Twin Brothers by Mia Ford is an entertaining read.  This is a menage book though, so it may not be for everyone.  Ms Ford has delivered a well-written book.  The characters are awesome.  Brent, Brandon and Jane's story is about 2 brothers that unexpectedly inherit a business.  The stress of missing their father and running the business along with caring for their mother and sister takes a toll and they decide to hire an assistant that will relieve more than just their workload.  There is plenty of drama, humor and smokin' hot sex to keep readers turning the pages.  I enjoyed reading Twin Brothers and look forward to reading more from Mia Ford in the future.  This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was fascinated by the description and the concept behind this historical novel. A story of spies, trade, politics, brotherly love, prejudice, song and art, set up in the era of knights, noble houses, the Crusades and Byzantium, the book had story, adventure and interesting characters (including the protagonists, achondroplasic twin brothers, Tobias and Tomasso, dwarves who are not only minstrels and accomplished musicians, but can fight with the best and are spies too).

Although there is plenty to recommend this story (beautiful writing, incredible description of settings, power relations, ships, trade routes, and even social and religious customs), my difficulty with it was that I felt I caught the story half-way through after lots of it had already happened. Not having read the previous series the author has dedicated to the noble house of Gisborne, the constant references to facts and adventures that had happened before made me feel as if was missing a big chunk of the action (although this is book one, and that could cause confusion to some readers).  

The story is told in the third person but from Tobias’s point of view and I had some difficulty with the amount of telling that required at times, as due to their small stature and the need to be discreet because of the risks involved in the business at hand (the trading in an illegal and very valuable purple dye, that has come to embody power and everybody wants), the brothers are in hiding often and others have to tell them what happened. I felt the style of these fragments was not different enough from the rest of the book as to clearly indicate another speaker, rather than something once again seen from Tobias’s point of view.

I also felt I needed further information to fully empathise with the main character and his hesitation, ambivalence, difficulty making decisions, and his strained relationship with his brother (whom I found the more interesting of the two, perhaps because more morally ambivalent, with several shades of grey). Not knowing how Tomas had changed, or what their relationship had been like before, other than in a brief flashback to their time in Paris, didn’t help me fully understand why he found him so difficult now. By contrast, I thought some of the secondary characters like the captain of the ship, who is always handy to save Toby, and the doctor, were fascinating and well deserving of their own books (perhaps that’s already planned).

A solid book about a fascinating topic, with historical detail of the period beautifully rendered, that I feel it will be enjoyed more by readers already familiar with the characters and their backgrounds.  

If it wasn't for the fact that this play was written over 1500 years before [book:A Comedy of Errors] I probably would have jumped up and cried that this guy had ripped off [author:Shakespeare], however as it turns out it is probably the other way around, especially since it is well known that Shakespeare was hardly original with his writings. Still, it was good that I finally got around to reading one of the sources that Shakespeare used for his play (though he also added a number of elements to it, including having twin slaves as well as twin brothers).

Anybody who is familiar with A Comedy of Errors will already know the basic plot to this play: two identical twin brothers are separated when they are really young, and then one of them later on in life decides to go on a quest to locate his missing brother. He then arrives in town and everybody mistakes him for his twin (even though he has no idea, until the end, that his twin lives in this town) and then when his twin appears his twin is accused to doing the things that the other twin did, and as such a farcical comedy ensures as everything runs around confused.

Like the Shakespearian play there is also the love triangle present where the wife of one of the twins tries to seduce the other twin (without knowing his identity) and the other twin loving all the attention that he is receiving. However, because the first twin is unaware of the existence of the other twin, and everybody else thinks that he is the other twin, they all begin to think that he is mad. They are even on the verge of dragging one of the twins off to the ancient Roman version of a mental asylum because they all think that he is mad – no wonder Shakespeare called his version 'A Comedy of Errors'.

The thing that is present in this play, that is not present in Shakespeare, is the mistress. So, the twin that lives in the city is not only married, but also has a mistress. This is something that was not necessarily frowned upon in those days because, well, the women couldn't chastise the husband for sleeping around (and apparently there was a lot of that happening). I guess that is what happens in the era before women's rights (because the women couldn't sleep around, but then again it has always been skewed in that way because a woman can be caught out in a number of ways whereas it has always been believed that men could get away with it, though when you throw in late nights and clothes smelling of perfume, circumstantial evidence can end up being the man's downfall).

There is also only one slave, who is owned by the visiting twin, though pre-Shakesprian plays tended to be a lot less complex plot wise (even though Plautus does have side plots in his plays, he generally only uses one, whereas Shakespeare's can be incredibly complex at times, with many different threads being weaved together). It is also interesting that in Shakespeare the slaves are referred to as servants, however there was probably an understanding that the servants were free in name only – but that is probably because the servant is economically bound to the master as opposed to being legally bound, as in the case of a slave.

Still, this is quite an amusing play, and having a lot less complexity does add to the enjoyment of the play. However, it is also evident that while it is not necessarily one of those plays that defined a genre, having had a Shakespearian play based upon it does give it that aura that sets it apart from many of Plautus' other plays.

This classic comedy is a quick read, but it is not much fun. I liked it all right, and I smiled a few times, but it did not make me laugh out loud.

Read full review HERE.

RECOMMENDATION: Menaechmi is a classical comedy. As such it offers some thought-provoking topics concerning people’s behaviour alongside the central theme of mistaken identities.