Delve Into Vestal Virgin Produced By Suzanne Tyrpak Released As Paperbound

hard to describe this book, The story is not really what I was expecting based on the description, It's not a Christian book, not quite a romance, not a mystery, not a supernatural book, yet it has elements of all of them,

I found the story interesting, Towards the end, when things are getting intense I found myself pulled into the story and wanting to know what happened next,

The background and Roman culture was obviously well researched and the author knew what she was talking about,

There's a prophecy that's part of the story, but honestly it wasn't too hard to figure out how the prophecy fit in and related to things.


All in all, this was an interesting read but it's not one that I'm like "Oh my gosh this is amazing, " This is also definitely an adult book as there are quite a few adult situations, some of them graphic as well as semigraphic violence, Never really got into the characters, 'Vestal Virgin' is a well written book that is a little confused it can't make up it's mind whether it's historical fiction or romance,
Set in the Rome of emperor Nero, the full horror of having a man with the morals of a monster, masqueraiding as a god and all the power that entails, is vividly brought to life.
However, where this books slips slightly is in being neither one thing nor the other, The premise of the story is that a vestal virgine, sworn to a life of chastity a falls in love and b is determined to avenge the death of her brother.
But where the book let's itself down slightly is that it is neither one thing nor the other the romantic thread stop it from being taken too seriously and yet the tension between the main characters is not sufficient to make the read a satisfying romance.

A good book, whilst not being wholly satsifying, This is a Kindle book that I picked up due to the great review it got on Big Al's Books and Pals blog a few weeks ago, The setting of the story is Rome under the Emperor Nero, and the story is centered around one of the Vestal Virgins, a/year old woman named Elissa.
She was taken from her home at ageto train and become one of the tenders of the sacred flame, and like the other Vestal Virgins her time of service isyears, leaving her chained to the temple until she is.
The story is primarily centered around Elissa, but is also largely comprised of Nero's whims and perversities and how these affect Elissa and members of her family,

Honestly, while the story itself is good and the scene setting is largely very well done although a definition or two here or there would have been helpful, the beginning of the story is so abrupt that I was left wondering

why I should care about Elissa or her family.
Elissa is in her earlys and has been a sterling example of a Vestal Virgin priestess, and yet she's off running around on her own without a lictor or guard within the first few pages, against her temple's rules.
While she is well described and has a threedimensional character, other characters are left very flat or with only token changes and explanations for their motivations, The end of the story felt a bit rushed towards a "omg happy ending!" as well, which further exacerbated the sense that something was missing, I'm left wondering if the original novel was much longer and was sharply edited down to fit some length constraint, as I continually got the sense that there was "more" to the story that I was just not able to see.


The story is definitely enjoyable and written about a time period I know little about, so I'm pleased to have read it, However, it would have been far better with a little more meat included in the writing, This just doesn't quite work, I don't feel like the characters are fleshed out enough, or their actions don't mesh with how they've previously been described or portrayed, Nero is a onedimensional bad guy, so his motivation seems to be "because I'm supposed to be the villain in this story, " Elissa's sister is ridiculously overthetop and quite annoying, Elissa's love interest comes across as a weak cardboard cutout that wanders through the story on occasion,

There is also a heavy streak of Christianity running through this that I found distracting and hamhanded, The main character suddenly converts but it just seemed too farfetched for this time period and her station in life, Unless the author was trying to write a Christianity themed novel and this is not mentioned anywhere in the book description, the proselytizing bogs things down and doesn't add anything to the plot, In Vestal Virgin, Tyrpak combines elements of Greek tragedy, modern storytelling, and Freudian psychology.
Readers are gradually led through the destruction of a family, the religious awakening of two involuntarily celibate individuals, and the vicissitudes of a mentally unstable monarch, My mental construct of the latter bore a striking resemblance to Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus in the movie GladiatorI blame the hubris and the unhealthy sexual behaviors, but I digress.


Tyrpak's story focuses on more than Elissa, the vestal virgin the book encompasses a main cast of roughly a dozen, a hefty number that could very well have been confusing or lackluster.
She does them justice, however, developing each to show his or her strengths, weaknesses, and changes of heart, I confess a certain lovehate relationship with both Nero and Flavialove, because they are spectacularly written, and hate because of their vileness, Even Justinus, the upright hero, bears a darker side, a vindictiveness with which Elissa also struggles, The humanness of Tyrpak's creations is impressive, and I find myself caught between wanting to know them better and wanting to throttle them, The only complaint that I have is the almost pat serving of just desserts, but it is reasonably presented and so I'll consider that a stylistic preference,

The pacing of the book is a constant, surefooted canter, fast enough to appease the impatient and slow enough to do justice to the plot and the characters.
There is a tension throughout that is well worth savoring, a sort of dread that fills the reader as things start to go wrong, The story itself is addictive: I was traipsing around London all day and still found myself picking up the Kindle during short waits and whatnot, just to see what would happen next.
The plot is well thoughtout, with only one major revelation about Elissa and some aspects of the ending that left me wanting the former, because it seemed to come from left field, and the latter because I was expecting a true Greek tragedy and received a series of events that may have been a bit soft.


As far as the the historicity of the tale, I am illequipped to judge details, having limited knowledge of the life of vestal virgins, What I can say is that for the reasonably educated lay person, the story is believable enough, without any glaring anachronisms to mar the experience, Word choice in dialogue is up to the author, since the Romans did not speak English, Still, she kept it conservative, which preserved the feel of being in the past, as opposed to our contractionridden present,

Speaking of conservatism, there is a certain lack thereof when it comes to sexual vulgarities in this novel, Tyrpak keeps them just vague enough that I was still willing to read through them, but they are still base and somewhat disturbing, There is also the question of religious material as she introduces Justinus' mentoring relationship with Paul of Tarsus during the latter man's interment in Rome, In terms of controversies, this has the more potential to be controversial, as both Justinus and Elissa began to lean on Jesus of Nazareth instead of Roman gods.
Thankfully, Tyrpak limits the religious content to the characters' internal battles and does not twist the plot to promote one religion over the other, It is a fine tightrope that she walks,

Vestal Virgin is a surprisingly enjoyable and enthralling bit of fiction, It is well worth the read for any who crave a slice of tragedy or want to spend a few hours lost in the intricate political dealings of Rome and its megalomaniac of an emperor.
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