Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter

The eruption happened in the end, of course, but I don’t really count that as a plot because let’s face it, everyone picking up this book knows that that is going to happen. Sure, there was Tag and Lucia trying to find a way to be together, there was Lucia dealing with the unwanted betrothal. It was well-described and well-researched, I liked the inside into the life of slaves and gladiators we got through Tag’s perspective and the images of a Pompeii bustling with life and its inhabitants mixed reactions to the first signs of the eruption.īut then there’s the thing about the plot – because there was really not much of it. So, I didn’t have high expectations for this book, and I still don’t really know how I feel about it? It was certainly a fast read, I was entertained, I really liked it in the beginning and thought there was a lot of potential in this book, yet it somehow let me down and my enjoyment deteriorated as the story went along.įirst off, I really liked the historical setting. When the two fall in love, both come to resent their positions more than ever and both long for freedom from the fate they’re dealt. Tag is one of her father’s slaves, a healer who caters to the injuries of the gladiators. Against the backdrop of a Pompeii steering towards its fateful volcanic eruption and following total destruction, this story follows two teenagers: Lucia is the daughter of the owner of a gladiator school, forced by her father to marry a wealthy yet much older man.

Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter