Soothsayer’s Path, Book #3
Review of Soothsayer’s Path, Book #1 & Book #2
Heat Factor: It’s a closed door, mild heat. Sweet, but not overtly sexy.
Character Chemistry: It’s friendship to devotion, with some light tension.
Plot: Narilla is desperate to establish her legitimacy with the upper echelons of society after a lifetime of watching her mother’s rejection for marrying a merchant. Jovian is a good-hearted and talented masonry artisan who is also, as it turns out, a thief who steals Narilla’s birthright.
Overall: This was a really well-written and sweet love story and a strong follow up to the other two in this series.
As the queen of closed door, I have to say I have really enjoyed this series. In the first two books, the stories were sweetly told and tender, with an intricately woven plot supporting a very mild love story, and this one was no different.
Narilla is driven and focused on only one thing–regaining her family’s place in patrician society in ancient Rome in order to salvage the damage done when her mother, a patrician, married her father, a wealthy merchant. Despite being raised in a loving home with parents who are completely smitten with each other, Narilla has sensed a quiet grief in her mother. And in the way children often do, she’s decided it’s her job to fix it through an advantageous marriage.
Even when she overhears her fiancé flat-out admit he’s only marrying her for her birthright, a priceless sword created by an emperor, she stubbornly commits to the path she’s on and refuses to be sidetracked. So when she stumbles upon a young man fleeing from her family’s security team and discovers that she let the thief who stole that birthright succeed in the burglary, she’s furious.
At a party, she meets the soothsayer (of the series name) who puts Narilla and Jovian on a joint quest–Narilla needs to seek the truth to free herself from the fear that holds her back and Jovian needs to find the sword in order to discover who his true parents were.
Essentially, Narilla and Jovian run away together posing as a married couple (which is really cute) and Narilla learns why Jovian stole the sword, why her parents were really disowned, and why Jovian’s past and hers feel so eerily connected. It’s a good story.
These books are the kind you can easily recommend to your grandma or curious pre-teen. Slash anyone. They’re pretty wholesome and not remotely stressful. Plus, the writing style is very clean and unfussy, so it’s easy to fall into the story and you won’t be up all night strung out on cliffhangers. On the flip side, if you like your books deliciously tawdry (I’m all about those, too), you might find these too vanilla for your taste. Overall,if you like romance of the ancient civilization variety and could use a palate cleanser for the crazy world we’re living in, you’ll probably really dig these.
I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.
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