Status Updates From Hearts Enslaved

'This time he would not kill for Rome; this time he killed for himself. He drove the dagger into Mouric's gut. Angling the point up, he jerked his left hand downward, slicing the bastard's stomach open from chest to groin. He stepped back & allowed Mouric to sink to his knees. The man looked down & watched as his entrails spilled out in a quivering mass on the ground.' ....YAY! 😈

'She surrendered herself, understanding his primal need to take her almost violently. She was not his enemy; she was his prize. He would fight to have her--in fierce defiance of all that would keep them apart. For this one & final night together they would deny the gods & their fates alike--& even the army of Rome.'

'He laid his chest over the broad back, & as the length of his body came in contact w/ the smooth skin & hard muscle of another man, there was an immediate surge in his loins. It was w/ thought of his lover so unprepared & unsuspecting, that his desire crested. He was ready.' ....Aaaand then he stabs the guy in the back during sex. Mouric is a helluva creep. >:P

'Rufus took up a protective but unobtrusive position several meters at her back. Another might not have done so, given the resentment he bore her. Yet loyalty did that to a man. It bound him & made him feel obliged to serve. Right or wrong--& unless the outcome of this combat made it otherwise--she was his commander's woman. This was, therefore, where he belonged.'

"I told you once before...I am no slave. As a soldier I will lay claim to whatever I desire to possess--as a man, I will maintain my possession over whatever I hold dear & have chosen to protect." ....Simple, but effective. Dude obv went to the Maximus school of courtship. :D

--"You are the fool, Roman." She twisted from his touch. She could not--would not--take his pity! "You speak of my courage...well, I tell you now, it is hatred for your kind that sustains it--hatred that burns w/in me like a flame."
--"No flame can burn w/o fuel."
--There was no warning, no betrayal of his intent in the bronze features. Before she knew what was happening, his mouth came down upon hers.

Gay villain love scene! Strangely modern for a vintage Zeeb. I'm surprised the author got away with it...guess she sold the editor on the sociological anthropology of bisexual spear-brothers in Roman Britain. Lolz.

'Training honed to instinct now took control. Before the jeering bastard in front of him could react, the broken shaft of the rake had met his jaw & torn across his cheek. Galen felt the bone break, saw the blood spurt from the jagged tear. Savage, icy satisfaction flowed through his veins as the man went down in a crumpled, crimson heap.' ....Yay! Balor is a bag of dicks.

"My brother-in-law cannot look upon me without seeing a woman who allowed herself to be violated by his enemies. Of course...you had already suspected that as much, had you not, soldier of Rome? The fate of the women left alive...spoils of war you call it, yes?"

'Ten years he had been her husband, having wedded her when she had come into womanhood w/ her fourteenth summer. But now, as w/ his death, she felt not a sense of overwhelming grief but one merely of loneliness--& betrayal. Keir had failed to protect her as he had failed in so much else.'

'Steady & rhythmic in their own way, the scraping & thudding of the Roman's tools intruded upon the loom's song--& her solace. Even without sight of him, she could not ignore him--or force him from her thoughts any more than she could now force him from her life.' ....Rhyca really, really, really hates Romans. Even the hot centurion slave she's pushed into taking on. :D

'His blow went in true, just under the Briton's shield, & Galen felt the familiar sensation of blade sinking into soft flesh. He heard a groan, felt the sticky warmth of blood on his hand & pulled back his arm. A shower of red dotted his armor. Acceptable losses: the terms agreed upon by both parties.'

'Of all who ran, none escaped, & only one survived. She was called Rhyca, but the three men who pursued her into a small clearing had no interest in her name.'

Fuck this book is boring.

You know what I dgaf about? The politics in this book. I know it's building tension, allegedly, but I don't care.

Turns out this book + alcohol = amusement. The language is so over the top and flowery.