Reviews with content warning for Violence - The House with the Golden Door

i adore the writing style, and the first half of the book was as strong as book one. however, amara makes some really dumb decisions that just made her unlikeable in my opinion. brittanica was the best character and i wholeheartedly agree with her on basically everything. so, well written book, but the main characters decisions made it a slog to finish.

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annatollia's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Like the first in the series, Elodie Harper weaves a compelling narrative that is rich in history and emotion. This book was harder for me to read than The Wolf Den because it deals so heavily with effects of trauma.

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bookswithlauren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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withlivjones's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I’ve only had Rufina for a day and a half but if anything happened to her I’d kill everyone in this room and then myself

Wow. What an incredible continuation of Amara’s story that takes us away from the brothels of Pompeii and to the extravagant but tenuous life of the city’s courtesans. Pompeii springs to life through Harper’s writing, and so do its inhabitants! I said this with The Wolf Den and I’ll say it again here, Harper creates some of the most well-written female characters and relationships I have read in a very long time, maybe ever. Amara is a fantastic protagonist, and even if some of her decisions are so reckless they cause you to bang your head against a wall in frustration, you can so easily see her desperation to protect herself and those she loves. Britannica and Victoria are also incredibly deep characters, and even the more minor female characters like Martha and Drusilla are explored with a lot of depth and empathy. A special mention of course goes to Felix for being such a slimy, awful, sinister villain whose pursuit of Amara really helps keep the tension high.

I adored the development of the relationship between Amara and Philos, I’m usually not a fan of forbidden romances but their devotion to each other is so beautiful that I have no choice but to root for them.

Alas, in the end their relationship did fall victim to the miscommunication trope and there wasn’t enough time in the book for them to fully resolve that mess, but I do hope they manage to reconcile in the third book.

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