Fannish 50 - #3 - Time Travel Romance
Saturday, 31 January 2026 03:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
temrisI've been trying to find more time between everything that happened during the break, and my classes start again next week. Oh well, anyway; here's another entry for one of my favorite tropes.
This book is just what I wanted when I was looking for a time-travel romance book set during Ancient Rome. Usually with this timeframe, authors seem to make the ML a gladiator, and it annoys me so much; I've talked about this many times before in my journal too. I just want some men in power, damn. And what's worse, I get into a book reading the synopsis thinking there won't be any gladiators, but then they make the ML thrown into the colosseum!
Actually, even in this book, the man ONCE AGAIN ended up fighting in the arena. BUT the first half of this book is JUST SO DAMN FUN that I reread this TWICE only in HALF A YEAR. Something I've never done before (reading the same book in such a short notice).
Our protagonist, a confident American woman who can hold her ground, she was so fun to read. It's also her that travels back in time so that the modern one has to adjust to the old ways. She faces a lot of challenges, and I just loved everyone's reactions to her aircraft, her fighting skills (that I wish we could have seen more, because there's one scene where he throws off the ML and he's so hurt in his pride IT'S SO FUNNY I SWEAR). The soldiers even think she's an Amazon xD
The male lead, I found very fitting to the time frame. His words and way of speaking was authentic to me, and the two had great chemistry! The way he tried to understand her world, the modern inventions, really made me laugh; especially with the difference in their values.
Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy the third act, but this book is still one of my favorites. I am trying to pick up a physical copy and bought twice on thrift bookstores online WHICH NEITHER have arrived. 😐 So I've given up on that.
The reviews are generally below or near average which was a bit surprising. I mean, it's a Silhouette romance at that too, so I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece. Like someone said it was formulaic. That's the thing with them M&B, Harlequin, Silhouette books y'all 😭 I found it really entertaining, so much that I laughed a lot. I recommend it!
I'm adding my review on Goodreads I've posted after I've read it for the first time below the cut.
FINALLY
On my journey to find a good one, I think I finally found it: an Ancient Rome romance story I enjoyed a lot!
The first half was the better half. The FL is charming: She's quite fun to read, so much so that I laughed a lot to her antics, her dialogue with the ML. I've seen people complain that she doesn't really take the initiative and I would disagree, because I think she does act on her own quite a few times considering she's almost always under surveillance. My only complaint would be, considering she's an AF pilot, she takes quite a long time to recognize how a Roman soldier would dress... And that's all to be honest LOL.
The ML is written accordingly to the time frame and his occupation -- a centurion to be exact. I don't know what the other reviewers were talking about but I think the writer actually showcased a lot of the bad too, albeit short but I give her the benefit of the doubt and say that since this is a romance story of these two, those things are sidelined. And to be fair our Roman ML is a lot more forgiving than a man at that era and with such power would be. Putting all that aside, sometimes you just want to imagine a tanned middle-aged muscly man that wouldfight a bear for you, okay? :D
I basically couldn't wait until they finally accepted their love (more so for the FL) and the results were quite satisfying.
I just didn't really enjoy the last half as much, and it's a result of the setting in my opinion. I guess, to make it possible for a "soldier" to be spending this much time with a non-Roman, the writer opted to put the story on a camp at a desert... But you still see fragments of Roman life as you'd have in a more city-like setting, but the "enemies" become the actual indigenous people of that land. Well, I guess that's quite American to be fighting against the people who rebel for their freedom against fascists. LOL.
The time travel stories are charming to me because of how each party responds to seeing the unfamiliar, and with this one, I really enjoyed reading Lucius reactions to a 20th century woman mostly xD Giving me quotes like these:
Another one I laughed a lot:
This book is just what I wanted when I was looking for a time-travel romance book set during Ancient Rome. Usually with this timeframe, authors seem to make the ML a gladiator, and it annoys me so much; I've talked about this many times before in my journal too. I just want some men in power, damn. And what's worse, I get into a book reading the synopsis thinking there won't be any gladiators, but then they make the ML thrown into the colosseum!
Actually, even in this book, the man ONCE AGAIN ended up fighting in the arena. BUT the first half of this book is JUST SO DAMN FUN that I reread this TWICE only in HALF A YEAR. Something I've never done before (reading the same book in such a short notice).
Our protagonist, a confident American woman who can hold her ground, she was so fun to read. It's also her that travels back in time so that the modern one has to adjust to the old ways. She faces a lot of challenges, and I just loved everyone's reactions to her aircraft, her fighting skills (that I wish we could have seen more, because there's one scene where he throws off the ML and he's so hurt in his pride IT'S SO FUNNY I SWEAR). The soldiers even think she's an Amazon xD
The male lead, I found very fitting to the time frame. His words and way of speaking was authentic to me, and the two had great chemistry! The way he tried to understand her world, the modern inventions, really made me laugh; especially with the difference in their values.
Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy the third act, but this book is still one of my favorites. I am trying to pick up a physical copy and bought twice on thrift bookstores online WHICH NEITHER have arrived. 😐 So I've given up on that.
The reviews are generally below or near average which was a bit surprising. I mean, it's a Silhouette romance at that too, so I wasn't expecting a literary masterpiece. Like someone said it was formulaic. That's the thing with them M&B, Harlequin, Silhouette books y'all 😭 I found it really entertaining, so much that I laughed a lot. I recommend it!
I'm adding my review on Goodreads I've posted after I've read it for the first time below the cut.
FINALLY
On my journey to find a good one, I think I finally found it: an Ancient Rome romance story I enjoyed a lot!
The first half was the better half. The FL is charming: She's quite fun to read, so much so that I laughed a lot to her antics, her dialogue with the ML. I've seen people complain that she doesn't really take the initiative and I would disagree, because I think she does act on her own quite a few times considering she's almost always under surveillance. My only complaint would be, considering she's an AF pilot, she takes quite a long time to recognize how a Roman soldier would dress... And that's all to be honest LOL.
The ML is written accordingly to the time frame and his occupation -- a centurion to be exact. I don't know what the other reviewers were talking about but I think the writer actually showcased a lot of the bad too, albeit short but I give her the benefit of the doubt and say that since this is a romance story of these two, those things are sidelined. And to be fair our Roman ML is a lot more forgiving than a man at that era and with such power would be. Putting all that aside, sometimes you just want to imagine a tanned middle-aged muscly man that would
I basically couldn't wait until they finally accepted their love (more so for the FL) and the results were quite satisfying.
I just didn't really enjoy the last half as much, and it's a result of the setting in my opinion. I guess, to make it possible for a "soldier" to be spending this much time with a non-Roman, the writer opted to put the story on a camp at a desert... But you still see fragments of Roman life as you'd have in a more city-like setting, but the "enemies" become the actual indigenous people of that land. Well, I guess that's quite American to be fighting against the people who rebel for their freedom against fascists. LOL.
The time travel stories are charming to me because of how each party responds to seeing the unfamiliar, and with this one, I really enjoyed reading Lucius reactions to a 20th century woman mostly xD Giving me quotes like these:
"Rome does not hold women of sufficient worth to be considered enemies," he responded mildly."
[...] "Oh, yeah? Seems like I recall someone named Cleopatra who gave you guys a run for your money."
Another one I laughed a lot:
"Mayhap the wife of Centurion Quintus would take you in hand. She could show you how best to order a Roman household."
"And mayhap you could take a flying heap."
