She let her intended victim get too close. Azhura turned out to be the only member of Titus’ harem.Īnd when he refused to force himself on her, like every other man she had every dealt with, she couldn’t bring herself to kill him the first night. The method of infiltration chosen by her contract was for her to become a member of his harem. One of Emperor Titus’ cousins hired her to infiltrate his household and assassinate him. Not that easily, but not quite part of our story. She escaped her fate and became an assassin. He and his friends had been raping her for three days by this point, so she considered herself not just more than justified, but beyond caring. An assassin, in this case, a former slave who freed herself by murdering her master. So they decide a timely assassination is in order.Įnter the Rabbit. He thinks that he can make the empire work the way it should work, instead of the way it does work.Ī lot of influential people will get kicked in the moneybags if he gets his way. In the case of Tangled Web, we have what should be the standard case of a young emperor coming to the throne early, and one who has spent most of his life with his nose buried in a book. Sometimes they served as a good example, sometimes as a horrible warning.

Long sweep of history, leaving lots of templates for pretty much everything.

What can I say? The Romans did good empire. In addition to the aforementioned Amy Raby series, there’s also Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera, and Lindsay Buroker’s The Emperor’s Edge. There are a lot of fantasies that use some variation of the Roman Empire as their basis. It’s a pretty good gambit, I adored that book.

I was lured into Crista McHugh’s Deizian Empire by a story that sounded an awful lot like Amy Raby’s absolutely fabulous Assassin’s Gambit. As her deadline approaches, Azurha is forced to make an impossible decision–complete her job and kill the man she loves, or fail and forfeit both their lives. Night after night, he awakens desires she thought lost, and uncovers the magic of her hidden lineage. More than just Titus’ ideas hold Azurha captive. Rule the Deizian Empire and attempt to right his ancestors’ wrongs, or watch her fall to his greedy kin. Titus Sergius Flavus has yet to master the powerful magic of his ancestors–magic he must wield if he’s to protect his people–but his father’s death has left him no choice. But Titus is not the tyrant his forefathers were, and his radical ideas might be the glimmer of hope the empire needs. The deadliest assassin in the empire just got too close to her target…Īzurha, a former slave turned deadliest assassin in the empire, has just been offered the ultimate challenge–seduce, then murder the new Emperor. Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository Genre: Fantasy romance, Science Fiction romance Goodreads, Format read: ebook provided by the publisher

Tangled Web by Crista McHugh