‘Boudicca’s Daughter’ Review: A Tender, Emotional Novel Set Against an Epic Scope

Boudicca’s Daughter, Elodie Harper’s first standalone novel, is a tangled web of deeply felt emotions, complete with plenty of action, adventure, and suspense.

Beginning around 60 AD in the Iceni kingdom of a mostly peaceful Roman Britain, this novel is told in dual parts, from Boudicca and her daughter Solina’s points of view. At this time, though, the infamous warrior and rebel Boudicca is simply known as Catia.

She is a queen, wife to Prasutagus, who is a loyal king and ally to the Roman Empire. Catia, however, has always resented her husband’s calm acceptance of the increasing Roman presence, and she wishes to rid Britain of them once and for all, reclaiming their stolen land.

Prasutagus and Catia have two daughters: Solina and Bellenia. Solina is poised to be a Druid leader like her father, though her gift of the Otherworldly Sight is weak at best. Bellenia takes after Catia and would rather live as a warrior than a ruler, feeling more at home on horseback or the training field than seated on a throne hearing from petitioners and debating political and bureaucratic matters.

When Prasutagus dies and leaves his kingdom equally to his daughters in his will, outrage ensues from the Romans. They cannot fathom having women rule and feel Prasutagus has insulted them, even though it was not the old king’s intention. He truly had faith they would accept his will and let his daughters carry on his loyal rule in peace.

The Roman procurator of the British province orders an unjust attack on the family of Prasutagus. Solina and Bellenia are brutally set upon and unfairly attacked by a gang of Roman soldiers; trained as warriors their whole lives, they are left unarmed and defenseless. Catia, who wishes to rule as regent until her daughters are ready, is flogged.

All three women survive, but Bellenia suffered the most at the hands of the Romans, increasingly shrinking into herself.

Catia cannot stand idly by after such an attack. She vows vengeance and begins raising an army, inspiring fellow tribesmen to follow her through harrowing tales of what she and her daughters endured at the hands of the Romans. Solina and Bellenia dislike being the reason so many warriors agree to a war, and their discomfort is palpable.

It is here that Catia’s name is forever changed. She is called Boudicca by the warriors she leads; the name translates to Victory Bringer.

The Iceni army razes three Roman settlements. When it seems they may be successful in overthrowing the Romans, the tide of the war changes, thanks to the clever and calculating army legate Paulinus.

When defeat is near, Boudicca sends Solina north to see the rest of the Iceni tribe to safety and ensure some survive. As such, Solina is not present for the final battle and her family’s defeat.

She does what she can for her fellow Iceni, but she, too, is eventually caught by the Romans. Entirely alone, without any family remaining, Solina is taken captive by Paulinus.

Boudicca’s Daughter now gains a new perspective, with Paulinus’ POV instead of Catia/Boudicca’s. We still hear from Solina, and her captivity is narrated in turn by herself and Paulinus.

It is soon clear that, however twisted it may seem, there is something between them. As Solina chooses to live, to carry on her family’s memory and legacy, she sees no option but to align herself with Paulinus, for better or worse.

Their journey eventually takes them back to Rome, after Paulinus ensures the Iceni will never again take part in an uprising against Rome. Solina is now a captive of war and technically a slave, but Paulinus, thanks to his growing feelings, promises to do what he can to protect her in Rome.

She can never return home again.

Without giving too much away, the remainder of Boudicca’s Daughter details the turbulent end of Emperor Nero’s reign and the unrest afterward, with rivals for the throne casting the empire into disarray and turmoil. Solina must live as a slave in the Imperial household as Paulinus plots and plans to buy her freedom. Through it all is their bond, forged through blood, sweat, and tears.

From Roman Britain to the heart of the Empire, this novel is action-packed with tremendous world-building. The dual perspectives add more depth, though, at times, they also take away from the story.

For a novel titled Boudicca’s Daughter, highlighting strong female characters, there is perhaps too much male perspective at times.

For example, when it comes time to leave Britain — the only home Solina has ever known, and the kingdom she was supposed to rule — we are robbed of her goodbye to her homeland, as this part is told through Paulinus’ perspective.

What Solina’s feelings were at leaving her home behind, we’ll never know. The novel surprisingly almost brushes this off.

Her people and country endure unspeakable pain at the hands of Paulinus, and both he and she feel guilt and shame in equal measure. This is not entirely resolved until the very end.

The ending, though, is just as powerful as this novel’s beginning. Much of the book’s middle feels confusing — Solina’s early captivity and her initial bond to the man responsible for the death of nearly everyone she’s ever loved — and slow-paced, with her stripped of agency as a slave to the Empress of Rome.

The relationship between Paulinus and Solina is complicated yet tender. For all his crimes against her family, he treats Solina with respect and realizes how special she is. He does everything in his power to atone for his past sins, and though Solina cannot forgive him, she can own her past and look to her future with this man she has chosen.

There are power dynamics at play, even in love. Their relationship has never been nor ever will be uncomplicated.

The timeline also tends to be a bit hazy. We’re never told explicitly how old Solina or Paulinus are, just that he is some years older. Plus, it’s never clear how much time passes during her indenture in the Imperial palace. No years are given at any point to ground us firmly in time or to allow us to follow along with the history.

Otherwise, Elodie Harper is a master storyteller, and her writing remains superb. Fans of Harper’s previous work, The Wolf Den trilogy, will be happy to see two familiar characters appear in Boudicca’s Daughter. These Easter eggs are satisfying as they give additional background and lore.

Another brilliant stroke by Harper is not detailing the attacks on Catia and her daughters too explicitly. Violence against women is not put on display here; instead, it’s handled as tastefully as possible.

Additionally, as Boudicca uses the attacks as the perfect excuse to start her longed-for assault on Rome, the mother-daughter relationship is just as complex as Solina’s relationship to Paulinus. She loves her mother but witnesses her transformation from woman and queen to figurehead of a doomed rebellion. Solina struggles with losing her mother throughout the remainder of the book.

Boudicca’s Daughter is not just a tale of one woman’s rebellion, nor is it the tale of one woman’s survival. It blends hope and despair in equal measure, against all the horror and delicate beauty of the Roman Empire, with a fascinating cast of characters, each brought wonderfully to life.

Harper is no stranger to the forgotten women of the ancient world. After all, The Wolf Den trilogy reimagines and reclaims the lives of the women forced to serve in Pompeii’s infamous brothel.

The author works best with a clean slate, not always doing justice to the real-life figures of her novels — Nero, for instance — but she can write some of the most endearing characters who previously only had a line or two in the history books. Her descriptions of their personalities are so real, so lifelike, it’s hard to believe we don’t actually know this much about these people.

Boudicca’s Daughter is the perfect read for anyone seeking stories with complicated relationships, strong female characters, epic battle sequences, breathtaking settings, surviving against all odds, and the consequences of life’s impossible choices. There are themes of fate, prophecy, and bonds that go deeper than blood.

 

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