I really enjoyed the book being set in Rome, but I found the plot lines not as gripping as in Nefertiti or The Heretic Queen. It was drawn-out, and I actually found the quick summary at the end of the book about what happened to the characters after the story ended was far more interesting than the story itself. The main characters showed little sign of having been affected by the traumatic events they endured and were not fully-fledged. Selene was quite annoying, actually.