by Lauren J. A. Bear
400pp (Hardcover)
My Rating: 7/10
LibraryThing Rating: 4.5/5
Goodreads Rating: 4.39/5
As a Bookshop affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
A powerful and fierce reimagining of the earliest Roman legend: the twins, Romulus and Remus, mythical founders of history’s greatest empire, and the woman whose sacrifice made it all possible.
The names Romulus and Remus may be immortalized in map and stone and chronicle, but their mother exists only as a preface to her sons’ journey, the princess turned oath-breaking priestess, condemned to death alongside her children.
But she did not die; she survived. And so does her story.
Beautiful, royal, rich: Rhea has it all—until her father loses his kingdom in a treacherous coup, and she is sent to the order of the Vestal Virgins to ensure she will never produce an heir.
Except when mortals scheme, gods laugh.
Rhea becomes pregnant, and human society turns against her. Abandoned, ostracized, and facing the gravest punishment, Rhea forges a dangerous deal with the divine, one that will forever change the trajectory of her life…and her beloved land.
To save her sons and reclaim their birthright, Rhea must summon nature’s mightiest force – a mother’s love – and fight.
All roads may lead to Rome, but they began with Rhea Silvia.
Mother of Rome is Lauren J. A. Bear’s second novel, following less than two years after her debut reimagining the Greek myth of the Gorgons, Medusa’s Sisters. In her sophomore work, the author turns to Roman mythology with a focus on Rhea Silvia’s story, starting before her sons Romulus and Remus were born and ending around the time their legend is just starting to take shape—but in this version, these earlier legendary events are largely set in motion through the combined efforts of Rhea and her cousin Antho, the other main character in this novel. (This is not to say the Roman twins are not legendary themselves: they are still the sons of a god, after all.)
The story’s main setup is familiar, although the author made some changes and added her own touches to further flesh out the characters and relationships. After a brief prologue set a little later, the novel opens shortly before the death of Rhea’s brother, which prompts her grieving father to abdicate the throne to her uncle. Not wanting any potential challenges to the new line of succession, Rhea’s uncle arranges for her to become a Vestal Virgin, and Rhea rebels by secretly losing her virginity to Mars the night before she joins the holy order (though some will later say she was raped, for surely the princess could not have been so wanton as to enter into such a dalliance willingly). Of course, Rhea becomes pregnant, but in this retelling, her story continues after the twins are born. When she is at death’s door, a goddess makes her an offer that would give her a chance to watch over her sons—if she’s willing to sacrifice a part of herself and live an entirely different type of life.
The novel is basically split into two parts with the first 60% focusing on the time between the change in kings and the birth of the twins and the rest covering the next 16 years or so. Although I enjoyed how the story unfolded and resolved, I did think the first part was stronger than the second: it was less rushed, and my favorite relationship in the novel was more prominent.
In addition to being a mythic story, Mother of Rome is a book about love and fighting for it. As indicated through the title and description, this includes motherhood and a woman fighting for her children, but it also includes platonic bonds and romances for both main characters (and Rhea’s is probably not with the character you think it is). But, for me, the best part was Rhea and Antho’s sisterly connection. Though they were separated for most of the book, Rhea would not have made it as far as she did without Antho’s care, support, and discretion.
I appreciated that both women’s viewpoints show how they fight for those they love and discreetly make space for their true selves in spite of the control the new king exercises over their lives, and how they both do this in similar but different ways based on their personalities and backgrounds. Having grown up as the daughter of a king and a woman who famously did not care for propriety and social rules, Rhea is rebellious and outspoken from the start. Patience and persistence do not come naturally to her, though she does learn they are necessary if she wants to survive.
Antho, on the other hand, had parents who sought perfection and always found her lacking even though she was a dutiful, obedient daughter. However, when her father began threatening those she loved—starting with Rhea, who was like a sister to her—she found her inner fierceness and became more willful. She did not abandon all caution and understood the value of patience and planning, but she also took more risks and came to see how she could use assumptions about her goodness and piety to cover her indiscretions. Antho was my favorite of the two characters, and I also appreciated that she and Rhea waited but seized opportunity when it arrived, making them stronger together.
Although I definitely missed the interplay between Rhea and Antho after Rhea’s “death,” I don’t think that is the entire reason I found the last 40% less compelling. The story was never one to delve deeply into detail, but this part not only covered a lengthy time span in fewer pages but also added a few additional viewpoints. I was also a little disappointed that it felt like their relationship was overlooked in the end, but I later realized that it wasn’t in comparison to everything else that happened: it was just that there was a lot to wrap up with a lot of different people, and there wasn’t a lot of time spent on any single interaction.
Mother of Rome is what I consider to be a good, solid book: one that I’m happy to have read once even if it didn’t have the type of depth or beautiful prose that would make it linger in memory. However, I enjoyed the reworking of the legend of Romulus and Remus from the perspectives of two women who preceded them and appreciated how Rhea and Antho handled their struggles and supported one another, even if the pacing was a bit too quick to thoroughly explore the later parts of their stories.
My Rating: 7/10
Where I got my reading copy: ARC from the publisher.
