Roman historical fiction with morally grey characters, and some spice? Sign me up! This story definitely delivered, and then some. The voice acting was suburb making this story an experience I won't soon forget.

I would like to thank the publisher for giving me an audio copy in exchange for an honest review through NetGalley.

Julia, only daughter of the late emperor, lives a life of excess until her teenage brother, the new emperor, decrees she must marry. The problem? She loathes the man she's meant to wed. Caught trying to sneak out of Rome to elope, and her lover thrown into the Colosseum to die, her options are running out. Until Alaric, king of the Visigoths, arrives. Orchestrating her own kidnapping, the two of them are on the run -- her looking for an army to take the throne from her brother, him looking to overthrow the Roman Empire. But the longer the two of them are in each other's company, the closer they grow. Will they be able to deny their own desire? Or will these enemies fight on opposite sides of the coming war?

A "cat and mouse" romance? Historical fiction? YES PLEASE!

Julia is a headstrong character, not willing to take any man's nonsense, even her own brother. But when she's told she has to marry... let's just say the lengths she'll go to avoid it is wild. Seeing her take her destiny into her own hands was amazing, and then seeing her fall for Alaric was beautiful. Alaric is stoic and badass, but he literally melts for Julia from the moment he meets her, despite outwardly putting her down. All of their issues can pretty much be solved if the two of them TALKED. The miscommunication one hundred percent stems from their mistrust of one another -- her because he's a man, him because she's a Roman. But seeing them find their happiness (despite how fleeting it is) was wonderful. I know there were a lot of liberties taken with their story, but I was definitely invested in their romance from beginning to end.

Actual Rating: 4.5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Can I give it 10⭐️?

Review: Enemy of My Dreams

This story was absolutely amazing and entertaining from start to finish. Every character was incredibly endearing, even in their more barbaric ways. The brotherhood of the Vikings felt authentic and immersive, making their bond one of my favorite aspects of the book. And then there’s Julia and Alaric— their banter, tension, passion, and love story had me hooked. I just wanted more and more!

Even though it’s a historical story, it was easy to follow, never dragging, and it truly felt like it fit the period. The pacing was spot on, keeping me engaged without feeling bogged down by excessive detail. And I have to mention the narrator— they were absolutely incredible, bringing the story to life in such a compelling way.

If you’re looking for a historical romance with fiery chemistry, rich world-building, and characters you can’t get enough of, this is definitely one to pick up!

I received a copy of this book and audiobook from Net Galley and am voluntarily giving my honest review.

This was a fun audiobook, I enjoyed the narrator and her style.

The book itself was entertaining, it was a unique to me story which I always like these days. It had some great “I’ll burn the world for you” moments and marriage for convenience is always a good time – even when the wife doesn’t truly understand if they are married lol.

What I could have done without was the insta-lust from him…He kept repeating over and over how much he wanted his hands all over her (yes, we know you want to palm her breasts), even when she was in danger which got old. There was also a unique version of miscommunication – it bothered me she didn’t out right confirm they were married and instead kept wondering about it.

Overall it was fun, and I would read/listen to more by this author and narrator!

*Arc listener*
I was very excited to see an Ancient Roman book come across the reader space. This book had some places where it really excelled and some places where I found it really lacking.
Pros: This book did a fanatic job of speaking of the diversity of the Roman Empire, especially in the last days of Rome. Alaric's forces are Goths, Huns, Norseman, and more. Slaves of the empire that have banded together in a common cause to fight against the Romans. I also really loved Julia's character development. She goes from a spoiled brat of a princess to a strong, holds her own queen. The side characters are also fantastic, Thorsman ends up being my favorite.
Cons: In the same way Julia grows, Alaric crumbles. He turns into a weak, adle minded, love sick carcass dog. I loved his character until the end, which felt rushed and yet too long at the same time. Alaric goes from knowing what he wants to being Julia's lapdog. They should have been equals if nothing else. I also really did not like the hot/cold love affair between the two of them. One second they have undying love for each other, the next they want to kill each other. Figure it out. Enemies to lovers, great. But once they are lovers, you don't just go back to hating each other... This book also uses a lot of terms and ideas that I understand because I studied ancient civilizations in school. The average reader may struggle to understand the details and terms.
TLDR: Very slow to start, lots of cat and mouse with the enemies to lovers. But if you want to see a woman go from weak to strong and a man go from strong to weak this is the book for you. Also great side characters!

This book was AMAZING! I read it as an audiobook, and the narrator was fantastic. I loved the fantastic blend of history and fiction that Williamson put into this book. The bits I wanted to be realistic were, but the fictional Julia is a compelling and dynamic character. As someone who has seriously studied Latin, I also appreciated that Williamson notes that there was more than one type of Latin spoken during this time- another historical detail I was glad to see included. The relationship between Alaric and Julia is everything you want if you’re a fan of the enemies to lovers trope. They can’t stand each other, yet they are drawn to one another, and hate how much fire there is between them. Their dynamic and banter is truly top-notch. The supporting characters are just as good as these two, and really keep you interested in the story outside of Alaric and Julia’s relationship. The plot twists in this book are also CRAZY!!! There were a couple that I definitely didn’t see coming. I absolutely recommend this if you are a fan of the following tropes- enemies to lovers, forced proximity, who did this to you, grumpy/sunshine, he falls first. I am so excited to read the next book and see how their story progresses!

I love books set in Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome so much! While this one felt a little chaotic and all over the place, I still enjoyed aspects of it.

Omg this is a Roman historical romance I’ve been waiting for in a long time! A true enemies to lovers. The banter between Julia, the recently passed only Roman princess and Alaric, the brutal warrior king who wants to take back some of his homeland that was taken from his people is off the hook and is on fire!!! It swept me in right from the beginning. Julia (22 if I remember) wants away from her proposed marriage from the person her 17 year old brother set up and set up her own kidnapping with Alaric. This is part journey of how Julia is in as Alaric’s hostage. I have to say I laughed a few times with Julia making a fool of herself to sway Alaric. They sure put each other through the wringer. I just loved every second of it. Oh man and eventually when Alaric professes his love for Julia and how much he protects her, he’s just a big man bear. He’ll threaten if others even look at Julia. I just wanted more at the end. I loved this dual POV. I hope Jenny writes more! Audiobook was fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. First off - amazing narration. She did a fantastic job of immersing the reader fully into the story. I honestly loved this book. Fantastically written, I was immediately hooked. I loved the progression of the characters, the story line was incredible. Just *chef’s kiss*

The narrator did a phenomenal job bringing this story to life. I have really been digging stories around Ancient Rome recently so when I saw this was on audio, I knew I needed it. There is so much drama that keeps you entertained but the characters are truly what make this story. The action, the romance. All of it was *chefs kiss*

Daughter of the late emperor, Julia finds herself a prisoner under her brother’s new reign. Can she improve her position playing actual prisoner to a barbarian king?

Aspects I enjoyed:
♟️ Julia’s strategic mind
⚔️ prickliness between lovers
👯‍♂️ the twins

While I enjoyed the Roman history of the story, the connection between Julia and Alaric seemed forced at times. The spicy scenes also felt repetitive which didn’t help the slower pacing overall.

So am I the idiot who for some reason thought this was a romantasy? Yes, yes I did. Clearly my attention to detail is poor to say the least. This was a historical romance set in Ancient Rome and holy mother what an experience this audio was.

But first, let's talk about the story. As a reader who has read their fair share of historical romance, I haven't read anything dating past Victorian times. So reading something set in Ancient Rome was definitely a change of pace. The author is clearly a history buff because I was immediately enthralled in this world. It's described as a cinematic experience and I couldn't agree more because it was like a movie reel behind my eyelids.

Julia is the daughter of a Roman emperor who lives a life of luxury and freedom. When she's first introduced, I wasn't sure if I would like her. But this was honestly one of the BEST character growth arcs I have ever read for an FMC and Julia became one of my favorite heroines. When her father dies and leaves her ruthless and power hungry younger brother in power, she's faced with a fate she wouldn't wish on her enemy, escape is her only alternative. So why not ask her father's enemy to kidnap her?

Alaric is there to bargain for his homeland but walks away with something entirely different. Growing up as a slave, he fought in the brutality of the Colosseum, and is now a brutal Gothic warlord, who dreams of a homeland for himself and his people.

While there's definitely some insta lust present here, the relationship development took time and was full of angsty enemies to lovers vibes and I loved every moment of it. Neither Julia nor Alaric see the other for the person they really are and I loved watching them discover the depths of it and grow closer together. There's a delicious push and pull between them that I couldn't get enough of.

This was told in a 3rd person POV so in the audio with single narration, I found myself getting a bit thrown when the narrative switched from Julia to Alaric but I was still heavily enthralled in their story. It was gritty, brutal, sexy, and oh so addictive. I have seen now that there is a second book planned which makes the somewhat rushed ending make more sense. It was still entirely satisfying so I can't complain much.

I enjoyed this immensely and can't wait for more in this world. What a ride!

A Roman kingdom is at the hands of a power thirsty newly made young king. His party loving sister would have made a better ruler. When he decides to marry her off, she seeks help from the enemy, a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to find peace for his people.

Julia is a Roman Princess who has a mind for strategy when she's not drinking herself into oblivion. Her brother, Honorius, is a young, brash, and power hungry newly made king. When her brother is urged to take action from the court who have had enough of the gossip, he decides to marry her off and punish her with her current lover's life. Julia will not go down quietly. She creates opportunity for herself to take back power or at least break free from her betrothal.

If you like an enemies to lovers with insta-lust, who hurt you, that is my wife, found family, tropes, this might be for you. I enjoyed the story and banter with Alaric's crew and Julia, but I found the miscommunication and lack of trust between the two main characters to be frustrating. It was the driving force of the story but felt like the character's personalities didn't match their insecurities. They both seemed to be strong-willed and confident in most ways. Their insecurity in their relationship doesn't seem to stem from anywhere. It's said many times that Alaric has had many lovers. And Julia is aware of her affect on men. But they both seem to not truly think the other is that into them. Because of it they're regularly stabbing each other in the back and dealing with their jealousy in toxic ways.

I enjoyed following the story, I really enjoyed the banter with some of Alaric's crew. But I thought the dynamic of their relationship issues, that drove the plot, could have done with better backstories. I would find myself drawn into the story just to see the MC's just flip on each other seemingly out of nowhere. The sidekicks saved this story.

3.5 stars rounded up.

ALC 🎧 Book Review 🤍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

This was such an entertaining 🎧 A war bridled story, so full of love & lust. The different POVs were great- Julia & Alaric’s banter were 🤌🏽 And I just adored the relationship Julia grew w/ the rest of the Goths (‘Cause same 🥹🤍). I could totally see this being a Netflix show & I’d eat it up lol. This isn’t a super heavy world building book, but the characters & lore def carry. I very much look forward to Book 2!!

NetGalley Audiobook ARC Review

Audiobook thoughts:

The narrator was great! She did accents and voices well. It’s a big feat trying to narrate a book that changes POVs a lot, but doesn’t have multiple narrators.

This would have been incredible as a duet narration. My main complaint is I never had any idea who’s POV is was because there were no pauses and it switched often in the middle of chapters. Two narrators would have helped me so much in distinguishing characters.

General thoughts:

I enjoyed the setting and I felt like the pacing for the story was pretty solid. Julia was an intriguing character and I loved the way she thought and plotted to try and advance in a society where women were seen mainly as breeding tools. She was quite funny and her mistrust of Aloric made sense to a point.

I had a pretty hard time rooting for Alaric. He was so hot and cold and so driven by lust. It didn’t really feel like he actually knew anything about Julia and yet he claimed to love her. His physical draw to her overpowered everything else, and that is just not what I look for in an MMC. I felt like one of them needed to be a little more levelheaded and I wished it was him.

I’d recommend this to someone wanting to dabble in romances from this time period and I would suggest picking up an ebook or physical copy instead of the audiobook.

A Roman Empire inspired historical romance with cat and mouse vibes. Definitely spicier than I thought it would be but not in a bad way. I really liked Alaric as he was darkly funny and definitely possessive. Julia our FMC had great character development throughout. I listened to the audio and felt the narration was also well done. It was a slower read but still enjoyable.

Enemy of My Dreams by Jenny Williamson is a stand alone historical romance set in Ancient Rome. For fans of Blood & Steel and Throne of Glass and anyone who saw The Gladiator (Russel Crow’s 2000 version), but wished that Maximus had escaped the fighting pits and ran off with Lucilla.

Julia, princess of Rome lives a life of excess. She spends her days surrounded by unimaginable luxury, and is most often times intoxicated. When her father, the emperor of Rome, dies and her spoiled and unbalanced teenage brother takes the throne, he tries to marry her off to strengthen alliances. Despite Julia’s vapid state, she was always clever and wouldn’t settle for the traditional wife and mother role. One day, when a man named Alaric, the King of the Goths came to the city to bargain for his homeland, Julia saw her chance. She would woo the King of the Goths and use his army to take her rightful throne from her brother. So she wore all of her precious jewels under her tunic, put a knife in Alaric’s hand and told him to “kidnap” her so they may both escape.

Julia and Alaric are true enemies to lovers, then enemies and then lovers again. This goes on throughout the entire story. Just when you think they have common ground and have expressed their mutual feelings for one another, something happens to bring them right back to distrusting and questioning their love and each other. The tension and banter are amazing and although only mildly spicy, it does feel satisfying.

Julia is a fabulous FMC. She is flawed and unknowingly strong. Despite starting as a spoiled Royal with little knowledge of struggle, she has to overcome many obstacles and trauma along the way. She goes through an amazing transformation throughout the story, becoming fierce and loving.

Alaric has some series book boyfriend potential. He is broody and snarky and has some amazing one liners.

When you read Enemy of My Dreams, you can expect:
- Historical Romance
- Enemies to lovers
- Political intrigue
- Found family
- Roman Empire
- Sassy FMC
- Broody & stabby MMC

As much as I loved the story overall, I did feel that at time, it dragged a bit. I loved meeting all the side characters and their relationships with both Alaric and Julia, but sometimes they were a bit drawn out. I also felt like the miscommunication between the MCs drove the majority of the slower bits. They were on again, off again so many times and if they had just voiced their feelings earlier, I think it could have shaved off 80-100 pages.

All of that said, this story was highly entertaining and beautifully written. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend to anyone who loves Historical Romance. I would absolutely love to read more by Jenny Williamson. Thank you so much to NetGally for the audiobook review copy.

Enemy of My Dreams by Jenny Williamson, is the classic trope of getting in bed with your enemy to gain some agency. I could have done with out the lust to love subplot since this is first installment in the series, and would have preferred a much slower burn. Given that, the non-romantic subplot was engaging enough to build up to reading the second installment.

The narrator Lisa Flanagan, did a great job with the audiobook. She was able to give a unique voice to each of the characters that I could easily distinguish each one soon after introduction in the story. I look forward to listening to the second installment when released.

Thank you Harlequin Audio and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, I was ultimately disappointed. One of my biggest pet peeves as a reader is when the first book of a series cannot be read as a standalone. If this book was being read as a standalone (which it currently is) the plot goes no where. The plot shakes down to: Girl is mad at brother. Girl is willingly kidnapped by bad guy who will help her seek revenge. Falls in love with bad guy. Bad guy & girl have some fights & kill some people. They get married. THE END. The whole point was revenge & no revenge is ever had. In fact, the brother is never even heard from again. A better ending point (in my opinion) would have been immediately after the brother is nixed, then start the second book on the rebuilding of the kingdom. If the second book was avaliable now I would without a doubt read it immediately, but with the year+ wait this book will be long forgotten.

Now on to what I did like. I loved the omniscient narrator. I cannot express how much I love an omniscient narrator. You very rarely get an omniscient narrator in romance & I feel like its use added so much more angst since the reader is able to know how both characters feel. The actual narrator of the audiobook did an excellent job of changing her voice just slightly to make each characters thoughts easy to tell apart.

3/5 spoilers to follow.

I enjoyed this, mostly, but I don’t think I’ll be reading it again. It took 10% to pick up, and then it dragged in the middle. And then the conflict at the end was more about miscommunication and poor choices.

I loved how Julia was clever, and “should have been a general.”

I loved how Alaric respected her, and encouraged her to lead, and trusted her to make decisions.

I didn’t love how they devolved from strong rulers to poor decision makers. I wanted to read about a strong woman who made good choices and was able to help her husband strengthen his country in way he couldn’t imagine… I didn’t get that, and it was disappointing.

Honestly, I’m taking away a star because of how little I respected Alaric in the end. I understand how it’s “romantic” how much he cared, but all I could think about was the loss of life because of his poor choices.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for this Audio ARC.