in front of people. It seemed he made it his goal in life to make Nero’s life a living hell. For a small boy, that leaves its mark and is something he never forgot. One day Nero hears that Caligula is dead and Claudius is now emperor. A woman comes and tells him that she is his mother, Agrippina. She is back from exile. She removes him from the only house he has ever known. Will Nero thrive in his new environment or will everything come crashing down around him?

This book was slow. But slow in a historical sense, not in a story sense. I loved everything that happened to him. Things that I could say “oh I remember learning about that in my history class”, “oh that ties in with this and this”, “oh I did not realize that about such and such.” Everything that happened made me want to turn the page to find out more. I will say that about halfway through I got on the struggle bus to finish. It had gotten slightly drier and was a lot more informative. I am actually kind of bummed that there isn’t another one already written for me to tear into. The author ended the story with Nero going back to Rome as it burned. It certainly was ended on a cliffhanger that makes you want to read to find out how he saved Rome or at least attempted to save Rome. All in all, this book is well researched and written in such a way that anyone could read it. The author paints a gorgeous picture of Ancient Rome that I could see in my mind’s eye.