A time travel fantasy about Augustan Rome? Featuring a female gladiator? This one was an insta-buy for me. I was a little trepidatious starting out – much though I adore fiction set in MY era, I'm very picky about it, and small details that wouldn't bother anyone else will smack me squarely between the eyes.

In the first few chapters, I became rather irritated with the main character. She reminded me a lot of some discussions I had had with people about how the kickarse female lead was so ...