Amara is now a free woman and the kept concubine of a rich young man. However she is not truly free from the brothel, her former pimp threatens her and she worries about her fellow whores. What Amara does not bargain on is falling in love with a slave. In order to protect her new life Amara must use all her wits and her friends but can she ever escape her past.
This is such a terrific book! Harper introduced the reader to the life of a prostitute slave in Pompeii in her first novel and now she has taken her characters further. the sense of time and place is wonderful, I especially like the little references to known facts about Pompeii eg the grafitti on walls. The subject matter is unusual and original and the writing is fantastic, I eagerly await the final installment.

Really enjoyed this sequel and second in the Wolf Den trilogy. I read this book not long after the first, but even so the writing easily transported you back to ancient Pompeii and into the lives of Amara and the other she-wolves.

Elodie Harper is a great storyteller and I found myself racing through the book and feeling tense throughout. The character development is excellent, Amara is quite a flawed and dark character who makes many questionable choices, however you can understand why she does what she has to in order to survive and protect those she cares about. Britannica is my favourite character who has come a long way since the first book and I really hope features heavily in the third too.

Shortly after finishing this book I was lucky enough to visit Pompeii and I have to say Elodie Harper really helped the place come alive for me, particularly when visiting the infamous brothel itself. Clearly a lot of research went into the history and detail, an immersive read.

Amara is now a freed concubine of Rufus and bears the name of Pliny the Elder. But for this to achieve she had to leave her old friends from the Wolf’s Nest behind. At night she still has nightmares about her pimp Felix. During the day she tries to make sure that Rufus doesn’t get tired of her. Because if she loses her patron, the future may yet look very gloom.

This is the second book in a trilogy set in Pompeii and focusing on the hard lives of women. The house with the golden door is as strong as the first part The wolf den, which is not always easy for an author. I really recommend to read ‘The wolf den’ first as the plot builds on the events and relationships from that book.

Amara is a strong woman facing difficult choices. Her relationship with Felix is complex and at times I could not always understand it. But emotions are not always rational. You can see this in the character of Victoria. Britannica’s character development is great and I also liked Julia and Drusilla, who have become Amara’s new friends.

I’m very curious to see how this story will end. We are close to the known disaster so I suspect the third book will build to a climax. This is an interesting series that can attract a wide audience. And those covers are beautiful.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I’m definitely on a book roll this weekend 🤩 Harper has written a brilliant sequel to Wolf Den as Amara’s story continues. She may have escaped the brothel, but her future is by no means secure. This is a tale of love, sex, violence and the fight for freedom and it’s a great read! Now to wait for book 3 🙂

The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper

The Roman city of Pompeii is enjoying its heydey and life is looking good for Amara, who once worked as a prostitute in the city’s most infamous and famous brother, the Wolf Den. She has been rescued by a wealthy man and he is now the only man she serves as one of Pompeii’s most glamorous courtesans. But she can’t leave her friends there behind. She is haunted by their continued suffering while being all too well that her own good fortune is transient. And so Amara sets out to help them, especially her closest friend Victoria, and that means she must go back into the wolf’s lair.

The Wolf Den was my favourite novel of 2021. It brought the streets and houses of Pompeii to life for me in a way no other book has done. I’ve visited the place often and I’ll never see it with the same eyes again thanks to the power of Elodie Harper’s prose and research. I was so pleased that there is more and so I couldn’t wait for The House with the Golden Door. Even before I started reading, I was stunned by the beauty of the cover. These are seriously gorgeous books!

The novels are set during the few years leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius. The fact that we know what lies in store adds such a sense of foreboding and I can’t help hoping that the author takes us right up to these events. But the novels don’t miss the drama of the eruption. Instead, the focus is on the daily lives of these damaged women, as well as on the men who own them, the men who love them and all of the other people who tread these streets as shop workers, slaves, business men, courtesans, inn keepers. I love it.

I think any novel is bound to suffer by comparison with The Wolf Den which, to my mind, is nigh on perfect. The fact that Amara has been removed from that awful brothel of the first novel, a major character in its own right, detracts a little from the power of the second. I also found the storyline involving Victoria difficult. Nevertheless, The House with the Golden Door is an excellent novel and once more it is filled with the details that make these novels stand out. There are so few good novels about Roman women or society in general. This was indeed a man’s world. And it is wonderful to immerse oneself in their stories, although everything about Amara’s life and her past is so hard. But there are moments of joy and happiness and I feel like we’re there with her for it all.

Once more, I should point out that these novels are not salacious or erotic. These might be courtesans and prostitutes but they’re also enslaved women living in a city full of life and colour as well as violence and threat. I can’t wait for the third book. I need to know what happens to Amara next. I’m hoping that in the meantime I can return to this incredible place in person myself.

Other review
The Wolf Den

This book picks up right where The Wolf Den picked up which I loved. I always try to not give any spoilers, so I’ll just say I was shook with the way book one ended - and book two was equally as great. These books hit the spot on everything I love to learn about ancient history and Pompeii! Amara is so smart and ruthless when she needs to be (which I adore), Elodie really had me hooked the whole way through. Now I’ll just be here waiting impatiently for book three! Thank you Amy at @headofzeus for sending me a copy early to review, I absolutely loved it! ❤️

First I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange of an honest opinion.

I absolutely loved the first book of this trilogy, The Wolf Den, and had high hopes for this sequel. The way Elodie Harper describes her characters make you relate to them, even when you don't agree with their choices. All the characters have a great backstory and a strong personality, capturing the difficulties of women and slaves in ancient Pompeii.

I'll try and keep this review spoiler free: I love Amara, I love her spirit and that whatever hardship she faces, she picks herself up and does whatever she can to ensure her safety and the safety of her loved ones, even at her own expense at times. She sees the good in people, even when others warn her not to. This book made me happy and hopeful, and at times sad and helpless. I can't wait to read the third book and see more of Amara's adventures (and hopefully see even more of Britannica!!)

A great sequel to The Wolf Den; fast-paced and thrilling, Amara’s fortune constantly teetering on the edge of a blade. The story reeks with vengeance and the threat of betrayal, and I’m more than a little rattled that I have to wait for the third book to discover the consequences of the turn in Amara’s fate.
Britannica’s character also sees some fantastic growth over the course of this story, as she moves closer towards her destiny and true power.
The loathsome Felix hovers like a dark cloud, his presence a constant threat, like the volcano that towers over the outskirts of Pompeii.
I can’t wait to follow Amara’s story to Rome, and to find out what happens to the people she’s left behind in the fated city.

The difference between freedom and slavery is precarious, and freedom comes with a price.

Amara has gained her freedom, and is no longer a slave in a brothel. But she remains a courtesan for the patron who freed her, and keeping his affection and loyalty is tense and stressful work. Nearly everything she owns comes from him, including a house and her own slaves, conditional on her continuing to please him. So she looks for a greater security by earning her own money, from hiring out musicians and lending money. There are other debts she cannot ignore, and so she plans to buy the freedom of some of her fellow slaves from the brothel. It′s a generous but not a wise move since it puts her under obligation to the brothel owner, who is a dangerous man.
She has friends inside and outside the house, other women who like her try to take charge of their own destiny, and a tentative connection to the slaves under her. Her life is so much better than it has been since she was a free girl in Greece, but fighting to keep it will need her to draw on all her strength, and love and kindness are only weaknesses.

This was a fascinating book in how it described all the variations of slavery and being free in the Roman Empire. It seems like a concrete demarcation between free and non-free, but it′s possible to slip between the two states so easily. And the relationships between the different levels of society is fraught with complexities, some of which parallel the minutiae of class, but others are a matter of life and death. The book involves many of the characters from the first one, bringing some minor ones to the fore and introducing new ones who all add to the story. It′s an involving read where I ended up rooting for Amara even as you realise that her own struggle for survival and liberty may make her as calculating and pitiless as her masters.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley

Amara has done the near-impossible, escaping life in the brothel and more importantly Felix, the pimp. But… has she? Is her new patron’s infatuation enough to keep her free? Should she try to help her former friends? And although this new life is so much better, is it really enough?

Despite the darkness of the themes, I was utterly swept up following Amara’s struggles in book one, so it’s great to be able to rejoin her story plus several of the characters we already know and a few new faces. However, it seems the balance to starting with better circumstances in book two is even darker themes, so much danger and tension, it was almost difficult to read this.

Although the writing remains excellent, I was a little less fond of this compared to the first book. In The Wolf Den, the situation is awful but there is a sense of hope. Here I feel we’ve swapped the hope for fear; Amara’s situation is so precarious, every step seems to be fraught with danger. And I just couldn’t agree with most of her choices – yes, emotionally they make sense, but she’s so often more logical that it hurt to see her take so many awful risks. It’s a tough one – she isn’t a robot, but then to almost literally hurl herself down the most dangerous routes – argh!

I did enjoy seeing Amara able to befriend other women and to be accepted by a ‘better class’ than the friends she perhaps should have left behind, but it remains horribly difficult to read about the realities of a society where women can have almost nothing without men giving it, and slavery is the norm. Digging even deeper into those themes here is both eye-opening and uncomfortable. I’m still glad I read it, but oy, the emotional strain! Still – roll on book 3! I absolutely need to know where Amara’s story will take her, and hopefully the stories of a few more of the She-Wolves.

The Wolf Den blew my socks off so I was so grateful to get the chance to read The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper.

Following on from Amara becoming a freed woman, we follow the next stage of her journey living with her patron Rufus. She makes a few risky decisions that I questioned, after having put up with so much in The Wolf Den however this portrays her strength and fighting spirit. There is still a strong sense of female power as Amara longs to help those she left behind however for me, it lacked the smattering of warmth and hope that the first novel had. It is a much slower paced novel but the second half speeds up and I whizzed through to the end.

I did enjoy it, just not as much as the first but I would like to read the final installment when it comes out.

Note - this is the second in a series and you would need to read them in order.

The House with the Golden Door is one of those rare books that evokes a vanished world in every detail.

It’s no secret that this book has been my most-anticipated book of 2022, the sequel to my fave book of 2021, ‘The Wolf Den’. And it pulled out all the stops!

With new dangers, and new worries, Amara has to draw on all of her skills & intelligence to pave some semblance of a freer life for herself, but at what cost?

Sequels quite often don’t live up to the first but this is absolutely not the case for ‘The Wolf Den’ sequel! I couldn’t put it down - from the world building of ancient Pompeii, to the new struggles Amara faces in the new trappings of life as a freedwoman & courtesan - Elodie Harper has absolutely smashed it once again!

You will feel love for so many characters, and disgust for several others and there is no doubting that the richness of each character will stay with you for a long time afterwards.

I am just so happy that the wait is over and I was finally able to delve back into Amara’s world. No words will do this book justice!

Now the wait for the third instalment in the trilogy begins… 🥲

‘The House with the Golden Door’ has been EVERYWHERE lately - do yourself a favour and pick it up if you haven’t already! You won’t be disappointed! (Pick up ‘The Wolf Den’ first though if you’ve not read that yet!) And you definitely don’t have to be a historical fiction fan to enjoy this series - it transcends the genre and picks its way into a whole category of its own in my opinion!

I have once again returned to Pompeii following on from The Wolf Den, but Amara is a freedwoman this time. However, I can’t really call her current position free. She is living under the patronage of Rufus, an entitled brute of a man, although his temper isn’t as bad as Felix’s temper back at the brothel. To compensate for her freedom, she has fine clothes, and servants and she no longer needs to go hungry but she still has to be at Rufus’s beck and call. Amara struggles with this transition in her life as she can’t help but think of her friends back at the wolf den and the thought of leaving them all there to suffer haunts her. This leads her to make a huge decision, which will keep her tied to her former master, Felix. Amara finds herself even less free, but she has the strength to stay strong. She needs to stay strong as she has fallen in love with someone she shouldn’t. Amara is truly in a quandary. She is not only risking her life but the lives of others. She has some very difficult decisions to make.

I have been looking forward to book two for ages, having pre-ordered the signed edition months ago! And it did not disappoint. At just shy of 500 pages (if you don’t include the exclusive content) I flew through it. Amara did have me getting rather irritated with herself, as she really did make some very stupid decisions, but I have to commend her for her strength and bravery, she never gives up and never lets anyone get in her way. I also loved learning more about Britannica, she is a brilliant feisty character and I am looking forward to learning how her life's journey progresses as the story continues. Book three is most definitely going to be pre-ordered as soon as it’s available, I hope it’s not going to be too long a wait!

Oh Elodie Harper 🙌🏻 you have done it again!

As soon as I saw this appear on NetGalley, I jumped straight on it, as there was no way I was prepared to have the second instalment of Amara’s story out there and have to wait any longer to read it.

Whilst The Wolf Den gave us the transformation of the free Greek doctor’s daughter, to the enslaved prostitute, now known as Amara, this novel charts her transition from slave to freedwoman to courtesan. I love the fact that the author shows a realistic portrait of the psychological effects that these changes have wrought; they are traumatic and she is both scarred and toughened by her experiences.

I won’t spoil the plot by revealing too much detail but I am sure that you will be pleased to know that Brittanica finally finds her voice. I was totally swept away by the depiction of life in the Pompeii of the period.

I now can’t wait for the next book. Loved it.

With thanks to Head of Zeus books, NetGalley and the author for a arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

A vivid and atmospheric work of historical fiction, drawing me into the world of Roman Pompeii and holding me there. The House with the Golden Door carries on from The Wolf Den, and it does build upon and progress the characterisation from the first book. It's hard hitting and dark at times, and ably portrays the dilemmas and powerlessness of the non high ranking Romans. Very engrossing! I kept going back to just read a little bit more - though at times I did have to stop and carry out conversations in my head with the character of Amara about her actions.

Having just finished reading this book I am yet to fully digest it. I am exhausted in the best way and am once again desperate for the release of the following book, longing to see what Amara’s story still has to offer.

No longer enslaved at the Wolf Den, we return to Amara as she navigates her new role as courtesan and freedwoman. However, the luxuries of her “freedom” lose their shine quickly, and Amara is soon juggling the need to retain her patron, shake off her former pimp, and safeguard her future which, as a woman, is constantly in jeopardy.

Amara grows stronger and more resilient in this book, cleverly using tactics she has learnt in enslavement in her newly elevated position. She continues to be an engaging protagonist, being elegantly ferocious and infuriatingly but believably flawed. You can’t help but be transfixed by her.

Familiar characters return, both to my delight and dismay, all managing to either warm, break, or anger my heart. Britannica is brilliantly developed and her relationship with Amara is one of my favourite aspects of the book. Victoria’s loyalty is repaid, Felix’s ego keeps growing, and Rufus continues to underestimate his concubine.

As if Amara’s troubles weren’t enough, the impending doom of Vesuvius looms over her story. We are a few years away from its eruption and whether Amara escapes Pompeii or not, it is sure to impact her. I don’t know if that’s where this trilogy is headed, but it feels too coincidental not to be. And I’m not sure how I’m supposed to wait until book 3 arrives to find out.

eARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The following review contains some mild spoilers.

4/5 ⭐️

After reading the Wolf Den a couple of months ago, I was starved to know about what was going to happen next. Was Rufus as kind as he seemed? Was Felix going to get his redemption arc? Was Amara going to rectify things with Menander? The Wolf Den was a random book I requested on NetGalley because it sounded interesting, but it quickly became one of my top reads of 2022. Given this, one can imagine how excited I was to receive an arc for its sequel.

So, how did it compare?

Pretty freaking good!

...although probably not as good as its first instalment.

Something that carried over wonderfully from the first book was Harper's ability to bring to life such complex characters. I really adore Amara, as well as her perseverance in trying to establish a better life for herself and those she holds dear. Personally, I think the main reason why I like this series as much as I do is due to Harper not shying away from writing characters that would not traditionally be considered 'heroes'; Amara often manipulates those around her in order to achieve very self-serving outcomes. She is flawed, but that is what makes her so compelling. This also applies to all other characters. Are about 85% of them super infuriating and just awful (I am looking at you, Victoria)? Yes, but that is the appeal. The love-to-hate relationships I had with a lot of the characters really made me want to keep reading. Barely anyone is a good person, if any. A perfect example of this was Felix: he was an awful person, yet I kept looking forward to see what he will do next. I was really at the edge of my seat at times. I think this speaks volumes to Harper's ability in creating a story and characters that project such intense feelings in the reader. While this is partly due to the exquisite writing in this book, it is also evident that the plot is very carefully constructed in order to instil those emotions, which is a talent that cannot really be taught. Everything is included in the story for a reason and, even if things might not seem significant as you read them, they almost always come full circle to impact the plot later on. This really provides for an excellent and engaging narrative.

Though I overall enjoyed this book and I am dying to read the last instalment in the series, there were a few things which I was not a fan of that I think are worthwhile to talk about. Most glaringly was the shift in love interests between the first and second book. This is not necessarily a criticism of Philos: he was a great character, and my heart ached for him and his story. However, if I am honest, I barely remembered him from the first book, so the way he took the role of the main love interest was really random (also did not help that for the first 40% of the book I thought he was an old man since I completely forgot his description in the first book!). Sure, him and Amara seemed to develop some sort of connection at the start of this book, but her romantic interest in him felt like it developed overnight. This left me feeling jarred about this relationship, and I actually did not really start rooting for them until about the 70% mark! This leads to another big issue I had with this book: the pacing. Similarly to the Wolf Den, this book also has a seemingly slow pace, even if things keep happening. However, unlike the Wolf Den, I found not enough was happening to really keep me always hooked; the first 50% of this book felt a bit like a fever dream where things were just flying past. That being said, I started to enjoy it a lot more in the last third of the book.

Although I may not have enjoyed The House with the Golden Door as much as I enjoyed the Wolf Den, this book was still excellent and I am excited to read the third book in the trilogy! Apart from following how Amara's story is going to pan out, I am also interested in finding out how the story will play out with the Vesuvius eruption which is bound to occur in about 3 years time in the book. While I do think this book might suffer slightly from second-book syndrome, so I am hoping that the final instalment can really tie all the loose ends together!

TWs: abusive relationship, mentions of sexual violence, mentions of murder, slavery, death, rape, eating disorder

My thanks to NetGalley and Apollo publishing for the opportunity to review this book.
One of my most anticipated reads after thoroughly enjoying her first book in ‘The Wolf Den’ series and it didn’t disappoint.
Yet another gripping five star read that captivated me from the fist page till the last.
My only regret is that I’ve now got to wait patiently for the next instalment.
Highly recommended addictive read.


I loved the first book in this series by Elodie Harper, *The Wolf Den*, so I was ecstatic when I found out that there was a sequel coming out *and* that I had been approved for the Netgalley e-arc.

Amara won her freedom from the violent Felix at the end of *The Wolf Den*, and now she has to come to terms with her new life and leave her former colleagues behind. Though Amara is free, she is still beholden to the gender norms of ancient Pompeii and her new patron, Rufus. Amara’s character grows a lot and it is gratifying to watch her use and hone her cleverness to outwit all her new challenges.

Like the first book in this series, *The House with the Golden Door* is brutal and heart-bruising. Amara does her best to make her life less desperate and miserable, but the shadow of being a formerly-enslaved woman relying on one mercurial man still hangs over her. Harper is talented at straddling the line between realistic brutality and glints of hope in her storytelling, so Amara’s harsh experiences feel concrete and relatable, but not like manipulative torture porn (giving side-eye to *A Little Life* here). The ending of this book is a breathtaking cliffhanger and I am impatient for the final book in this trilogy, yet it also felt satisfying.