Jaclyn Osborn - Axios

Author: Jaclyn Osborn

Title: Axios: A Spartan Tale

Language: English

Format: ebook

Rating: 2½ stars

No of pages: 362

Reading challenge: A book you received via book exchange, bought used or got for free

Read: 17.02.2018

Goodreads

BLURB:

I am Axios of Sparta, and I was born to kill. At age seven, I left home to train with other boys where we were taught obedience, solidarity, military strategy, and how to withstand pain. My harsh upbringing stripped me of my weaknesses and forced me to become strong. Ruthless. 

But, I craved something greater—a life I could never have. Against all odds, and the toughest training a warrior could endure, I found an unexpected love in the arms of a fellow Spartan. He was the very air I breathed and the water that sustained me. Fighting side by side with him, we were invincible. Where he went, I followed. However, there was no place for love in Sparta. Feelings were for the weak. The only life for a Spartan was one of battle and brutality with no guarantee of tomorrow. In times of war, all men were put to the test, but the greatest challenge for us was not one of swords and spears, but of the heart.

You know how you read all these raving reviews about a book, get your expectations quite high, and then find yourself actually rather disappointed in the book once you're reading it? That's what happened to me with this one. I felt that it was a bit too repetitive with Axios and Eryx running off to their secret spot and pleasuring one another after every couple of pages, or at least that's the way it seemed like for me in the end. Sure, there was fighting and trying your darn best to stay alive in the first place, because it was Sparta and it was brutal, and while I actually rather liked elements of the story (e.g. how Eryx and Axios expressed their feelings for one another - their words were beautiful and you could really see that they cared deeply), the book as a whole just didn't do it for me.