Review of Liberty by Kimberly Iverson

Liberty by Kimberly Iverson

I saw this book on a table at work and was intrigued by the historical nature of the book, as well as the overall story. Think of it as Gladiator with a red-head Xenia instead of Russell Crowe.

This is a historical fiction tale set during the Roman Empire and the Roman occupation of ancient Britain. We are introduced to Rhyddes, a young woman born into a lowly station in life in Roman occupied Britain. With her mother long dead and her abusive father drinking his money away and unwilling to live with a feisty woman “who doesn’t know her place”, he sells her to the coliseum in Londinium, the Roman capital of Britain. She is suddenly thrust into the world of gladiators and becomes a gladiatrix (female gladiator). For a year or so, Rhyddes survives in her new role as slave entertainer; her fierce fighting skills that had been honed defending herself against her father prove to be the one thing that saves her. Rhyddes thinks that if she plays this new role long enough, she’ll be set free. Her plans for eventual freedom are dashed when her fame in the arena spreads through the right channels all the way to Rome herself. Soon she is shipped across the known world to a land she had barely believed existed. On her way to Rome, Rhyddes is shown a new level of savagery at the hands of her Roman guards, deepening her savage resolve to merely survive.

While Rhyddes is making her terrifying way to Rome, we are shown the lavish world of Marcus Calpurinus Aquila, the wealthy son of a Roman nobleman and politician. Although he has everything he could ever want, money, prestige, and a politically aligned marriage to another nobleman’s daughter, Marcus leads a double life: he sneaks off to the arenas and enters the gladiatorial ring as a fighter. His gladiator name is The Eagle and Marcus has earned himself quite the reputation as a winner in the ring. It is in the gladiator world do Marcus and Rhyddes meet. After two years of being in a proper gladiator training school, Rhyddes is given her Roman name: Libertas, or “Liberty”, since her Celtic name also meant “Liberty”. Marcus had seen her in a few matches and was so impressed by her fighting skills, he arranges to meet her. This one meeting sets into motion a web of lies, deceit, political intrigue that somehow involves the unlikely pair. Rhyddes and Marcus become unwilling pawns in a complex chess game of political movers and shakers, and then turn from pawns to sacrificial lambs. The two, brought together by the gladiator arena, need to now work together to thwart a plan to overthrow the governmental paradigm of Rome.

Are you not entertained?!

This book was well researched and brings to life the world of ancient Rome as well as the life of those who lived in their territories. It brings to mind Ridley Scott’s cinematic work, Gladiator, with the sweeping scope of Roman life: the class structure, the world of the gladiator, and how politics influences nearly every aspect of life. In the inside back cover, the reader is informed that Ms. Iverson has a deep background in all things historical, and based this book from a real Roman area dig in the British Isles, where remains of a gladiatrix was unearthed. Kimberly Iverson set out to put a name and back story (albeit fictional) to that brave woman who lived so long ago. Her attention to detail to the life, trying to remain as true to the time and the person she was honoring, shows us how life was for those the Romans ruled over, how those who weren't born Roman were treated as second-class citizens, if not third or fourth class. And, sadly, this book shares another feature of the movie (and other political thrillers) in that the political intrigue story lines tend to get in the way of the other facets of the grander scheme of the tale. You get so bogged down with little details and who's deceiving who, who's a double-agent, blah blah blah...  But thankfully this tale isn't as nit-picky as other movies and books I've delved into. 

I liked this book a lot. Even though it was heavy with history, it was a fast read. The character build-up and chemistry was believable, the romantic chemistry between Rhyddes and Marcus was slow and realistic---not the "oh, I just met you but let's have sexy time right now!" that some romances (those that take plot development from your B grade porn) tend to have. As a reader, you truly feel for the characters as the story progresses. 

On my scale of 1 (literary hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss) I give this epic tale a nice 6.5. I highly recommend this book if you like history in your historical fiction, and if you like her heroines feisty and truly in charge of their lives and willing to take life by the short hairs to keep things going the way they want. 


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So here's the updated list of my books to review, so far:

• Dead of Night
• Crooked Little Vein (4-11-12)
• Homer's Odyssey (3-26-12)
• Crimson City Series
• Circle of Heck series (thus far) (4-8-12)
• Joe Ledger series (thus far)  (3-27-12)
• Mutant Island series 
• Double Booked for Death (3-15-12)
• Family Affair
• Sacre Bleu
• How I Paid for College  (5-2-12)
• Attack of the Theater People!
• Liberty (5-7-12)
• Tattoo (Jennifer Barnes) (4-30-12)