The Emperor's Assassin

I reviewed the Dragon Lady by Autumn Bardot, which is an excellent historical novel based in the South-China Sea. This is a novel you should get, and it is a pleasure for me to be reviewing another novel of hers again. Buy this book NOW! This novel contains sexual violence.

Ultimately, this novel is about silent violence, sexual violence, the murky and misery of Roman politics. But it is also about the loss and misery of goodness. Corruption has become the ultimate winner in this novel under Nero’s reign. Corruption of power in a ruthless empire causes people with good nature to turn into the worst monsters unimaginable.

This novel had me seeing how a young innocent girl from Gaul was tainted by the corrupted politics of Rome. No one ever sees themselves as the villain. The villain isn’t someone you want to be. Where in any story does the villain benefit? The villain may be rich, but happiness is fleeting. Even if you are a hero, there is not much you can do. Too much good and too much bad is neither welcome, for a balance is needed. This novel showed the maturity of Locusta.

Some minor nitpicks that I found was more telling than showing, but that’s one nitpick of mine. I would have wanted to be seen more scenes displaying Locusta’s development from turning from a humble girl into the madness that depicts her as she carries out the murky depths of her infamous secret. More scenes would have helped. When I compare this to Dragon Lady, the Pirate Queen had a lot more development as we saw everything and how as she became Queen began to dismiss the feelings of others. That being said, Lucius was an absolute bastard of the highest kind. No words of happiness for him.

You cannot help but feel sadness as Locusta loses herself, her soul, and the ones she values the most. The amount of loss is unimaginable on the scale before. I have covered Nero before in one of my book reviews, though I understand the author’s intentions of going for a more volatile approach. Nero was insane by the time of his rule, but that didn’t rule out his competence. The problem was, many of these rumors were written when he was removed from power. So we will never get a true picture of what the politicians thought of him, but to say his sexual scandals were off the rooftop is no understatement. His wives suffered a lot, especially because it reminded me of Henry VIII of England who was smart and ambitious at the start, but then ended up removing his wives one by one. Nero had some competence in administration because Henry didn’t.

Marcus is also a great character, but I would have wanted to see more of him. How he kept in touch with Locusta more often. Their attraction is clear from the start to each other. I thought this was great chemistry! We also saw that Locusta leaped into the murky depths of her dark secret, Nero became madder. I guess when you’re the Emperor of the world, and you hold dominion over everyone, it is hard to resist the tentacles of corruption.

The Prose? Check

The Writing Style? Check

The dialogue? Check

My rating: 5.5

It’s a spellbinding novel that’ll have you disagreeing with the character, holding your tears back, and make you feel both love and loss together.

I have been a fan of books on Ancient Rome since reading Kate Quinn’s Rome series. I have been disappointed in the last few books that.I have read. This book however did not disappoint, I loved the story of Locusta and the machinations of Ancient Rome. I always though if I could time travel, this would be an era that I would love to visit.

The story is about Locusta a young girl raised in Gaul by her father. She takes care of her family and expects to live a mundane life as a wife and mother, only life does not turn out quite that way. Due to some pretty horrific and shocking circumstances, she ends up becoming a poisoner for none other than Emperor Nero himself.. As an herbalist she is quite adept at cures and murder. Ancient Rome Imperial politics make the Hunger Games look like Sesame Street. Be warned there are some violent scenes of sexual and domestic violence, but it is not gratuitous and is used to further the storyline.

If you like a book that has murder, politics, herb lore and a conflicted protagonist, this book could be right up your alley. This is the 1st book I have read by Autumn Bardot and I will be looking for more from her in the future,

Thank you to Netgalley, BooksGoSocial and the author for the chance to review this book.

I had no prior knowledge of Locusta of Gaul, allegedly the world's first female serial killer, though now feel inspired to learn more about her. Autumn Bardot's writing really brought Rome to life for me. I loved reading her descriptions of the city of opposites. I would really like to read more of Bardot's work and thought "The Emperor's Assassin" was first class.

Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC.

This book brought Rome back to life and told the story of a different time. I loved the entire book.

i found Locusta really interesting and I felt after reading I had to look her up. I really enjoyed reading this book and found the author's writing style very relaxing and easy to read.