The first man in Rome by Colleen McCollough

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Gaius Marius is a wealthy new man who therefore has no political significance. But his marriage to Julia, the daughter of Gaius Julius Caesar, changes all that: political life is now open to him. Lucius Cornelius Sulla follows the opposite path: he has the right blood, but comes from an impoverished branch of his family and lives by the grace of his stepmother, until he too marries a Julia. The two men will join forces in the Numidian War in Africa and against the Germanic tribes.

The First Man in Rome is a classic historical novel about Marius and Sulla in ancient Rome. It is a huge book with a two-hour glossary, which meant that on my e-reader I didn’t realize the end was coming. It is also the first book of seven in the Masters of Rome series. And you sense that thé Caesar will be the main subject. But we start first with his uncle by marriage, Gaius Marius, and his later archrival, Sulla: two men who will change the republic so much that the way will be paved for Pompey, Caesar, and ultimately Augustus.

The novel is thick and detailed and written in a highly political style. There are many characters, often with the same names. It deals with the elections, the discussions in the Senate, and the wars in Numidia and against the Germanic tribes. This first book focuses mainly on Marius and his laws in favor of the army. It ends with an internal struggle in the Senate. A large part of Marius’ story is also told in letters from the orator Publius Rutilius Rufus who stays behind in Rome. I found those letters often long and difficult to read, although they were well written and humorous. It made it difficult for me to get a connection with Gaius Marius.

I didn’t expect it beforehand, but that’s precisely why I found the chapters from Sulla’s perspective more interesting: he experiences more exciting things and has his own view of things. So I am curious about the second book ‘The grass crown’, in which Sulla will take the lead role—because his dictatorship and its impact are often forgotten.

Aurelia was my other favorite character, and I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the next books.

This book is a tour de force, and you can feel the atmosphere of Ancient Rome bursting from the pages. It’s definitely worth reading, but I’ve read even better books of this length that made me empathize with the characters a little more, so that’s why I’m not giving it five stars.

Have you read the masters of Rome series? What is your favourite novel on the Romans?

Books I can’t wait to read in 2026

20 Dec 202513 Dec 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era2 Comments

As always, I list the new releases of 2026 I’m anxiously awaiting. This year the list seems to go on and on. I’ve found quite a big bunch of authors that I want to read their next book from and I was also intrigued by a few debut novel. As launch dates tend to change and depend on UK/US/rest of Europe timelines, I don’t mention them here.

There seem to be quite some trends in the themes of the books, so that’s my approach for the list:

Greek myth

Yes still a hype I fall for, it seems :).

Sweetbitter song – Rosie Hewlett

I adored her Medea and enjoyed her Medusa, so I’ll read any myth book Hewlett’s publishes. This time she chooses Penelope and her friend Melantho as the main characters. I’m not the biggest fan of Penelope, but I’m curious to read this as it seems Hewlett took a new approach to the story.

Wandering queen – Claire Heywood

Heywood’s books are not so well-known, but I enjoyed them all. And now she takes on Dido’s story, which is a new character for me so this will be good I hope.

This immortal heart – Jennifer Saint

It’s been awhile since we got a new Saint book, but this one center stages the goddess Aphrodite. I still think Ariadne was her best one, but I’ll definitely try this one.

Andromeda – M.C. MacLeod

A new-to-me author who comes with a retelling about Andromeda and I’m curious to get to it.

Renewed attention to Anne Boleyn and The Tudors

Have the Tudors ever been out of fashion?

The house of Boleyn – Tracey Borman

Borman moves away from the Stuarts to the Tudor court with a focus on the Boleyn family. I’m a bit wary for this one as novels center staging Anne and her family usually portray them very bad, but I’ll try it.

The Boleyn secret – Alison Weir

Weir has off course always been writing on The Tudors and now tackles the life of Catherine Carey who must tread very carefully at the court of Elizabeth I.

The queen’s sister – Carol McGrath

McGrath has already written some great books about forgotten queens, but now she focuses on the Tudor court. And she even managed to choose a main character that’s not overdone yet. Her choice fell on Elizabeth Seymour, sister to a queen, wife to a Cromwell. I must admit, I’m very curious to read this one.

Witches

There are so many new books about witches, this is only a small selection

A time of witches – Madeline Martin

Martin used to write books about books during WOII, but now she comes with something totally different about witches.

They can’t burn us all – Catheryn Kemp

I don’t know this author, but this premise set in Iceland sounds interesting.

The winter witch – Jennifer Chevalier

Also a debut novel, set in Canada.

The wise witch of Orkney

A pregnant woman joins the court of James I to serve queen Anna Of Denmark. It sounds a bit like the story of Kate Foster’s The king’s witches.

Other themes

Agrippa – Robert Harris

This is probably my most anticipated release. I adored Harris’ Cicero series and the standalone Pompei. He does ancient Rome really well and now he returns to this setting with a book about Augustus right-hand-man Agrippa.

The repentants – Kate Foster

I enjoyed Kate Foster her previous books and she always takes on a original true story. This time about two women in Iceland who try to flee a prison.

Cleopatra – Saari-Al-Arifi

Cleopatra is once again a popular topic, I still need to read Natasha Solomons’ novel on her. This is a new-to-me author, but I’m intrigued by the premise and the beautiful cover drew me in.

The crownless queen – Elizabeth Chadwick

As always, I’m behind with Chadwick’s books and this is the second book that retells the life of Joan Of Kent. I’ll get to it one day, preferably after I’ve read ‘The royal rebel’ first ;).

The scandalous ladies football club – Frances Quinn

A new Frances Quinn book! Hooray but alas it’s about football. I’ll read it nonetheless because if someone can make this interesting, it’s Frances Quinn. But I was a bit disappointed to learn the premise, I must admit that :).

Shadow of madness – D.V. Bishop

A new Cesare Aldo mystery is always something to look out for. It’s already book six in this series.

There will probably be a lot more new books that I’ll find interesting, but this is what I could list so far :). Which new releases are on your TBR?

The voyage home by Pat Barker

13 Dec 20257 Dec 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era2 Comments

Ritsa bids farewell to Troy, or what remains of it, when she accompanies Cassandra to Mycenae. In Mycenae, Clytemnestra has been waiting for 10 years for the return of her husband, King Agamemnon, who murdered their daughter Iphigenia to get a fair wind. Cassandra knows that this will be her death.

In this third and final book, we leave Briseis behind and follow her friend Ritsa, who is Cassandra’s slave, who in turn is Agamemnon’s concubine. We also follow a few chapters from Clytemnestra’s perspective. The plot covers only a few days from the homecoming to the murder. Once in Mycenae, Ritsa and Cassandra end up in a doomed palace where the voices of children seem to haunt the staircases and footsteps appear from nowhere.

Barker’s books are raw and well written, and Cassandra deserves her own book, but The voyage home is not her best work. Whereas Silence of the Girls has a unique voice, you find that less here. The doomed house of Atreus has been covered so many times… Once again, I find an Electra and an Orestes that I don’t understand. But also a surprising Agamemnon who is plagued by guilt.

I also find another Clytemnestra here. No other character appears so often and in so many different guises. Here she is vengeful, sad, with a painful knee that makes her hesitate and a guilt about her daughter’s death that haunts her. She did feel lifelike, and I liked her conversation with Cassandra about what she is going to do.

It’s therefore a worthy retelling of Greek mythology, and I am curious to see whether Barker will now leave this subject behind completely or not. But still I believe, Cassandra deserves a novel from her own voice.

The voyage home is a Greek myth retelling, I’ve listed all retellings that I’ve read here.

Prophecy by S.J. Parris

6 Dec 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another EraLeave a comment

Meanwhile, Giordano Bruno is undercover in London on Walsingham’s orders, working for the French ambassador and his wife, who, together with Henry Howard, hope to put the Catholic Mary Stuart on the throne instead of Elizabeth I. At the same time, Bruno continues to search for the missing book of Trismegistos together with his friend Dr. John Dee, the astronomer. But Dee comes under suspicion when one of Elizabeth’s ladies-in-waiting is brutally murdered with an astronomical sign on her body and the end of the world is announced in the streets of London.

It took me a long time to pick up this second book in the series again, as I had other series to finish first. So I didn’t remember much about Heresy, but it all came back to me as I read. In Prophecy, Bruno is in the heart of London, and the murder he’s trying to solve takes place at court. This immediately brings him into contact with many historical figures and makes the plot more fascinating and complex. I found this to be a promising sequel, even though magic and astronomy are not exactly my favorite themes.

The comparison with C.J. Sansom’s Shardlake series is never far away, and Parris doesn’t have the same mastery, nevertheless it’s an entertaining series. Bruno gets himself into a lot of trouble and luckily has some powerful friends. I guessed the murderer halfway through, but it was still fascinating to find out how it all fit together. I think this is one of those series that gets better with each book because you get to know the characters and their relationships better. A bit like Andrew Taylor’s Marwood and Lovett series.

I need to read the next book in this series way sooner now.

Can you recommend any other historical mystery series?

Cathedral of the sea by Ildefonso Falcones

29 Nov 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era5 Comments

Bernat Estanyol flees with his young son Arnau from his nobleman’s estate to Barcelona, where they find a home with his sister and her husband Grau Puig and hope to be free one day. Grau has become a real businessman and doesn’t like the idea of the escaped slaves living with them. Arnau quickly finds a friend in Joan in the streets of Barcelona and becomes intrigued by the construction of the new cathedral: Santa Maria del Mar. The boys will have to be strong enough to survive hunger, war, and the plague.

I didn’t know what to read, so I scrolled all the way to the bottom of my to-read list and came across Cathedral of the sea. It’s the Spanish version of Pillars of the Earth, and since I had finished Follett’s Kingsbridge series, it seemed like the perfect moment. The original novel has been written in Spanish and there’s also a Spanish miniseries on Netflix about it.

I didn’t expect to find so many similarities with Ken Follett: Falcones paints a broad picture of the Spanish Middle Ages, the construction of the cathedral Santa Maria del Mar is a constant backdrop to the plot, the characters are rather one-dimensional (either very good or very bad, especially the women), and it’s a really plot-driven book—every character or chapter plays its part. You may find this too contrived, but this is part of this type of book I guess.

But Falcones doesn’t offer a copy of Follett: I really walked around the streets of Barcelona, smelled the sea, and learned a lot about the customs and laws of the 14th century in Spain. All the major upheavals are covered: peasants vs. nobles, the plague, religion, domestic and foreign war. This book is full of the ugly parts of the middle ages, rape and other cruelties that women did suffer are not shunned.

The stories about war and kings were sometimes a bit difficult to follow as I’m not familiar with the history, but they did provide some context in the background of the plot. I didn’t know that Barcelona and Catalonia had such a unique position in Spanish politics.

I might have preferred a little more nuance in some of the characters. Especially Joan becomes quite somebody else. But otherwise, I found this a really entertaining journey and, in the absence of a new Follett, I’m going to check out his other books (there seems to be a follow-up novel about Arnau’s son). And maybe watch the series on Netflix.

Have you read his books yet?

The devil’s slave by Tracy Borman

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After the Gunpowder Plot, the pregnant Frances Gorges retires to her beloved Longford, but her brother Edward’s ambition gets in the way. She marries Thomas Tyringham, a former friend of Tom Wintour, who has since gained prestige at the court of James I. A letter from Tom’s sister prompts her to return to court herself as a lady-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth to support the catholic cause once again.

The devil’s slave starts where the first book, The king’s witch ended (I’m not going to spoil things here ;)). Borman takes us back to the Stuart court of James I and the many plots that unfold there. Frances is still a naive, impulsive main character and she once again gets herself into serious trouble. Frances sometimes makes me want to shake her up to make her see sense, but well :).

A whole cast of historical figures make an appearance, and the Stuart court, with all its tensions within the royal family, between Protestants and Catholics, and the witch hunt, is portrayed realistically. I find Princess Elizabeth a particularly interesting character, as is her brother Henry.

Is everything Frances gets involved in very realistic? No, but we only have to think of the Arabella Stuart plot to know that there were many desperate actions by Catholics in the aftermath of The Gunpowder Plot.

I will definitely pick up the third and final book ‘The fallen angel’ because this series is entertaining.

Have you read anything good on the Stuarts recently?

A marriage of lions by Elizabeth Chadwick

15 Nov 20259 Nov 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era1 Comment

Joanna of Swanscombe grows up at the court of Henry III and the young queen Alienor of Provence. Through a series of coincidences and tragedies, she suddenly becomes a very wealthy heiress to the Marshall estates. When the king’s Lusignan half-brothers come to live at the English court, Joanna is betrothed to the youngest brother, William of Valence. But Simon De Monfort and Princess Eleanor have been eyeing Joanna’s inheritance for several years and disagree with the influence that William and his brothers have over the king.

I’m way behind in reading Chadwick’s books. She has written several books about William Marshal that I have not yet read, but this book focuses on one of his granddaughters, Joanna. Most books about Henry III and the Second Baron’s War (if there are any at all ;)) focus on the figure of Simon De Montfort. In A marriage of lions, we read about the other side: the king’s Lusignan family. Henry’s mother, Queen Isabelle of Angoulême, remarried with Hugh Of Lusignan after the death of king John and they had several more children.

I really enjoyed this book. As is often the case with Chadwick, it gets off to a slow start, but the characters of Joanna and William felt very lifelike. Their relationship quickly develops into love, which is also beautifully portrayed, and there are many delightful supporting characters: Alienor and Henry, John and Aliza, Aymer and the other brothers, and Edward and Leonora—the future royal couple.

This period is quite complex, but Chadwick chooses a clear angle and thus keeps it focused and manageable. Simon De Montfort is, of course, the main villain, and I found little nuance there, but all the other characters had nuance, which really brought the court of Henry III to life. My personal favorite: the true story of the money in the wool—who says women are only good for the hearth?One of her better books in my opinion!

What’s your favourite Elizabeth Chadwick novel?

The smallest man by Frances Quinn

1 Nov 202525 Oct 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era5 Comments

Nat Davy is born a dwarf, and on the day he realizes what he is, his father decides to sell him. He ends up in the household of the Duke of Buckingham who presents him as a gift to the young Henrietta Maria, Queen of England and queen consort of Charles I. Nat doesn’t have an easy life and is often bullied at court, but he also gains fame and renown, as well as a friendship with the young queen. But when Parliament increasingly questions Charles’s rule and war looms, Nat has to leave everything he knows behind.

In The smallest man, her debut novel, Frances Quinn describes the life of Nat Davy, loosely based on Jeffrey Hudson, the real dwarf in the service of Henrietta Maria (who appears in a painting by Van Dyck). But Quinn reimagines his life a bit, starting from the known facts to craft a wonderful story. Nat is a great main character. As a reader, you experience how people look at him because of his disability and you also admire his courage to keep fighting against his bullies.

The entire novel is full of delightful and lifelike characters: Jeremiah and Suzie, Henry and Arabella, Sam, the king and queen, and even Bonbon, the queen’s ugly dog. At the same time, the highly complex historical setting of the Civil War plays out in the background. Many fictional books shy away from Charles I and Cromwell as subjects (I’ve only read The crimson ribbon and two books by Miranda Mallins about Cromwell’s daughters on this period), but with Quinn, it never becomes heavy. Nat’s adventures completely captivate you.

The romance may have been a little intense (and Nat is a bit too naive there) and, of course, there are many coincidences, but I enjoyed experiencing this turbulent period in English history from Nat Davy’s unique perspective.

I’ve only read two books by Frances Quinn now. I previously devoured ‘That bonesetter woman‘, so I guess I have a new favorite author. Her third novel The Lost Passenger is already out and I saw that a new novel is coming in 2026. Quinn always chooses a completely different setting, so I’m curious to see where her next stories will bring me.

Have you read anything by Frances Quinn or any recommendations about The Civil War?

Godwine kingmaker by Mercedes Rochelle

25 Oct 202523 Oct 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another EraLeave a comment

Godwine, a young man of common stock, ends up by chance at the court of the Danish King Canute as his advisor. During one of their trips to Denmark he falls in love with Gytha, but that love is not mutual. Not long after, Canute conquers the English throne and makes Godwine Earl of Wessex. But Canute has several sons and there are also some Anglo-Saxon contenders to the throne, so when Canute dies, the succession is uncertain and Godwine tries to defend the interests of his family and Wessex.

In this first book of this trilogy Rochelle recounts the life of Godwine, a very important figure just before 1066. He played a role in the reigns of no fewer than five English kings during a turbulent period. Depending on your perspective, Godwine emerges as a defender of the Saxons or as a power-hungry earl.

Rochelle attempts to write down his life story, and she does so well. Still, I sometimes had some difficulty with the storylines. It’s difficult to tell his whole life story in such a short book. I felt that the enemies-to-lovers storyline with Gytha and the birth of Swein got too much attention and it was provided too easy as an excuse for Swein’s character, but the second half of the book is much better. Especially when the sons are a little older and the different kings quickly succeed each other.

And those sons are discussed further in the next two books – especially Tostig and Harold – as we’re heading towards 1066. So I definitely want to continue reading this trilogy, although I hoped this book would get to me more than it did.

Tyrant by Conn Iggulden

18 Oct 2025 GoAnnelies - In Another Era4 Comments

Lucius is adopted by his stepfather Emperor Claudius and takes on the name of ‘Nero’. His mother Agrippina, the empress, even ensures that he is appointed heir to the throne, above his stepbrother Brittanicus, Claudius’ biological son. But Nero is young and always looking for adventure with his friends. He doesn’t like his mother’s constant interference in his life.

In this second book of the trilogy, Nero is finally a little older and we follow Claudius’ reign further. We see Agrippina’s power grow and she arranges for Nero to be taught by the Stoic Seneca. His lessons prove to have a good influence on him, as does the Praetorian Burrus, who keeps an eye on things. But when Claudius begins to question Nero as his successor, Agrippina takes action and Nero becomes emperor. And that young emperor has to make some tough choices.

I think Tryant is a much more focused novel than the first book ‘Nero‘ was. Nero really develops his own character here, as do his two friends Otho and Serenus, Seneca, Burrus, and of course Agrippina and Claudius. The intrigues follow one another in quick succession. In between, we get a fight scene in a naumachia, a pop-up arena that is flooded with water and is supposed to provide bread and circuses. I didn’t think those scenes were badly written, but they suddenly slowed down the pace of the story, even though there is a certain symbolism in them that you only understand at the end of the book.

I really liked the ending. It was gripping. Agrippina is an incredible historical figure. That woman experienced so much in one lifetime and really symbolizes the bloody Julio-Claudian dynasty. In this novel, she’s a real schemer who drew power to herself—and I liked that presentation as it will probably come very close to how she came across. The transition of power to Nero is well done. I do agree with Iggulden in his historical note that what we know about Nero is mostly negative propaganda influenced by his successors and that it’s not easy to see the real man behind the myth. Iggulden tries to give him a more moderate and human perspective.

So I’m looking forward to the final book. Although I have to say I still prefer Iggulden’s series on Caesar.

Do you have a favourite Conn Iggulden book?