Just as good as the first one!
★★★★★★☆
Title: The House with the Golden Door (Wolf Den Trilogy #2)
Author: Elodie Harper (UK)
Genre: Fiction / Historical fiction
First published: 12 May 2022 by Head of Zeus
Edition: E-ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher
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.
***
After having read (and loved) The Wolf Den last month, I was very eager to read this one. I am glad to say it did not disappoint. Maybe it was a touch less eventful than the first book, but it just worked for me.
I loved being back with Amara as she negotiates a tricky tightrope of love and life as the concubine of her rich patron. Of course things never go smoothly and it is harder to leave her life at The Wolf Den behind as she initially thought.
There is something very human about the way the author writes Amara’s story as she goes through to day to day life. You feel her anxiety, her hopelessness AND her hope. You feel like you are in Pompeii, like you understand the lives these slaves and she-wolves lead. How trapped they are. I even felt like I understood Felix in one way or another, the way his vileness was created in his past.
As it is supposed to, the love story in this one is heartbreaking and it is hard to see a happy outcome. Yet you hope along with Amara that there will be one day.
If you have not yet started this series, what are you waiting for?!
6 out of 7 stars
You can find my rather rambly reading diary whilst I was reading this one here.
Lola Et La Vie 