No Nonsense Reviews: The Roman Boy / Wine and Honey by Cally Sharp

Anselm Kahler is sold into slavery to pay off his father's debts.  Scared and helpless at a slave auction in a foreign country, he's bought by easily the most terrifying and imposing man in the whole audience.  But Septimus Tuditanus isn't all he seems, and Anselm now has to learn to navigate Roman society under the tutelage of his new master while avoiding the attentions of Septimus' old enemy--which is easier said than done...

Pros
+ Easy and enjoyable style
+ Great use of present tense
+ Genuinely likeable characters
+ Remarkable sex scenes (very hot)

Cons
- The second book ends quite abruptly

I bought the first book because I follow the author on Twitter and she'd just posted about the second.  It was an enticingly affordable price so I bought it and started reading immediately.

And then I couldn't stop.

I finished it the same day I bought it (it's not a long book) and bought the second one the next day, which I devoured at roughly the same rate.  I was a bit disappointed at the suddenness (in my opinion, obviously) of the ending of the second--especially as the first drew to an end beautifully--but the rest of the book was more than enough to make up for that one niggling issue.

Now I just have to cross my fingers that the author will write a third as I did really fall in love with all the characters--in particular Anselm and Septimus, obviously, and Lyudmila in Wine and Honey too--and would love to see how things progress for them.

• Goodreads page for The Roman Boy