Thursday, June 3, 2010

A.D. 62: Pompeii by Rebecca East *Review*



Miranda offers to be part of a time travel experiment. An expert in Greek history she is the perfect candidate to travel back in time and return with data from the past.

Implanted with a signaling device in her arm, she needs only to press on it to return to her own time. However, the signaling device malfunctions and she finds herself stuck in the past and sold as a slave to a wealthy family.

Losing her freedom and everything she always felt she was, she has to learn to exist in a time when slaves had no freedom or regard and women had just as little. She questions the rights she has and boldly starts to exert a little power when most have none.

In the process of finding out who she can be, she starts to fall in love with her master Marcus. Unwillingly to be just another concubine she sets out to make him fall in love with the person she really is- and under her terms.

Rebecca East- a pen name- is not an experienced author. I could tell as soon as I started reading, and I contemplated more than once in putting it down. But the premise of the story was interesting to me and I really wanted to know the choices Miranda makes and how she finds her way back

I'm glad I continued reading just for the historical aspect of it. Ms. East knows her history and the culture of ancient Pompeii which is so fascinating to me. While she repeats her motives and observations a little too much throughout the book making me feel like the author thought I was too dense to get it the first time, I did enjoy what I learned. I wish the author comtinued luck as she hones her craft.