By Jennifer A Nielsen

A lot of people know Jennifer A Nielsen for her historical fiction. A lot of people know her for her fantasy. But did you know that she writes historical fantasy? 🤯 Shocking, right? Or maybe not…..

Anyway, this book is fantasy, but, it takes place in ancient Rome. So basically, it’s just twice as great!

If you have read and liked the Ascendance Series, I am almost completely positive that you will like this book, and the subsequent series. For one, the main character (Nic) does read almost identically to the main character of the Ascendance books (to the point where I would regularly have to do a double take when another character said Nic because I was thinking something else in my mind). But we love Sage here, so it’s fine. Honestly, Nic is basically Sage, but better. Sage 2.0.

If you haven’t read Ascendance, ignore all that stuff I just said, you’ll just be confused. Sorry. Here’s the basic premise.

Nic is a slave outside Rome. He works in the quarry where he spends his time digging, being sassy, arguing with the overseer, being sassy, protecting his little sister, not actually getting any work done, and being sassy. So basically, we already love him.

Then he finds a golden bulla that belonged to Caesar. Wow! If that’s not special enough, it also is filled with divine magic. Maybe now he can finally be free! But the cherry on top? Everyone wants Nic’s new magic and he gets involved in a dangerous conspiracy.

So now Nic doesn’t only have to worry about getting free, he also has to stop the conspiracy and save Rome. Oh, and let’s not forget dealing with the dangerous magic he now possesses. Sounds like a lot for one guy to handle, right? It’s a good thing that he ends up with some awesome allies.

For any Jennifer A Nielsen fan, I’m sure that you will love this book. Especially if you liked her other fantasy series. It’s funny at times, witty, and generally just keeps you invested. And the best part is that it’s a trilogy. My favorite of the series was probably the 3rd one (the end is spectacular!!!) but there are some really great moments in the 1st and 2nd as well (don’t ask me about how my parents bought me the 2nd book and then it was printed wrong so the entire best scene in the book was taken out and I had to wait like a week to read it).

Only content warning is romance, but it’s pretty mild. It’s very cute though.

General Stats:

• Genre: Historical Fantasy
• Book 1 of 3
• Age: 6th grade and above
• My rating: ★★★★☆