Dominvs: Volume 1

I really enjoyed this book - the author is clearly skilled & knowledgable on Rome and Roman culture/ behaviours. I actually learnt stuff from this book, and was inspired to research more on other topics raised throughout the text. The characters are all mostly engaging and likeable, but I agree with other reviewers that the central character of Allerix is weakly drawn and poorly developed (he’s the least interesting of any of the slave characters, so I always felt frustrated when time was spent on him and not Simon or Nicomedes). The m/m action is hot, and not at all what I expected (it’s a different spin on normal m/m fiction). All in all I loved it…and would’ve quite happily lived in the Gaius Fabius mansion in Rome at this time!

I'd had this on my tbr pile for quite some time and I'm glad I waited until the second book came out in order to read it as Dominus ends on the brink of a major cliff. The characters in this story are brilliantly set up in this book. J P Kenwood creates a brilliant cast of players whom I have begun to feel great fondness for, even Fabius, the central Dominus character of the story. Who is not easy to like. We see him through the eyes of all the characters around him and their affection for him suggests that there must be something about him deserving of love and loyalty. Though to be honest, I spent most of Dominus wanting to punch him. Max, his freed slave and client is a decent guy, a man finding his feet as a foreigner after years of having a master. Allerix, the captive Dacian prince is playing a long game and my curiosity about him drives me forward to read the next book. Lucius, Gaius Fabius' best friend, stole my heart a little. Through his eyes and words we learn the most about the boy Fabius was and the man he now is. Their story is bookmarked by a prologue and epilogue set in the modern day and centring on an excavation in Rome that hints at many possible outcomes for this storyline. The omniscient narrative, swinging back and forth from one point of view to another kept the storytelling pacy, though sometimes made me backtrack to be sure of who was speaking. It is easy for an Omni POV to be done badly, and this was not the case with Dominus. All in all I'm looking forward to volume 2.

I can see there are some mixed reviews for the Audible version of this book, but in my opinion, it was an amazing experience. I really enjoyed hearing these character come to life and made my journeys to work far more endurable. Being stuck in traffic was never so sexy! I thought the main narrator did a good job and conveyed the different characters very well. It was clear who was speaking and I found myself drawn into the story as soon as I pressed play. It made me emotional at times and also, verrrrrrry hot! I'm reading the second book again in time for its audible release (hopefully!) Congrats to JP Kenwood and the narrators for hours of listening pleasure.

This is a fairly simple story but it is well written. There are about 5 books in this series and amazon on ly holds this one and book two I hope it gets the other books so that readers can complete the full story. If the other books are similar to book one you are left at a cliff edge so you feel you must read the next book to finish the story. I already have book 2 so I hope the rest become available from amazon if not I will go direct to the publisher.

Purchased this on spec as I love reading novels about the Romans. It was not what I expected - it was better! Characters are well developed and the plot (which is further developed in Part 2) is very good. As it contains explicit passages of gay sex, it's contents is certainly for adults only. A real page turner to say the least!

I loved the world building in this novel. I was easily transported to Rome and made to care about the characters. I preferred the Roman sections to the modern archaeology setting because I was keen to get into that world. The sex is tasteful and realistic. Can't wait to read the next in the series.

I like the idea of "enemy to lover" and ancient Roman setting is just perfect. It turns out to be a big dispointment and I regret the purchase. 1) It takes forever for the story to actually kicks in. 2) Names are ridiculously long and similar to each other. Half of the time I have to trace back to remind myself who is who. 3) All his life, Alle hates the Roman and Fabius in particular for destroying his country, his people and his family. All that hate melts like candle after some handjobs/blowjobs and he can't resist his master simply because he's handsome, all in a span of a few days. Likewise, Fabius is drawn to Alle for his look, nothing interesting about this character. Their chemistry falls flat and shallow. So no, I won't buy book 2.

Some books are just fun to read, and this is one of them. Gaius is what I can only describe as a "bad boy". He's arrogant, ruthless, self-centred... good looking, sexy, passionate. There's so much about him that you want to loathe, and know you should, but you just can't. Gaius is more complex than he appears on the surface, and JPK does well in showing us this, via his relationship with his slaves, his Dacian captive and with his old friend Luc. I would describe this book as a "romp", and a good one at that. I look forward to the next instalment.

I really liked this book. Enough to immediately buy the next two at full price (which I hardly ever do) and be irritated at having to wait for the 4th (and last) book. I’m going to jumble all three books together in my review and it’s just going to be snippets of thoughts, but it should give you enough info to decide if you want to read the Dominus series. The characters are interesting and the story, though drawn out, is compelling. It’s a bit like an ancient Roman Outlander or even Game of Thrones. Lots of characters, lots of politics, but still about human nature. The “relationship” is pretty slow to develop. Not the interaction between the two MCs, but the actual personal relationship. In the first book, they don’t spend that much time together. But it’s worth the wait. The sexytimes are amazing. I loved them. The relationship is open (at least on Gaius’ part) at the beginning. But, that’s how ancient Rome was, I imagine. Masters could do whatever (and whoever) they wanted and slaves did whatever the masters wanted. But, if you’re not a fan of lots of partners, you’ll be pleased by the time the third book rolls around. Still, there are a lot of sexytimes with a lot of different characters taking part. Kenwood does NOT hesitate to kill off some of our favorites, which made me very sad. :( I love a number of the secondary characters (there are a lot of them). I hope we don’t lose any more. It does get a bit hard at times to remember who is who (many of the names are similar), but Kenwood has provided a glossary of names at the end of each ebook. By the third book, the Lucius mystery that the first book focused on seems almost forgotten, but I hope/assume it will be resolved in book 4. The ghostly visitors in the second book (or maybe the third, whichever) were a bit hard to swallow as there really hadn’t been any indication I was reading a tale with supernatural/paranormal tendencies. But, I just went with it with a little bit of eye rolling. At least it was a way to get some more time with one of my favorite characters. The oddest thing (to me) is that the ancient Romans and Greeks speak like modern day Brits. They use words like “birds” for females, and “bloody” and “dandy chap.” Though Kenwood has clearly done a massive amount of research on ancient Rome, the dialog feels like a bit of a cop out. It’s much easier to write conversational Brit speak than a translation of BC Latin. Having said that, I’m OK with the dialog as is. It’s MUCH easier to read and I don’t have to slog through something like this for four books: “A few days afterwards Regulus himself met me when I was paying my respects to the new praetor. He followed me thither and asked for a private conversation. He said he was afraid that something he once said in the court of the centumviri rankled in my memory, when, in replying to Satrius Rufus and myself, he remarked, "Satrius Rufus, who is quite content with the eloquence of our days, and does not seek to rival Cicero." I told him that as I had his own confession for it I could now see that the remark was a spiteful one, but that it was quite possible to put a complimentary construction upon it. "For," said I, "I do try to rival Cicero, and I am not content with the eloquence of our own time. I think it is very stupid not to take as models the very best masters. But how is it that you remember this case and forget the other one in which you asked me what I thought of the loyalty of Metius Modestus?" As you know, he is always pale, but he grew perceptibly paler at this thrust. Then he stammered out, "I put the question not to damage you but Modestus." Observe the man's malignant nature who does not mind acknowledging that he wished to do an injury to an exile. Then he went on to make this fine excuse; "He wrote in a letter which was read aloud in Domitian's presence, 'Regulus is the vilest creature that walks on two legs.'" Modestus never wrote a truer word.” (That's a letter from Pliny the Younger, by the way).

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into the story. Most of this first book sets the tone and introduces the different characters and their interactions. Of course, just as the story was starting to make sense and flaw easily (for me at least) the book finishes with a cliffhanger making me yearn for the next chapter (luckily it's already available). If you're looking for a typical romance, fluff and monogamy, this is definitely not the book for you. We find constantly horny Roman's satisfying their every want with pleasure slaves of both sexes, so a good part of the book is a description of sexual activities of some kind. There's no romance, little tenderness and definitely no mush! It's raw, sometimes violent, and highly erotic. Great narration by Hannibal Hills (new to me narrator).

When I read the synopsis for this book, I was interested. When I heard it was coming out on audio I was thrilled. Then I listened to the book and I’ll admit I’ve struggled a bit with writing this review. Some reviews are easy, some are challenging. Some books I finish and I immediately put pen to paper (metaphorically) so I can write down my thoughts and share them right away. Other times I sit back and think about what I’ve listened to. Try to find the right words. This was definitely one of those books. I’ll start with the narration. I was somewhat surprised to see Nick. J. Russo was one of the narrators. He’s reliable and competent, to be sure. Recently he tackled N.R. Walker’s SIR, which definitely required an accent of sorts. He’s not my first thought when I think of accents, and when I realized his part in this book, it all made sense. His role is minor but important in starting and then tying up this part of the trilogy. Hannibal Hills carries the load of narration in this book and he’s a great choice. This is his first m/m book but he’s done plenty of others audios, including many on the dark side. Since this book has moments of great darkness, he’s perfect for this story. So on to the story. I’ll start by saying there’s a lot going on. Plenty of characters, tons of intrigue, and several different storylines. This book is the first in a trilogy, so all this world building makes sense. The year is AD 107 in the Roman Empire. Hedonism abounds as does violence. This book has plenty of both. I’ve read other books from this ancient history including Axios by Jaclyn Osborn and Nova Praetorian by N.R. Walker. I enjoyed both of those tremendously, and so had high hopes for this book. Compared to the world we live in today these books tell of a time when survival wasn’t guaranteed. Gladiators and Spartans lived and died by the sword. The level of violence in all these stories matches their times. I liked Allerix. As a slave he was, of course, sympathetic. I liked that he kept his agency, using his cunning to survive. I am definitely interested in seeing where this plot lines goes as he becomes more entrenched with his captor, Gaius. I am hoping books 2 and 3 will eventually be put out on audio so I can see where thee story winds up. I love a good enemies-to-lovers story and with one whose stakes are this high, I’m excited to see what happens next. The book ends of a cliffhanger so consider yourself forewarned.

I originally found this story on AO3 (it's not the whole story though-only 14 chapters), and skimmed through it, not quite sure if I liked it or not. I honestly forgot about it until I saw a posting on FB from one of the author's friends that the story was free on Amazon, and thought I'd check it out. As I read I came to realize that honestly, it's a really good story. Love, revenge, jealousy. It has it all. I'm moving on to the second book, and hope the third comes out sooner rather than later. I really think I'm going to enjoy this series as a whole.

I have been eyeing this book for some months after reading some introductory shorts which I enjoyed. I don't know what took me so long, but I'm glad I finally bought it. Wow, this book is quite excellent. Every character is unique and intriguing, each very different from the other, from supporting cast to main characters. That takes writing skill to pull off. And the writing skill is excellent in all descriptions from action to setting, skillful and beautiful without being overdone. And the dialog is amazing. I was drawn into this world immediately from page one, but it got better and better as I read further and slowly got to know the interesting characters. The main character Gaius is an upper class guy who owns slaves and has lecherous aims on them. You might, at first glance, see him as glib, spoiled, privileged, a sex addict, and yes he is all those things, but as you read you realize he's not a bad man, he has a lot on his plate, is even in line for the throne, and when he plays he just likes to play hard. But he is fair, and he is very smart. I like smart characters. I like flawed characters. I like slave stories. So this novel bats a thousand for me. Allerix is another amazing character (they all are, really, but I have time to name only a few). He is a newly captured slave from an enemy country (one of my favorite themes to read) and is having a hard time adapting to becoming a pleasure slave. His come-back lines are some of the best I've ever read. His strength of character is why Gaius is falling in love with him, when at first he is just physically attracted to him. Alle gets away with a lot of sass because that very fierceness in him is what fascinates Gaius. Their relationship is only just beginning in this book. But it hooked me so that I had to immediately buy book 2. What I like about the master-slave relationships in this book is how the author reflects the ancient Roman cultural tolerance toward slavery to set up a household that works like a family. It's not the family we are used to seeing in the 21st century and it's not supposed to be. The master and all his servants and slaves run the household in a well-choreographed partnership. They take care of each other. The slaves fall in love with their master because he takes care of them, and for other reasons, too, such as he is handsome, powerful, charismatic, fair, strong and smart. These reasons lead to deeper commitments and loyalty. It's completely believable. There is a lot of sex in this book because sex is the reason and theme for a lot of the characters. Many of the characters are pleasure slaves. It's what the book is about, mainly, as backdrop and for character interaction. So sex is part of the setting and characterization. For myself, I love it. There is also an overlying plot of secrets and subterfuge, too, and lost loves and sibling resentments, and this leads to a shocking murder. Because I love all of that, I have every reason to keep reading this series and am thrilled to learn it will be, when done, a total of 5 books. I am so happy to hear that. I can only think that any critical reviews this book has received stem from the reader not really enjoying the slave theme or the sex, because really, this book is extremely well-written, and looking at book 2, which I just bought, it just gets better. Highly recommended.