"Love, lust, loyalty, treachery, power, revenge and redress — this enthralling story of a freed Pompeii prostitute is an explosive triumph."
The second adrenaline-charged instalment of Elodie Harper's Pompeii-set trilogy (we adored The Wolf Den), The House with the Golden Door picks up Amara’s gripping story after she’s been freed from Pompeii’s most notorious brothel, though that comes at a perilously high price, and she’s far from a free woman. Richly evocative, and reeling with drama and the determined passion and conflicts of its unforgettable heroine, this is historical fiction at its most thrillingly entertaining.
Though Amara’s shift in status from Wolf Den whore to courtesan brings some freedom and a better standard of living, her life now depends on her new patron, a wealthy, well-connected man who wants her to remain thin and has her at his whim — she’s his “little bird”, his “pretty little thing”. While adjusting to her new life, and taking enormous risks in the name of true love, Amara frees some friends from the Wolf Den, but at great financial and emotional cost, for this results in her becoming indebted to the man she was freed from, "the most violent pimp in Pompeii".
Though owned and forced to lead grossly subservient lives, the women of The House with the Golden Door are guileful and ambitious. Fierce Britannica, for example, wants to be a gladiator. But betrayals, bribery, and a persistent “crushing sense of powerlessness” ensures readers are in for an irresistibly exhilarating ride. That said, Amara is a woman who refuses to be crushed. In her words, “there is always a price to pay for underestimating a woman”. With a heady climax leaving Amara on the brink of tremendous change, the final book can’t come quick enough.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
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A beautifully vivid piece of historical fiction, Elodie Harper produces characters you will love and hate in equal measure, and a story you will be swept along with.
Carrying on from the huge success of The Wolf Den, The House With The Golden Door is a thrilling sequel that sets things up perfectly for the finale.
One of the things you will see repeated in reviews of Elodie's writing is how beautifully vivid the world is that she creates, characters that will draw a strong response as you read and a story that absolutley flies at pace.... Read Full Review
“The House with the Golden Door” is a triumph. The second in Harper’s planned trilogy, sequel to The Wolf Den, it continues the story of Harper’s protagonist Amara as she attempts to extricate herself from the dangerous life of a brothel slave and negotiate the social and practical dilemmas necessary to achieve the status of a freedwoman of independent means.
“The House with the Golden Door” is a triumph. The second in Harper’s planned trilogy, sequel to The Wolf Den, it continues the story of Harper’s protagonist Amara as she attempts to extricate herself from the dangerous life of a brothel slave and negotiate the social and practical dilemmas necessary to achieve the status of a freedwoman of independent means.
Appropriately, the storytelling revolves around the network of friends, lovers, enemies, allies, and business associates which Amara must navigate. Its power and success derives in large part from the decision to focus on genuine “bottom-up” history, instead of allying itself with the current trend of retelling the traditional stories of heroes/gods through a non-traditional perspective.... Read Full Review
This is such a great series. If you haven’t read the first one you really should as you’re missing out. This book really is an enjoyable and pleasurable read with such engaging characters and storyline.
This is such a great series. If you haven’t read the first one you really should as you’re missing out. This book follows on perfectly from the first book in the series. It is great to catch up with the same characters again as we continue to follow their lives as free women and slaves, and life continues to be as challenging.... Read Full Review
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