The House With The Golden Door was published in 2022 and is the second book in the Wolf Den Trilogy.
The Wolf Den Trilogy is a historical fiction series written by Elodie Harper. The novels are set in Pompeii and follow the story of Amara, a girl sold into slavery. Amara is forced to become a prostitute in a brothel called the Wolf Den.
I really enjoyed The Wolf Den, the first book in the trilogy. We visited Pompeii a few years ago and I loved how the story made the ancient city come alive. I was therefore excited to read the second book in the series.
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The story picks up where we left off at the end of The Wolf Den. After escaping the brothel and her enslavement, Amara is now living in luxury. Her life could not be more different as she dresses in fine clothes and lives in a beautiful house with servants of her own.
However, Amara is unable to forget The Wolf Den and the women she left behind. She is also plagued by nightmares of her tormentor and former slave master, Felix.
As Amara attempts to help those she loves, she starts to realise that she still doesn’t have freedom. In attempt to be truly free, Amara realises she must be just as cunning and ruthless as the men who want to own her.
The House With The Golden Door Book Review
As with the first book in the series, the descriptions are so vivid as Elodie Harper brings Pompeii and its inhabitants to life. I particularly enjoyed the scenes where the streets were bustling and I could clearly imagine the colours and the sounds.
I enjoyed Amara’s development in The House with the Golden Door as she became a more complex and nuanced character. She was still reckless and impulsive but she learnt to become cunning and resilient. Some of her decisions were questionable but I always understood her motivation.
I admired Amara’s tenacity and strength as she realised her “freedom” was precarious and completely dependent on a man’s whim. She was beholden to her patron and realised she needed to start looking after herself.
The themes from The Wolf Den run throughout this book, including body autonomy and the quest to be truly free. I enjoyed the author’s exploration of the power dynamics in Ancient Pompeii, not just between slave and owner, but also between men and women in the patriarchal society.
The sisterhood wasn’t as evident in this book and that was one of the things I loved about the Wolf Den. I enjoyed the banter and affection between the she-wolves in the first book, and I missed that in the second.
The betrayals and looming threat created an almost foreboding atmosphere. However, I did find the storyline wasn’t quite as compelling as The Wolf Den. It felt more like it was setting the scene for the final instalment of the trilogy.
Having said that, I will definitely be reading the third book. I’m keen to know how the story ends (and whether we get to read about the eruption of Vesuvius!)
What to read next
If you’ve read The House With the Golden Door, I’m assuming you’ve already read The Wolf Den! Therefore your next read really should be the final book in the trilogy, The Temple of Fortuna.
For books with a similar feel to them, I’d recommend Circe by Madeline Miller and The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. Although they are set in Ancient Greece rather than Pompeii, they’re also gripping feminist stories.
