I really enjoy books about antiquity, and this book nailed what I look for in books like this. The quotes are hit or miss for me, but I appreciate the quotes from graffiti as I feel that they suit the tone of the novel more than some others do. I felt like it connected more with its place in antiquity than the first novel did because of the variety of characters that are present. Amara is a wonderful character and her decisions do not paint her to be a villain or a saint, but they paint her to be a determined woman experiencing many emotions and just trying to survive. The morally ambiguous nature of Amara is perfect for her because she is a survivalist and sometimes tough decisions need to be made. I was glad to see more character development from other characters, as well. The shift in focus from life in the brothel in the first book to the character-driven developments of this novel helped make the book more interesting and definitely allowed some of the twists to be unexpected. The second half was where this book really shined. I was on the edge of my seat as Amara’s life took turn after turn. I definitely can’t wait to see what happens next for Amara.

(NOTE: SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1)

I haven’t read much ancient historical fiction. I get some mythology in the fantasy books I devour. I love historical fiction but have mostly read books from the WWII era. So, this glimpse into an era I have never ventured into before is exciting to me. I will definitely have be looking out for others that are similar.

I read this book on the invitation of Turn The Page Tours for their review tour of The House With the Golden Door. Thank you to Turn The Page Tours, Union Square & Co., and Elodie Harper for inviting me along and for the gifted books. I am loving this series.

The House With the Golden Door starts where The Wolf Den ends. Amara is free and is living a life she only dreamed possible. Compared to her life as a slave in a brothel, she is living in grandeur now. She is making new friends and conducting business for herself. Although, life as a courtesan of a respected man is still precarious and in an instant can be taken away. And as with most stories, nothing is completely as it seems.

Amara continues to strive for a better life. Her strength may falter from time to time, but her resolve never does. She wants more for herself and for the people she’s come to love and will stop at nothing to make it happen. Only problem is that the evil from her past is never far from her doorstep and she finds herself at the hands that would enjoy nothing more than to see her back in her cell in the brothel she came from.

Even with the tragedies that happen in The Wolf Den, I found this book to be even more heartbreaking. I found myself asking how much more? How many times can one person think they’ve gotten their wish, and can feel it in her grasp, only to have it snatched away again? How long can hope survive in a hopeless situation? How long till they just give up and relinquish themselves to the seemingly inevitable? Amara continues to amaze me with her tenacity and steadfastness.

We see a forbidden love blossom in this installment. I saw it coming but hoped against it. Not because they don’t deserve a love affair, but because I’m so afraid of what it will do to them in the end. But I do love this tender, heartwarming part of the story. It is my biggest hope for them to get their happily ever after.

The plots and schemes of the villains are never-ending. These people play with human lives like they are nothing more than objects for their own amusement. The more miserable these lives become the happier the perpetrators are. Some people are so hungry for power that they’ll misuse, abuse, and destroy whoever they can in order to have it. I truly need to see these particular characters get what they deserve.

I love how Elodie writes this story. Don’t forget, for those of us who know a little of the history of Pompeii, the destruction from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius is just on the horizon. And, the lives of slaves, especially women in the brothels, are horrendous. But this isn’t a story of only doom and gloom. It is a story of hope, strength, resilience, and love. I cannot wait to read the conclusion to this trilogy!

I highly recommend The House With the Golden Door, as well as the entire series, to fans of historical fiction, ancient historical fiction, mythology, found family, and forbidden love. I would love to see this become a movie series or tv series!

Thank you so much Netgalley, @turnthepagetours and @elodielharper for the review copy in exchange of honest opinion!❤️✨

I was super stoked to read the first two books of 'The Wolf Den' trilogy as the covers are marvelous and the blurbs promise a dark, captivating and emotional journey. The truth is I absolutely LOVED them. They aren't easy to stomach. The narration is so vivid, raw and brutal that it ripped my heart out. The more I read, the more I fell in love with Amara, the complexities of the characters and the world they live in, the demons they have to deal with. The story is harrowing but there were joy and light as well. In the first book, I adored the sisterly bonds between the women of the brothel. The second book is slower than the first but just as packed with friendship, grief, love and lots and lots of twists and thrill. Elodie is amazing when it comes to explore the dynamics of relationships and planning character developments. Highly recommended ❤️

This was good but it wasn't as great as the first in the series. The first one set my expectations high and this one felt different...it didn't instantly grip me like the previous did. I just sadly felt underwhelmed because it felt slow and like it couldn't hold my interest. The ending as worth it though and I just wish the rest of the book had kept pace.

Whew! This is definitely a tragedy trilogy! And I am absolutely ready for third and fin installation!
Wolf Den left Amara secured in a home financially provided by her patron. She left behind her family of women - lonely and constantly questioning how long she can hold this position.
The Wolf Den keeps its claws tight- Felix the man who owned her continues to pursue her. And what of the potter's slave she left behind?
I couldn't put this down. Bring on the next!

This is a story of Amara and Philos in the world of slavery. Rufus is her patron but she maintains a secret affair with his steward. Will they ever be freed man and woman in their lives? Is their love worth the risk? What if Rufus finds out? If he finds out, no question, he is going to kill Philos and throw Amara out, who will end up at the wolf den. Amara would do anything to not go back to the wolf den and face Felix again.

I admit that this is so long and I tried to DNF it half way. One of the reasons is that there are very less dialogues. And descriptions felt lengthy. E-book formatting is a little incomplete. As this is an ARC, I am gonna slide it. But the second half is a page turner.

Amara is a strong character. But Britannica is a badass, you never wanna mess with. I liked her. She should've killed Felix though.

I gave the story and all 3 stars. But, I changed my mind after reading the afterword, how much the author researched about that time, when there is slavery, and made the characters. I really appreciate it.

I didn't understand why this title is 'the house with the golden door'. Sure, everything is happended in Amara's house. But I thought that there is some significance to the golden door. Anyways, the cover looks beautiful.

This trilogy gets better with each book. The House with the Golden Door returns to Pompeii in 75 AD, four years before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and follows one woman’s journey from enslaved to freedwoman.

Amara’s life has vastly changed since the events of the first book. She is now a freedwoman but must still cater to the whims of her patron Rufus or risk losing his support, on which she is entirely dependent. At the same time, she longs to free the friends she had no choice but to leave behind at the brothel.

As much as she’d like to forget Felix, her previous owner, their paths continue to cross, and Amara can’t help but notice the same qualities they both share.

Amara must carefully balance appearing to be the woman Rufus desires while also preparing herself for life after he tires of her.

This second instalment solely follows Amara’s perspective. I said it in my review of The Wolf Den, but I’ll say it again: Elodie Harper excels at bringing Pompeii back to life. From the Forum, the shops, and the houses, Harper makes it easy to visualize this bustling time.

It has themes on the currency of beauty and what happens when it runs out.

I enjoyed seeing more of Brittanica and learning more about her background.

Although nearly 500 pages, I never felt bored reading this tome. This is fast becoming one of my favourite series, and I cannot wait for the third and final book.

Thank you to Union Square and Co. for providing me with a widget via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

(4.25/5) The first book in this trilogy, The Wolf Den, was so good. I knew that book was going to hurt me, and by about 40% of the way through, I predicted how. In The House with the Golden Door, I knew this book was going to hurt me, but I didn't know how until it happened. As was with The Wolf Den, this book was so raw and powerful but also compellingly easy to read. I was so captivated by the way that Harper wove actual historical facts, events, and people into the story. My only complaint about this book was that some things seemed to be repeated to a degree that I felt it wasn't necessary (I get it, I get it). I am anxiously awaiting the final installment in the series, if only because 79AD is quickly approaching in Pompeii, and there are so many things I need to know before then!

The first book in the series was good, but I was much more invested in the second book. Historical fiction about ancient Roman prostitutes is an angle I have not explored before, but I’m glad I am now.
Amara plays with fire during the whole book. Her existence depends on plying her body to men, although she is now free.
She risks everything several times and pays an extraordinary price each time.
It’s heart wrenching to read about a doomed love that can never be. I thought Amara was pretty naive on nonchalantly believing no one would discover a major secret. Eyes and ears were everywhere.
I can’t wait to read the next book.

Although not quite as great as the first book, The House With the Golden Door was still a statement. It was still a captivating dive into the world that was Pompeii. It was still an achingly realistic take on the bonds between people and how easily they snap. It was still an amazing book, and one I won't easily regret.

I went into this one expecting Amara to stay my favorite character, I wasn't at all expecting that to change. Somehow, it did. Brittanica, a character previously ignored, shone. Her loyalty was irreplaceable, and she slowly grew on me. By the end of the book, I was cheering for her, I loved her that much.

I also really liked Amara's character development. Through both books, I've enjoyed watching her morals develop. Her passion to survive yet avoid turning out like Felix is such an interesting dilemma. Shes a character I always enjoy reading about, one who will sacrifice anything to get what she wants.

So even though this one wasn't quite as good as the first book, i still really enjoyed it! I'll definitely be completing the trilogy, and I can't wait until the third book is released.

Thanks to Turn the Page Tours for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

The House With the Golden Door • Elodie Harper - ⭐️ 3.5 stars
•
With how much I enjoyed the first book I was eager to start the second one! I While I still enjoyed this I preferred the first book. I felt like there was a lot of build up that there would be a big blow up but it never came and that was kinda disappointing to me - it feels like it was also most pushed off and my happen in the third book

Thank you to @turnthepagetours and the publisher for the gifted copy

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: The House With The Golden Door

Author: Elodie Harper

Book Series: Wolf Den Trilogy Book 2

Rating: 5/5

Spice: 2.5/5

Diversity: Egyptian character

Recommended For...: historical fiction, romance, tragedy, Italian, adult

Publication Date: May 12, 2022

Genre: Historical Fiction Tragedy

Age Relevance: 18+ (slavery, rape, sexual content, romance, cursing, death, grief, domestic violence, violence, gore, fatphobia, pregnancy, childbirth)

Explanation of Above: The book discusses characters who live in brothels or are contractually bound to other people and also people who are just outright slaves in slavery positions. There is some slight romance, a lot of sexual content, and rape is mentioned. There is a lot of cursing and grief is shown and mentioned. There is some death mentioned. There is one scene of domestic violence, where a character is grabbed by the throat by another character, and there is some violence shown in the book and mentioned. There is also some gore with blood. There is one instance of fatphobic comments about a character being made. There is a pregnancy in the book shown a lot and there is a childbirth scene as well.

Publisher: Apollo

Pages: 472

Synopsis: The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glittering, yet precarious...
Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the town's most notorious brothel, but now her existence depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought.

At night she dreams of the wolf den, still haunted by her past. Amara longs for the women she was forced to leave behind and worse, finds herself pursued by the man who once owned her. In order to be free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is.

Amara knows her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.

We return to Pompeii for the second installment in Elodie Harper's Wolf Den Trilogy, set in the town's lupanar and reimagining the lives of women long overlooked.

Review: Ok this was a wild ride! In this book we got a little more into the thriller/intrigue aspect of this series. Amara is out of the fire for the most part, but still wishes to make right with her blood oath and to help out the girls still at The Wolf Den. Amara is quickly caught up in a new issue though, as our heroine finds herself haunted by old fears and new concerns. I thought the book did well to keep that epic feel to it. It’s kind of like a drama much like the first one, but it also has that epic feel to it much like The Odyssey or The Iliad, which I guess would make this more of a Tragedy. The character development was well done and the world building was great as well. As a final note before the third book is released, I’m wondering if the series will ever explore the fall of Pompeii or if this is set so far before it that it won’t happen. I’m invested and can’t wait for book 3.

The only issue I had with the book is that it felt a little flatter than the first one and a lot of the plot is stretched out, as the timeframe in this book is much shorter than the first one. I also wished that the plot was a bit more sped up, but overall I enjoyed it.

Verdict: It was well done! Highly recommend!

This was a compelling continuation of Amara's story, but I didn't love it quite as much as the first book. The plot and pacing weren't quite as tight, and there were considerable sections where the story seemed to drag a bit. In the first book, there were constantly things happening, and Amara always felt like she retained a great deal of agency despite her horrid circumstances. In this part of the story, however, it seemed that she mostly was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. She did come up with some schemes to cushion the fall, and I enjoyed the displays of her cunning. It just all paled in comparison to her machinations in the first book. I don't know. Maybe it was just that fighting to break free was a more engaging story than maneuvering to maintain her position.

One thing this book did really well was tackle the topic of PTSD. Amara experiences dreams, hypervigilance, reactions to triggers, and other signs of traumatic stress. Despite reaching her goal, she can't seem to leave her past behind her and does everything she can to help the women she left behind in the Wolf Den even though it could mean her ruin. This is all made even worse once she realizes the freedom she worked so hard and lost so much for is a sham. Ultimately, she just moved into a prettier cage while still being just as trapped as before. At that point, she really began to make even more incredibly reckless decisions, including starting a forbidden love affair, and she became more and more desperate as things began to unravel around her despite her best attempts to keep control. The downward spiral was absolutely heartbreaking at times.

There were some stunning betrayals in this book. I definitely did not see the ending of this book coming, and parts of it made me so angry. I now hate several of these characters with a passion, and I'm hoping they are killed off in horrible ways in the next book. The Vesuvius eruption would be too kind an ending for them. I didn't particularly care for where this book left Amara either, but it made sense that she would resort back to old patterns when completely cornered. She had a tough choice to make between a life of instability with love or a life where she had a modicum of control over her circumstances. I don't begrudge her the choice she made because I'm sure she thought it was the only way to keep everyone she cared about safe, but I was a bit annoyed by how she went about it.

All in all, this book was a brutal portrayal of life in Roman times for the lowest classes. If you enjoy historical fiction, I cannot recommend this series enough. I cannot wait to see how Amara's story ends. Therefore, I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars.

There’s one line in this book that really sums up the entire story: ‘men are always spoiled’

In nearly every interaction/relationship, no matter the man’s standing, he has more power than the woman in question.

The women are forced to make agonizing decisions for their safety, their children or their future.

Everything is a manipulation with no room for genuine feelings. Often even among the women.

I believe this is the second Wolf Den book by Harper, historical fiction books that document the lives of prostitutes and slaves in ancient Pompeii. The characters are well drawn, and it's easy to become enmeshed in the lives of Amara and her friends, and their struggles to be free.

The Wolf Den was a solid 5⭐️ read for me, and I was so glad to continue Amara’s story in The House With the Golden Door. I love how Elodie Harper writes with brutal honesty about the reality of life in Pompeii, and the hardships Amara faces as she struggles to adjust to her new life (sorry I can’t be more specific, but I don’t want to spoil book 1!). This really is a story of realizing that finding your freedom can take many different forms, and that not every story has an easy path to happily ever after.

Elodie Harper is an expert at making me really like characters that I simultaneously also totally hate—I don’t know how that’s possible 😂 If I'm being honest, I would say that I enjoyed Wolf Den a little more than House With the Golden Door--but this is still a beautifully written story, and I definitely recommend!

Elodie Harper does it again!! I sped through this book just as quickly as the first one and I think other readers will happily do the same. I really enjoyed watching the characters and their complex relationships develop over the course of the story. The writing is haunting and beautiful and has solidified this author as an auto-read for me.

Last year, I read a lot of mythology inspired books/mythology retellings. I found that this type of book, with that type of “ancient” setting is something that I really enjoy reading. I was already quite interested to get into this trilogy, so when I saw the opportunity to pick up “The House with the Golden Door”, I just took it.

I just loved how Amara was written! I do love to read a strong and complex female character, and she was just that. It’s just so interesting how the author explores the city and society of Pompeii, while focusing on the experience of a woman navigating that city and society. Thus, giving voice to whom history has not always given voice to.

Like I said, I haven’t read the first book in this trilogy, “The Wolf Den”, but I do have every intention to do so! If you’ve read both books, what did you think of them, and do you think reading them in order is absolutely necessary?

I didn’t realize this was the second in a 3 part series so I will go back to read book one. I really loved this, so much worked and made me long for the next book. Amaras decisions felt wild, but maybe they make sense if you’ve read book one!

The House With the Golden Door is the gripping sequel to the Wolf Den, jumping back into the entrancing world of Pompeii.

Amara is now a freedwoman, but quickly learns that there are strings attached. Her time, her house, and her money are not her own. She has to reckon with having slaves of her own, maintaining Rufus’ interest, and becomes ensnared in debt in an attempt to free her friends at the wolf den. She is clever but also impulsive, leading to a lot of her problems. Amara struggles with who she can trust and does not always make the right choice, The morally grey cast of characters returns including her former pimp Felix, steward Philos, Victoria, Britannica and Drusilla. Drusilla, a former slave herself, encourages Amara to forget her past but she can’t. Getting to know Britannica better was a highlight of this book.

While some reviewers have complained about the more modern language being distracting, I think it makes it easier to read. The pacing is a bit slower than the previous book due to the uncertainty - now that she is free Amara has no clear goal to begin with other than pay off her debts. I would recommend this book even if you don’t typically enjoy historical fiction.

Thanks to Union Square and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.