Daughters of Rome

I really enjoyed Kate Quinn's follow-up to Mistress of Rome, but I wish I had read this one first, since it takes place prior to Mistress. The daughters are the four Cornelias - Cornelia, Marcella, Lollia, and Diana - two patrician sisters (Cornelia and Marcella) and their cousins whose lives are entwined with and impacted by the changes that take place in Rome during the year of the four emperors, AD 69.

The novel is based on history, and many of the characters are real, including at least one of the Cornelias. The story is fast-paced and bloody, but also intriguing and fun. The girls couldn't be more different - Cornelia is a proper Roman wife, Marcella is an intellectual, Lollia is an oft-married party girl, and Diana is a beauty who's only interested in horse racing. But four emperors bring many changes, which challenge who the girls are and what they think of themselves and each other (and one of the girls gets a lot more than she bargained for in the end).

This is a fast-paced novel that I found riveting, maybe even more so than Quinn's first book. I'll definitely read more of her work.

Daughters of Rome

Night of a Thousand Stars

This was a very enjoyable novel by Deanna Raybourn - one of those books that I just got deeper into the more that I read, and I flew through the last fifty or so pages because I HAD to know how it ended. It's the story of Poppy March Hammond, who in post-WWI London is about to marry into the aristocracy when she decides that is NOT the life she wants and, with the help of handsome curate Sebastian, goes out the window of the church and escapes to her father's home in the country. When Poppy decides a few days later she needs to thank Sebastian for his help, she returns to London to find him mysteriously gone - and also that he's not who he said he was.

So starts Poppy's adventure, aided by her ladie's maid Masterman and the dear old gentlemen who hires her to help write his memoirs, from London to Damascus, where she finds danger, romance, and eventually Sebastian. Poppy is a fun character, charming and endearing but not at all ditzy. She also seems to be the only character who isn't hiding something, and finding out who everyone is and how they're connected is an exciting read.

I'll definitely look for more of Ms. Raybourn's book in the future.

Night of a Thousand Stars