TJ's Reviews > Bright Star

3.5/5.0
Because this series is so interconnected and continues the over-all storyline of Lilian, an "apprentice"(ei: slave) to Lucias Mercio. My reviews will be continuations, as well (just not time to re-cap earlier opinions which still stay strong.)

In this installment the sexual subjugation is still just as offensive but not quite as frequent. Lucias, thankfully, is not a cruel man - just a demanding one. This makes the reading a bit less disturbing but no less uncomfortable. Readers continue to learn and love Lilian even more in this book. Her strength and integrity make her such a sympathetic character that it becomes even harder to read of what she must do at Lucias's command. Our abhorrence of how she must give in without question to his sexual demands is amplified because he has a wife and children that he loves! We jump from his frequent sexcapades with Lilian to chapters with him loving and enjoying his wife - YUCK!!!

Now - to be fair - in their society, this is an accepted situation that no one questions. The problem, as I see it, is that while that may be so - any woman in OUR society cannot help but take extreme offense at the situation. Lilian has NO choice in the matter yet we must watch her as she becomes more attached to him and then read about him with his loving wife.

Still, aside from that HUGE problem for me, the rest of the story is so well-written and enthralling that I could hardly put it down! The author has so deftly wound LIlian and her plight into the reader's hearts that we must keep reading if only in hopes that she will overcome and find happiness.