good idea but not the best execution in many aspects. 

the idea of dragons during roman empire times - that his magical/mythical power imbalance was what helped the empire become as “successful” in their conquering as they were was defiantly intriguing. 

i also didn’t mind that the author took creative license with the main female and her heritage and how the language and culture worked together -it’s fantastical fiction after all and i didn’t feel that she did it disrespectfully (as in talking down at that culture or making it sound dirty or less desirable or generally less, which sadly does happen more often than it should it traditionally published works that should go through enough edit rounds to take all that out of it doesn’t serve a purpose) but i hear a few people mention that they didn’t understand or where confused as to why it was written the way it was and why that culture and in that way and that i also understand because there really was no reason for that particularly culture with how wide spread the roman empire took their conquering and the pretty easy to read message of a white roman higher up taking a salve woman from an ethinic group that is not white for no reason at all is not a great choice especially since there was no reason for it at all or she could have also stated that the main female character was white as well and solved that entire questionable part of that story line. 



honestly those things were strange choices but i had the biggest issues with just the overall structure and writing in this book. 

this felt underwritten and edited as well as over done at the same time at different places throughout the book. 
the characters where made to be those very smart and very well education and underestimated characters because how could anybody expect a soldier to like philosophy or a new slave to know more then their own now basically forbidden language no matter that the actual education background was never discussed or really mentioned in ways that showed that was being talked about was actually that unique. 
why wouldn’t people learn latin to be prepared knowing how large and dangerous the roman empire was getting? why wouldn’t people know greek as it was one of the language many different knowledge based text at the time was documented in? 
maybe its just that as someone who as always lived in europe and grew up with more than one language and surrounded by culture that teaches you to learn more if you want to understand more… it’s just not strange but just the norm? and especially as a culture that the author choose to portray as traveling through different countries and with that the  being exposed to lots of different language especially during historic times it just doesn’t make sense for it to be seen as noteworthy because how would a performer be able to do their job well if they didn’t manage to communication at least in basic forms with many different language and just growing up in that kind of environment should make you very perceptive to learning and understanding other language right? 


also things kept being repeated quite often for no reason other than being repetitive. 
why would i need to hear at least three times how a characters parents died after it being told to us by that character in a conversation with another character?  
i would have notice but not minded it it was this one thing but it kept happing with different things especially about characters backgrounds and i just…? i got it the first time? twice is already enough but everything more than that should have been edited out because it gets really annoying. it feels like they believe the reader is too stupid to remember something for more than a 40 pages. 


another one of the most strangely placed and written scenes in this book for me where the sex scenes. 
the first sexual interaction was on a battle field after a fight where guy was stroking his  penis in front of a whole group and his higher up and we are given an unnecessarily description of the penis for some strange reason. 
it was an entire strange and unnecessary scene overall (the reintroduction could have happened similar but without the sexual violence threat!), starting out with a woman being threatened with rape by a whole group of men, been given the strange description of a half dragon half man looking penis and ending in violence … it was just very strange and didn’t get better with how those sexual moments where brought into the story and how they didn’t add anything at all to it at those moments. 
especially since the scenes where not well written at all and felt a bit like someone who didn’t know how to write sex was forced to do so and tried to make it look like a porno but just made it seem horrible all around. 


the romance? 
because was there one? 
there was no real build up, no real busking of trust or communication in realistic ways that would make a woman that was brutally ripped from what she knew and forced into slavery trust and love and want to be in a relationship with the guy that was there or the instigator for most of that.
just because he didn’t treat her like trash or abused her should not be a reason to make it seem like romance -otherwise this would have been a very different and polygamy kind of story because the rest of the household was also not mistreated by him. 
it felt especially strange to me when in one chapter the FM basically screams a the MM for not having her trust because he owned her and how can there be any trust between a slave and their master with it being such an unequal relationship and in the very next chapter she can’t seem to keep her damn eyes and paws to herself just because she sees his apparently irresistible body .

the whole magical connection and bond was just an overly easy way out of not having to even try and write a real romance and just make the characters “fall” in love. 

i also didn’t love how this entire book builds up to this big moment - which never happens. why keep talking about taking down and/or killing the emperor and changing the rules and laws and how the empire is run in general when this entire book ends with nothing happening and the characters now more or less having to wait for other characters in the next book to do what they should have done in this book for them?!

if you just focus on the romance than don’t try and make a high stake plot fit into it but then not actually work it up into a real plot because that’s just disappointing. 

i don’t mind a romantic fantasy basically just being about two at odds characters taking a chance and making it happen just for them. give me an enemy’s to lovers romance and no other real plot besides the reasons why they are enemies and what they have to fight against to be together and write the romance well and i am happy! 
i don’t need epic plots for  those stories - if i want an epic fantasy i don’t need an epic romance.
but trying and failing at both? mhm.

also that thrown in “cliffhanger” at the end by introducing the next books main character felt lazy as well. 


all that sounds like i hated the book. 
i didn’t. 

it’s okay. 

but it could have been so much lore and so much better and be a great book and it just felt like it let me down in so many ways that it feels like a worse read than it was because of that. 


i think this is the type of book that readers just have to go with what they are told as they are being told - no thoughts, not trying to figure out if it could all actually work as the author tries to tell us it is and if any of it makes any sense at all. 
if you manage that this could be a great read. 

otherwise this is a bit of a struggle and the small but persistent and noticeable  things keep adding to make it not great.