This was just too slow for my taste. I couldn't get into this or connect with the characters. 



Thank you NetGalley and publishers for this ebook.

The last of the trilogy , Vestal priestess Pomponia Occia story comes to a dramatic closure in this rich and fascinating historical saga. The life and polictics during the end era has been beautifully brought to life through this series and hats off to the creativity and research on building this magnificient tale.

One for the historical book lovers.
Overall rating 3.5

My thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbaised opinion.

Have been unable to review due to illness. Review coming soon! This novel looks fantastic and I can't wait to read this one! I am sure I won't be able to put it down!

I was excited to read a book about the Vestal Virgins. However, this was a very slow and unemotional read. I could not connect to the story or relate to the characters. This is probably because of the writing. The writing was stilted and dry. Thus, it was an excellent premise but not well-executed.

This is the final book in a trilogy set in Ancient Rome. I was sorry to see this series end. I was invested in each characters life and how they contributed to the storyline. The Vestal Virgins where something I knew very little about. I learned just how very important they were during this time in history. I also enjoyed researching the actual people involved in the story who were alive at that time.
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The idea of historical fiction about the lives of Vestal Virgins is a wonderful one, and I've been curious about Debra Macleod's books for a long time. Unfortunately, this book is very clunky and awkwardly written; it has the problem unfortunately too common to inexperienced historical fiction writing of having lots of "authentic" details --explained in asides and translations -- that nevertheless don't add up to a feel of time and place. The year is 18 BCE, but the setting is flattened into a homogenous "Augustan era" that already looks like the full-blown high empire. There's no sense of ongoing fears that war might break out again (it's been less than 15 years since Actium!) or even of the specific concerns of the day (Tiberius' military career is not in evidence, and he already seems to be adopted as heir). What interest there is in the historical figures often comes across as inconsistency rather than complexity: Livia is sometimes a conniving rival, sometimes a partner for Pomponia-but we never see how these two very different modes of behavior make up a whole character. Tiberius is sometimes grotesque and brutal, sometimes genuinely pious and concerned for Rome: facets that aren't necessarily at odds with each other, but which only ever appear in such separate contexts that there's no sense of how to reconcile them. Pomponia herself is quite flat: a serious motherly priestess, both devout and broad-minded, a collection of traits rather than a person.

I probably won't be picking up another Macleod novel, but I'm glad I had the chance to find out what her books are like.

A great end to the Vestal Virgin trilogy. A little harder to get into this final part of the series but still a good ending and closure to Pompenia's journey.

I really wanted to enjoy this book but I couldn't really get through it. It was hard to connect to the characters however I did feel that the writing was well done.