A Coin for the Ferryman is a thoroughly enjoyable read! Megan Edwards delivers an imaginative and engaging novel, full of unexpected twists and turns. Some adult topics, but without gratuitous sex and profanity.

3.5 stars rounded up. I thought it got off to a great start, then bogged down a little while we introduced each member of the team. But it picked up once Caesar arrived. Very entertaining read!

This was cool. I didn't read every single page, If Im being honest. I skimmed a bit. But I will go back and read it thoroughly when I have some more time on my hands.

I was given an advance reader copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I loved the premise of this book although the writing was very simple. I’m not sure it reached its full potential.

A Coin for the Ferryman has a great premise - Julius Caesar, plucked out of Ancient Rome by a time machine, just prior to his assassination into modern times. For me, the book did not live up to its promise, though it had its enjoyable moments. It took too long to develop the story, the characters seemed two dimensional, and the plot developments were unbelievable at times. The author clearly knows her classical history and did present it well within the context of the plot.

My thanks to Imbrifex Books and Netgalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A time travel experiment brings Julius Caesar to the present day, and after a kidnapping attempt, he and young Latin language whiz Cassandra wind up at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. It's a fun premise with a lot of action, although the Caesar's Palace scenes are hampered by boring conversation and a brief love affair between Caesar and Cassandra that barely registers. The story is told mostly from Cassandra's point of view, and while she is interesting enough, the reader is left wanting more of Caesar's perspective on his puzzling adventure.

great book! really enjoyed the large cast of characters and how they all tied together. well written and thought out. minor spoiler alert- i do wish we got to see some of the fall out that cassandra faced after everything is said and done. there was a lot of build up for how andrew would react but we didn’t get to see that. i liked the letters at the end as well! i wish we had one from each character but c’est la vie i suppose. interesting the author chose faith as one of the characters who wrote a letter but maybe it was to give her a bit of closer and growth since she spend most of the story being rude. overall, enjoyed a lot!

*3.5 stars*

The opening of this book? Iconic! I wasn't sure what I was expecting it, but it definitely wasn't Julius Caesar waking up on the Ides of March!

Overall, I really enjoyed this! I liked the blending of history and science-fiction, even if though SciFi/time travel stories aren't usually for me. I would highly recommend to anyone who does love a time travel novel though!

A great premise, time travel, Ancient Rome, pulling someone out of their time and the consequences, what's not to like?

Well, that would have been great, but that's not what the book is about.

Warning, in order for me to discuss why I didn't get on with this book, there's gonna be lotsa spoilers:

A large chunk of the book, like at least half, was setting up the 'modern-day characters, their relationships and how they got chosen for this team, then... they weren't used at all. The time travel happened without a hitch and then it was all about the one main character, the others were barely in the second half of the book despite the lengthy set up.

The time kidnap itself did not make sense, the only bit of discussion about how/why the method worked was to make it clear that you had to pick someone or something for whom you knew the exact time and place of their imminent sudden death, natural death wouldn't cut it (for reasons), and you had to get them back to the exact time when they would be killed, as shown by a test example with a dog. So, having set up this premise, the leader of the project then went through this logic with another team member, where the only answer they could both come to was...Julius Caesar?! As far as I know, no-one knows the time of Caesar's assassination, let alone down to the minute, and no mention was given as to how they calculated this, given the various changes in the calendar that has happened since. And, as far as I know, there is no knowing the exact place he would have stood as he walked towards his death, a second wrong in the time, a centimetre out in the place, and they would have ended up with a fierce stabby Brutus instead, or nothing at all. As a first human test case, it seems a remarkably poor choice, and very unlikely that the point-and-click grabbing of this particular historical figure could ever have worked.

The reviews and premise seemed to suggest that civilisation would hang in the balance, but, again, there was no real sign of this in the book, and at least one review seems to suggest that this would be a good read if you wanted to find out more about Caesar and the Ides of March, but no, it doesn't discuss any of that, it's just about plucking Caesar from his time, which doesn't seem to phase him at all, he becomes used to modern time pretty instantly, or at least not bothered by it, in fact his only purpose is to shoe-horn in a pretty unbelievable love story culminating in a present-day son of Caesar (predictably called Julian). I hated that part of it so much! Once the time travel had happened, I was like, 'Oh no! Please don't let this end with Julian being his son or something, really? That's where this is going?' Yep, that's where it went, and that was the only consequence of time-kidnapped Caesar! The story could have been exactly the same with any male personality from history.

I initially gave this 2 stars because I thought the writing was good enough to keep me reading, but now I'm reviewing it, the logic and disappointment that the plot didn't deliver what was advertised has made me rethink that.

The Gist: Julius Caesar is transported to America, 1999.

My thoughts: I love time-travel stories for their fish-out-of-water shenanigans and implications about how choices affect history. And I love learning about ancient Rome, so I was really excited for this. Unfortunately the execution here did not do it for me.

The time travel doesn’t happen until halfway through this 500-page book. The first half is spent giving backstories to each member of the IDES team, and most of them…didn’t need backstories. Especially poor Robin. Why treat her like that only to have it not matter at all? Her sole purpose, to help prevent disease, didn’t even pan out. It was weird!

And then when Caesar finally arrives….nothing really happens. There’s a half-baked heist attempt, but Caesar just goes with the flow the whole time and not much changes. What was the point of seeing him in the present day? Maybe the point is that there was no point. But the writing didn’t really justify that.

Overall, I just wanted a lot more from this.

A Coin for the Ferryman by Megan Edwards is a mix of science and history with a dash of romance. I found the book to be thoroughly entertaining and made me want to learn more about ancient Rome. The science aspect was detailed enough to be believable by not too complicated to go over your head. I found the beginning of the book to be a bit slow and some parts felt unnecessary at first, but the story really picked up and everything was very successfully wrapped up and connected.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

A Coin For The Ferryman follows the story of Cassandra, as a chance meeting at the Las Vegas strip causes her to become part of a team whom eventually succeed in bringing Julius Caesar to the modern day.

There were some elements of this book I really enjoyed - Caesar’s portrayal, for one. Many other review commented that Caesar was a little too…ok with everything he saw in the modern day. However, I believe the reason the book gave for this was not only accurate but most definitely the reaction Caesar would have. Caesar never really asks questions - because to do so would announce him as the follower, not the leader, of this group. Caesar was presented as calculating, cold, and even rude at the beginning - and I felt this really let his character arc through the story.

And yet.

The premise of this story is pretty clear: Caesar comes to the modern day. And yet, he doesn’t actually arrive until pretty much exactly halfway through the book. A huge amount of time was spent fleshing out Cassandra, and the other members of the IDES team (the name of the group who bring Caesar to present day). I really felt lots of this was unnecessary- especially when one of these side characters (who was only present for perhaps two chapters) is mentioned in chapter 2 as part of the overarching link between the beginning and the end.
After a brief POV from Caesar, we jump to Cassandra as she reads an autobiography we later see her get gifted in the book. This was how the dramatic premise of the book was set up. The autobiography talks of a modern coin found in an ancient archeological dig, and implies that the biographer’s career was forever altered because of it. As it happens, Cassandra knows the truth, and never realises it until opening that autobiography once the writer has died.
Sound complicated? I agree.
Having taken about 5 days to read this book, I still struggled to remember the link between that author, the coin, and Cassandra. The coin wasn’t even really part of the main premise - instead an object to denote an emotional moment.

I really just felt that the beginning and end were very clunky in that respect. Having waiting 200 pages to see Caesar arrive, I’d have liked a bigger incentive to keep reading.


That being said, I really enjoyed the spirit of this book, and as a classics kid seeing all these references to ancient places and incentives was really lovely. I very much enjoyed the character of Caesar, which as the main element of the story fortunately outweighed any apprehension I had about certain other areas.

Thank you very much to NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

In a time traveling meets Roman history adventure, a group called the Ides project manage to transport Julius Caesar to 1999 America just before the ill-fated Ides of March assassination. The only catch, in 4 days, he must be returned to the exact moment he is extracted from, and straight to his certain death or risk changing the world as we know it forever.

I went into this NetGalley eARC with the idea that this was going to be a more ridiculously sci-fi novel, instead, it was a twisty-turny tale of all the Ides project team irrevocably being tied together and pasts/futures entwining in bizarre ways. And I confess I didn't hate that.

The story did have quite a few clunky bits that were meant to intertwine in the end that kind of bogged down the story a bit, and some of the characters were a bit flat. It did take me a while to really get into the book but when all was said and done, it was a fun crossover that I didn't expect but definitely enjoyed getting tangled up in.

Megan Edwards Coin For The Ferryman was an entertaining read. As a techno thriller writer myself (DS Kane'd bestselling SpiesLie series), I know good writing when I read it. This book is certainly worth your time.

Thanks to the publisher - Imbifrex Books for providing ARC in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley.

3/5 stars

A Coin for the Ferryman by Megan Edwards is a time travel story. The plot of the story goes like this: there is this scientist who invents the machine that can bring back a living thing from the past to our present-day for a specified period of time, the only catch being that the person must be seconds from death and be returned to that very moment so as to not upset the history that comes after. They decide to bring in Julius Caesar from the past. Now, the question is - will they be able to return him back to his time successfully without altering the future? You have to read to find out for yourselves.

I liked the various characters in the story, in particular, I loved reading about Cassandra. I was impressed with the use of Latin phrases in the texts inside the story. I listened to the audiobook narration of the book which was amazing as it brought all the more feel to the adventure that was needed for the setting.

There were unnecessary details that were irrelevant. There were too many descriptions of the things I was least interested in. The story was uselessly dragged to a thick book that could have been cut to a short and crisp one.

It was a fun, light, thrilling, and adventurous read and I would recommend this to SciFi junkies out there.

Release Date: 01 Mar 2022.

Review Posted: 13 Mar 2022.

This book falls a little flat for both fans of history and science fiction. I found the narrative to be shaky at best, combining elements of history, historical fiction, and science fiction. Fans of each genre will be a little amiss and likely wanting something more.

Full review and the few issues I had with the book is up now. This book was gripping from the go. It could be the prespective changes so much early on that help the pacing but from the flashback into the book chapter I was hooked for sure.
https://youtu.be/3SglZ8xVDuk

My thanks to Imbrifex Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘A Coin for the Ferryman’ by Megan Edwards in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book without prior knowledge and was surprised when it opened with Julius Caesar waking on the morning of the Ides of March 44BC and being warned frantically by his wife, Calpurnia, of danger.

He reaches the Theatre of Pompey and is approached by someone who begins to speak then nothing “not only silent, but gone—along with the stench of garum and garlic. In his place was Venus, gazing into Caesar’s eyes and reaching her hands toward him.” Definitely an intriguing start.

In 1999, 26-year old classics student Cassandra Fleury is plucked from her life in Las Vegas to become the youngest member of the IDES Project, an interdisciplinary team engaged in a groundbreaking experiment involving time-travel.

Their plan is to snatch Julius Caesar moments prior to his assassination, hold him in seclusion and involve him in discussions with historians and Latin scholars. Cassandra, who is fluid in Latin, is to serve both as the translator and as hostess. Indeed, Caesar initially mistakes her for Venus. After four days they will return him to the moment he was extracted in order to preserve the timeline.

What could possibly go wrong? These folk have clearly not encountered any time travel fiction! No further details to avoid spoilers but it certainly proved an interesting plot with some great action sequences, twists, a compelling lead in Cassandra and a fascinating portrayal of Caesar.

‘A Coin for the Ferryman’ was clearly a labour of love as Megan Edwards writes in her Acknowledgements that this novel has taken twenty years to write. In addition, she was a Classics major and had taught Latin for many years so knows her subject.

Overall, I found this an enjoyable ‘what if’ time travel novel with an informed portrayal of Julius Caesar at its heart and some fascinating ideas throughout. I definitely will be interested in reading more of her writings.

Definitely recommended for readers seeking something a little different.

I have a contentious relationship with books involving time travel. It’s a love-hate relationship, to say the very least. When they’re good, they’re very, very good. But when they’re bad, they’re simply horrid. It takes very little to collapse a time travel story into utter drivel. When I read the blurb for this book, I was intrigued by the notion that the time travel in this book would be achieved not by our intrepid scientists and scholars traveling to the past, but by pulling the past into the future, like one would pluck the best fruit from the tree.

Only, in this case, the best fruit they’re plucking from time is Julius Caesar, moments prior to his assassination on the Ides of March.

I was somewhat worried this book would be an awful bore, but it really wasn’t. It was engaging, fun, interesting, and had a well-plotted and well-executed story arc. It hooks you from the beginning by laying a few fun seeds that end up providing exposition and helping plot points become fulfilled later in the book, which was a nifty and entertaining way of problem-solving just when you were wondering how the heck the characters were going to get out of a certain predicament.

I also worried this book would be bogged down with science jargon and academic brou-ha-ha (which you’d think I’d enjoy, being a scientist and academic myself), but the author thoughtfully didn’t try and attempt to bore her readers with too much science and instead focused on her characters, which was the right call, in my opinion. And the characters were so well-developed because of it.

And, let me just say: any book that has not only a high-speed car chase with Julius Caesar involved and then adds in an emergency escape flight by vintage plane with the same historical figure is totally worth reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and Imbrifex Books for early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

A Coin for the Ferryman offers an intriguing premise, i.e. what if scientists were able to grab people out of the past and bring them into the present for a short time and them drop them back into the past at the same point in time that they were taken?

More specifically, the story involves a scientific project the removes Julius Caesar from ancient Rome on the date of his assassination and brings him forward in time to 1999. This provides for a lot of fascinating speculation about Caesar’s interpretation of modern life as well as potential insights that he provides to historical events. The part of the book that dealt with Caesar in the present was the part I enjoyed most. Unfortunately, the earlier part of the book entailed a ton of character back story that in most cases was not needed.

I gave A Coin for the Ferryman four stars on Goodreads. I was prepared to give it 3 stars before the story became more interesting midway through, but upped the rating to 4 stars based on a strong finish and a fascinating premise.