For Life or Until (Love & Warfare #1)

Title: For Life or Until
Author: Anne Garboczi Evans
Series: Love and Warfare #1
Genre: Historical Fiction

 

About the Book:

Subduing the barbaric hordes came easy, until he married one of them.

Everyone in the Celtic Catuvellauni village assumed Ness would marry the man she had loved since age fifteen. Their eventual matrimony seemed preordained. His inscrutable rejection of Ness sends shock through the entire community. Heartbroken but resilient, Ness accepts a marriage proposal from a most unlikely eligible bachelor.

Battle scarred and weary of solitude, Roman Tribune Aquilus trained to do just one thing all his life—stoically serve the empire. The beautiful tribeswoman perfectly answers a long ignored call from deep within his soul. Though he adores his new bride, when Ness harms a political connection, Aquilus lays down the law.

But Celtic women aren’t inclined to submit to inconvenient rules, and the only obstacle standing between Ness and a Celtic divorce is Aquilus’s garrison of legionaries.

Will Roman might, Celtic stubbornness, or something else entirely prevail?

Review:
I really enjoyed the last book I read by this author (Veiled By Privilege), but this one I really struggled with. Other than the basic “please God,” or complaining for circumstances, I really didn’t see the God’s presence in the book, which I would expect more of in Christian Fiction. Most of the book is dedicated to Ness wanting a divorce from her husband. 1.) I don’t believe in the least that how she acts is representative of how a woman in that time would have, and 2.) Divorce in the first century AD was a lot more devastating and life-altering (or ending) than was portrayed. It just didn’t feel real to me. If I didn’t hold as much concern for historical accuracy I probably wouldn’t feel as I do, but I just struggled with the more “modern feminist” mindset that really wouldn’t have existed at the time (at least not out-loud). The mindset portrayed fit in much better with the author’s modern-day Radical series, but not in the first century AD.  It felt more like a woman who was sucked in from today’s world instead of a woman who was born and raised in the times.

So if you enjoyed Book 1 (2 & 3 aren’t released yet), of the Radical series and are not a huge historical fiction fan, I think you could enjoy this, but it might not be a good fit for the avid history reader.

*I received a free copy for an honest review from the author. Opinions expressed are mine alone.

Rating: 

Age Appropriateness: Despite taking place in the 80’s AD the language is very modern to the English language with exception to some foreign names and places. I don’t think younger readers would really enjoy this one mostly due to relevance. It’s not just about marriage but also a woman wanting divorce and I don’t think it’s a healthy mindset for the youth to be reading.