Review: From GLBTBookshelf.com
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 15, 2012
4.25 out of 5 starsMarsilus Dardanus is a youngest son who, in 10 BC Rome really has no other career options than to join the Roman army.  His father sets him up with General Cassius Valerian who takes to the boy at once but cannot admit it Even to himself.  Dardanus proves himself capable as a soldier but also as a strategist, and more and more he catches Valerian's eye.  Why is the general resisting the mutual attraction?  He is holding onto the memory of his wife, long dead in childbirth.  When the legion confronts a barbarian tribe, one of Dardanus's supposed friends sabotages his trust in Valerian to gain advantage, not realizing that Valerian has not taken Dardanus to his bed.  What events will have to take place to thwart the two-faced comrade, get Dardanus to trust the general again, and for love to blossom in both men's hearts?This is a simple, highly readable, well researched and thoughtful novel.  It is not what you might call erotic, but it definitely is a romance.  The pace is slow and careful until battle, when the well reinterpreted Roman military style speeds up the excitement.  This is the first of a series that I quite look forward to following.  I feel I learned about Roman military history and tactics without feeling like I was being taught.