AHHH I LOVED THAT SO MUCH it was such a perfect blend of historical fiction, a beautiful sapphic love story and an integration of roman history and mythology AH IT WAS FANTASTIC it's honestly a 4.5 star read !!

i think the distrust between the rich and common people was explored really well as well as the disconnect that claudia had just due to her upbringing was done really because you kinda wanted to be mad at her for not being aware and living life in a lavish way but also it’s not her fault and she was at least TRYING to do better for the women of rome and i loved that. continuing on from that sentence but i just love stories that explore the women of ancient rome as i think those stories have obviously been erased throughout history and they’re only now coming to light and this one was absolutely beautiful to read because even tho yes most of it was fiction, there’s a high probability that there was a young girl exactly like gia and i really love that. The relationship between Gia and the other boys and Cyrus meant so so much to me I think Cyrus was one of the most complex, interesting characters and I would love a spin off of his life !

CHAPTER 18 WAS LIFE CHANGING GOD DAMNNNNNNNN i don’t want to say too much for spoilers but HEHEHEHEHEHE I WAS BLUSHING🤭 the romance was absolutely IMMACULATE i loved claudia and gia's love story i think it was so so perfect in every way the way it was kind of a 'insta love' but explored in such a good way and it worked because of their differences and the way that trust had to grow from their alliance AH I LOVED THEM SO MUCH.

My only slight irk is there were times where the book felt like it was pushing a 'girls who work in brothels/sex work are bad' and I THINK it wasn't trying to PUSH that message but just make the comparison that it was kind of the only way women could make money back in those times and that power dynamic where the only 'currency' they had was their body which is horrible...but sometimes Gia's mum and her comments made slightly too many degrading comments to those women and i was like hmmm....BUT THAT COULD BE ME READING INTO THINGS !!