Britannia: Book One

by Letitia Coyne, MCM (Preparation)

Britannia AD78

Maia is lonely -- raised in Roman luxury in an isolated villa on the Seine.

Lucius is exhausted - the commander of an auxiliary cavalry unit of the Twentieth Legion in Britannia.

They both need an escape. They meet when Maia seizes her chance, joining an exclusive group of prostitutes traveling to Britannia.

Everything she knows about the world will change - if she can survive the journey.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance, Romance

266 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Letitia Coyne is alive and well and living in Australia. She writes, paints, draws, sews, plays with old wooden furniture, revives jewellery and sings very loudly.

Proud member of the 1889 Labs family. Check out 1889 Labs for a host of brilliant authors, including: Greg X Graves, Terra Whiteman, Isa Kft, M Jones, Kit Iwasaki, AM Harte, MCM, Craig Young, Tim Sevenhuysen, and poet extraordinaire Gabriel Gadfly. [More to come….]

Reviews

[Dan Leo · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love historical fiction with a strong heroine, and especially if you like tales set in the days of the Roman Empire, Britannia will be right down your ancient cobbled alleyway. Maia is a 19-year-old beauty, daughter of a freed British slave-woman and a powerful Roman; the story begins on her wedding day, and not to give away the plot, her wedding night and the following morning are far from what she planned. Suffice it to say that Maia faces the choice of remaining in Gaul and under the thumb of her nasty stepmother, or of taking action to follow her destiny. She chooses the second course, and adventure follows, with Maia stowing away with a glamorous band of high-class prostitutes on their way to the Roman army in Britain. Intrigued? Well, buy the book! Letitia Coyne writes well, knows her period inside out, and – be prepared, you won’t get any “thee or thou” dialogue in this novel: the characters speak like real human beings.

[The Ardent Bibliophile · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent story, bad story teller.

[Edith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bad writing, flimsy story

[Carolinac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set on the edges of the Roman Empire towards the end of the first century, Britannia is the tale of a naive young woman, her stepbrother-cum-husband, and a dashing legionary.

Maia, our heroine, may be young and naive, but she's determined, loyal, and smarter than she thinks. When her new husband, Cilo, disappears without even consummating their marriage, she decides to track him down - with the help of his handsome friend, Lucius (or as he prefers, Luc). Of course, not only does a friendship develop between the two travellers, but gradually each comes to find the other rather fascinating, despite their shared affection for Cilo.

Throw in a troupe of travelling prostitutes (yes, really!), a number of illicit love affairs, and a whole collection Luc's brothers, and the end result is a compelling, fun tale with lots of emotional ups and downs.

I read this in serialized format, which worked very well. The author knows just when to end a chapter to leave you wanting more. The writing is good, with no noticeable spelling or grammar errors, consistent point of view, nice use of descriptions, and the occasional truly lovely turn of phrase.

The attention to historical accuracy is gratifying - the author does use a few anachronisms, such as anglicizing some names, but this is a deliberate stylistic choice, as the author makes clear. The wealth of historical detail, particularly in the wedding scene at the begining, is sure to please any history fan.

On the whole, an entertaining and highly recommended piece!

[Trinity Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's the thing - I really wanted to like this book, and I did. To an extent. The beginning hooked me pretty well and it was interesting. And then it slowly declined from there. As others have said, Coyne fails to explain many things that happen in the book. She doesn't delve into things and try to help her readers understand what the hell is going on in this world she's created. While Luc and Maia's love story is good and the main theme, I feel that Maia is a flat character - a little too Mary-Sue, if I'm honest.

And, let's be honest, I did enjoy the book and I may even read the next book in this line, I'm just not sure yet because the ending fell SO flat for me. I had hoped the other books in this "series" were sequels, but was left disappointed. The whole storyline with Tish was confusing and, again, Coyne failed to explain the entirety of what the ever-loving f*ck was going on.

It was a decent story and it was a good concept. It's just that Coyne fell flat overall. It felt like she lost steam halfway through writing it and just gave up by the end of it.

[Cheryl Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Britannia - the pace of the book kept me occupied during a few days of our winter break! A little more character development (Neria earlier on) would have been useful, but I loved the twists and turns the plot took. I found myself wishing the story continued, as not all of the loose ends were wrapped up neatly. One word of advice might be to work on making the dialogue more period-accurate. It grates to read words like "okay" and phrases such as "going crazy" or "did she buy that?" when reading historical fiction. The clothing, locations, etc. seemed well researched, though I'm no expert on either. Coyne's imagery and phrasing, though sometimes a bit overdone in my opinion, were nonetheless beautifully crafted and very imaginative. Overall, I would read this author again.

[Chrys · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and fast read, it was fun to read how people in the Roman Empire might have lived 2000 years ago. Luc, the male lead, was just completely lovable--no wonder everyone was in love with him. Maya's character develops quite a bit as the book advances, although her decisions did drive me crazy at times. I cannot say if I understand exactly the ending though, and there were some editing issues (in terms of grammatical mistakes as well as narrative flow). The book needs a little more polishing. But in general, it was a good read.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

For the 1st half of the book I was hooked. Even though there were parts that seemed unexplained or confusing I went with the overall story. I rallied around Maia when she found her strength and pursued her brother.

I found that after the hero got together with our heroine things fell flat for me. The story line got a bit more confusing and this time there was no tension or hope to fall back on. I was disappointed.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to remember this book took place in a short amount of time. One active week felt like at least a few months.

[Melisende · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me - confusing and disjointed narrative. Three chapters in and absolutely no interest at all in pursuing.