Una says resist

[dolorosa_12]

Thirty Day Book Meme Day 2: Best bargain.

This was a tricky one, as I've not only bought lots of books at discounted prices over the years, but also spent a decade working as a book reviewer, which meant that I was both given books for free, and paid money to talk about them. So obviously all the books I reviewed during that time were, in some sense, a bargain. For this reason, I've chosen to interpret this question as asking not just which book I got for the cheapest price, but how much it gave back to me in terms of meaning, rereads, and enjoyment.

When interpreted in this way, the answer can be no other than Romanitas by McDougallSophia. My editor was in the habit of going through the haul of books sent to the newspaper by various publishers, allocating some to the reviewers who covered that particular genre, and leaving out the rest in the staff tearoom for anyone to take. Romanitas fell in that latter category — my editor didn't think it looked good enough to review, so it was left out for anyone to claim for free. I read the book cover summary — a dystopian setting where the Roman Empire never fell, but rather spread to encompass most of the world — and read the first chapter (the funeral of the Emperor's brother and sister-in-law from the perspective of their grieving teenage son, awkward at the media circus surrounding his life and lonely against the weight of his own imperial inheritance), and then the second (a furious escaped slave fights for her life and that of her condemned prisoner brother), and realised I was hopelessly hooked. (It was also the first time I really understood shipping, because my first reaction, upon being introduced to the two point-of-view characters in those opening chapters, was 'I adore you both. Now kiss.')

I ended up devouring the book, and went on to review both its follow ups (thus acquiring them for free from the publisher as well), writing most of the fanfic on Ao3 that exists for this series (I think the other stuff was written for me as a Yuletide gift), and even ending up as something of a friend of the author, on the strength of being basically the only person who ever talked about these books online. (longvision is my long-defunct Romanitas trilogy fanblog, which I set up shortly after reading the first book.)

Noviana Una, the escaped slave character, ended up being my second favourite fictional character of all time — she's the person in my default icon, and I rather daggily had a T shirt printed with the words that are the title of this blog post, so as you can see I'm a hopeless obsessive about this series, and about this character in particular.

In other words, in terms of what this book — and series — has given me over the past twelve years, it was far and away the best bargain I've ever acquired!


3. One with a blue cover.
4. Least favorite book by favorite author.
5. Doesn't belong to me.
6. The one I always give as a gift.
7. Forgot I owned it.
8. Have more than one copy.
9. Film or TV tie-in.
10. Reminds me of someone I love.
11. Secondhand bookshop gem.
12. I pretend to have read it.
13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite fictional father.
16. Can't believe more people haven't read.
17. Future classic.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.