A review by withlivjones
The House with the Golden Door by Elodie Harper

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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