THE PLOT: ‘The House with the Golden Door’ by Elodie Harper is historical fiction about a prostitute in Pompeii c.75AD. Amara was forced into slavery in the most notorious brothel in Pompeii, but after winning her freedom, she is now a concubine to a wealthy man who pays her rent. Despite her triumph, she lives in fear that her patron will tire of her and must do everything possible to remain youthful and beautiful. Torn between her old life and her new one, she seeks to save her friends – prostitutes still stuck at the brothel – yet freeing them might incur the wrath of her patron and her former slave master, who is determined to humble her.

SUMMARY:  This is the second novel in ‘The Wolf Den’ series and it did not disappoint. I am so invested in this series; I’ll probably go into mourning when I’ve finished it. Seriously, these books are so entertaining and fun, they remind me why I love to read. I was completely immersed in the plot and characters, then I suddenly remembered the little matter of Vesuvius’s impending eruption! I shudder when I think of how this rich world is going to disappear by the end of the trilogy. This is such a fantastic portrayal of life for women in antiquity and I cannot stan these books enough.

GOOD BITS: It’s the details for me. I love how the author uses real information found in the excavation of Pompeii and reimagines the lives of women in the city. In particular, this book features Julia Felix, an enigmatic figure who seemed to be a wealthy woman in her own right, and I love how she’s been fictionalised and integrated into Amara’s story. Truthfully, I adore every single female character in this novel but I’d like to highlight the dynamic between Victoria and Amara. This created the right amount of tension to keep propelling the story forward (even though I did guess the big twist, it really worked).

NOT SO GOOD BITS: I struggled with Amara’s relationship with Philos. In the first novel, I imagined Philos as quite old, perhaps because they mention that he originally belonged to Terentius (Rufus’s grandfather). So, when Amara and Philos get together early in this novel, I couldn’t fully believe it. Even as their relationship progressed, I didn’t feel like Amara was being true to herself. She was too erratic and didn’t have that calm, self-possessed ruthlessness that I enjoyed in the first novel. There are explanations for this and it didn’t ruin the book by any means, but it slightly irked me.

OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of ‘On Black Sisters Street’ by Chika Unigwe, ‘Troy’ by Adele Geras, and ‘Circe’ by Madeleine Miller. If you want a story you can totally immerse yourself in, then this is for you.

You can purchase this novel with a discount and support @aminasbookshelf via my bookshop.org account. A percentage of the proceeds goes to independent bookshops.