The Wolf Den Trilogy #1 & 2 (The Wolf Den and The House With The Golden Door) by Elodie Harper || Raw, Emotional Look at Slavery in Pompeii

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Perfect for readers who want:

• Historical fiction, particularly set in Ancient Italy
• Fiction about parts of society that tend to be overlooked or glossed over
• A heartfelt, gut-wrenching account of women struggling to survive
• Strong women who refuse to give up
• A dive into a unique culture and mythology
• Scheming, planning, and scraping out a living

I’ve been meaning to start this series since the first book came out, so the release of the sequel seemed like a perfect time to pick them both up! I’m a sucker for anything that involves mythology (yes, even the cliché staples like Greek and Roman mythology), especially historical fiction. A book about enslaved women working in a brothel? That felt like a new one. A voice that isn’t often told and a perspective that fiction doesn’t explore as much. So obviously, count me in!

The Wolf Den Trilogy is a hard-hitting emotional exploration into life in Ancient Italy (specifically Pompeii) as a slave. It’s brutal, it’s difficult, but it’s not without its romances, found family, and one heck of a setting!

Harper is a very vivid writer, transporting readers back to the streets of Italy with her characters. The setting is rough and harsh, not for the faint of heart, but it’s an eye-opening look into parts of ancient society that are typically overlooked and undervalued. The books are very slice of life, which means they’re character driven and don’t have much of a plot to pull readers along. Still, I couldn’t put the first book down, I was so invested in Amara’s story!

The Wolf Den (Wolf Den Trilogy, #1)

Sold by her mother. Enslaved in Pompeii's brothel. Determined to survive. Her name is Amara. Welcome to the Wolf Den...

Amara was once a beloved daughter, until her father's death plunged her family into penury. Now she is a slave in Pompeii's infamous brothel, owned by a man she despises. Sharp, clever and resourceful, Amara is forced to hide her talents. For as a she-wolf, her only value lies in the desire she can stir in others.

But Amara's spirit is far from broken.

By day, she walks the streets with her fellow she-wolves, finding comfort in the laughter and dreams they share. For the streets of Pompeii are alive with opportunity. Out here, even the lowest slave can secure a reversal in fortune. Amara has learnt that everything in this city has its price. But how much is her freedom going to cost her?

Set in Pompeii's lupanar, The Wolf Den reimagines the lives of women who have long been overlooked.

Rating:

Many thanks to Union Square and Co. for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

Join the dregs of society in Pompeii with the enslaved women of the The Wolf’s Den, a local brothel.

Their stories are tragic and heartbreaking, as one might expect, and each woman has taken a different path to reach where they’re at. Still, they all share one thing in common: neither their lives nor their bodies are their own anymore. I absolutely love that Harper chose to focus on these characters. The author delves more into her reasoning in an afterward that I highly recommend reading. As she points out, this is a segment of society that would have been so prevalent in Pompeii (in fact, in much of Ancient Italy at the time) but which tends to be largely overlooked and underappreciated. Well, no more!

I want to preface everything by saying that because of the focus of this book, this is absolutely not for the faint of heart. Not just because of the course language (though there’s that, too), but there’s a lot of other potential triggers and content warnings that potential readers should be aware of. If you can stomach these things, though, this book is soooo worth the read! I mean, the rough content is sort of the point, right? The visceral writing and often ugly situations are what force you to stop and think and really empathize with how these women were forced to live and survive.

As a former free woman, Amara has had a taste of owning her own life, and she’ll stop at nothing to win back her freedom.

Which, of course, is easier said than done, especially for a brothel whore. Amara’s history is one of privilege, including education. She’s smart and conniving and not ready to give up on the idea of reclaiming some sense of freedom that she once had. Even if she’ll never be the same person she once was.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the way Amara uses her wits and scheming to try to reach her goal. It’s a dangerous game she plays with her pimp, but then again, her entire life is dangerous. Since no one is going to save her, she needs to save herself, which for someone who has no real control over her life anymore, this decision is a huge one. It’s impossible not to root for her, given the circumstances.

Despite the abysmal situations they live in, and how easy it would be to turn against each other, the she-wolves of the Wolf’s Den have formed a begrudging, almost sisterly relationship, taking care of each other and keeping each other alive.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying they all like each other, because that’s not the case. For the most part, though, they do care for each other, even love each other to a certain extent. In a world where nobody cares for them or would even notice if they died, their fellow she-wolves are really the only sort of bond or connection they have.

Even though, in some ways, the women are competing with each other, the bonds between these women are absolutely stunning and something I really enjoyed to see. Fiction is filled with women pitted against each other and tearing each other down, so it’s especially nice to see these women, who have nothing, creating their own little family and caring for each other.

Pompeii really comes to life through Harper’s work, and as rough as it is, it’s one that I enjoyed visiting nonetheless.

Would I want to live there permanently? No, obviously not. Harper makes that pretty clear with the brutal lives her characters live. Still, Pompeii isn’t without its charm, and Harper captures that marvelously. My favorite aspect is the blend of cultures, particularly with the slaves. They come from all over, and each brings a little piece of their homeland with them.

There’s also the overall culture of Pompeii, including the deities, the mythology, and the celebrations. As brutal as the society may be, it’s not always that way, and it’s nice to see brief glimpses of something more than just the struggle and suffering.

The House with the Golden Door (Wolf Den Trilogy, #2)

The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glamorous yet perilous...

Amara has escaped her life as a slave in the Wolf Den, the city’s most notorious brothel, but now her survival depends on the affections of her patron: a man she might not know as well as she once thought.

At night in the home he bought for her, the house with the golden door, Amara’s dreams are haunted by her past. She longs for her sisterhood of friends—the women at the brothel she was forced to leave behind—and worse, finds herself pursued by the cruel and vindictive man who once owned her. To be truly free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is.
Amara knows her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.

This is the second installment in Elodie Harper's acclaimed Wolf Den Trilogy, which reimagines the lives of women long overlooked.

Rating:

Many thanks to Union Square and Co. and Turn the Page Tours for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished version and may differ from the final product.

Amara is finding out the hard way that freedom comes at a cost, and that nowhere is really safe for an ex-slave.

While her situation has obviously improved from the brothel, being a freedwoman doesn’t really mean she’s free, after all. A girl’s still gotta eat, right? Amara’s struggle to survive is still far from over, as she tries to establish herself in a situation that will keep her comfortable and at least a little more secure should something happen. Which, of course, is easier said than done.

The House With the Golden Door introduces many new characters, but the one thing they all have in common, including Amara, is that they’re desperately trying to survive in a man’s world. Despite supposedly being free, these women have to continue to scheme and plan and strategize just to stay that way. It’s a whole eye-opening experience entirely separate from being enslaved but not entirely dissimilar to it.

Some old characters return, and some new characters appear, but the thing they all have in common is the struggle to figure out who they are and what their role in life really is.

Freedom sounds great when you’re enslaved, but knowing what to do with newfound freedom is something entirely different. It certainly doesn’t solve all the problems, as the women in this sequel find out. Most of the women are freed, but even as such, they walk a very thin line. One wrong step and they could be thrust back into poverty, losing the privilege they’ve worked so hard to gain. As much as the first book felt stacked against the slaves, The House With the Golden Door makes it clear that women have to scrape and fight for a place to exist in the man’s world of Pompeii.

I didn’t entirely love all the characters that come back, but I also didn’t particularly like them in the first book, either, so that’s no surprise. What was a surprise is that Brittanica makes a reappearance, and I absolutely fell in love with her character. In a world so far from her home (and so different), she’s a character who has always been fierce and strong and refusing to bow or give up. She continues to be such in this book, as readers learn more about her, but even as she discovers her own ambitions and goals in life, which are necessarily not the same as the other women. Her growth is so much fun to watch!

There’s a slow burn forbidden/doomed romance in this book which will surely appeal to readers who enjoy that trope.

I do love me a good slow burn romance, so on that front, I wasn’t disappointed. In a civilization such as this, though, it’s hard to imagine that any romance wouldn’t be doomed, which is something Amara definitely struggles to come to terms with.

This relationship is romantic and healthy and serves as a stark contrast to Amara’s previously life in the brothel. It’s ill-advised, of course, but what isn’t in this world? Still, I feel safe wagering that it’s guaranteed to win hearts of readers who enjoy romance!

The plot (and sometimes the characters) felt a little all over the place and a bit inconsistent, without the same purpose and direction the first book had.

In The Wolf’s Den, there was, at the very least, a driving force for Amara: earning her freedom. That was the thread that pulled the reader through the plot. In The House With the Golden Door, the goal is a little less cut-and-dry, which made the story feel much more slice of life, especially with the lack of tension and threat that was ever present in the first book. There were definitely times the story seemed to drag and the pace slowed to a crawl.

The characters, too, were a bit all over the place. I loved Amara’s shrewdness and wit in the first book and all the necessary scheming she undertakes. In the second book, though, she basically makes no good decisions, even when the outcome should be obvious. Amara isn’t the only character to suffer from this, though. Despite the implication of character growth in this story, most of the characters actually have none, hinting at change but then reverting back in ways that don’t always make sense.

About Elodie Harper

Elodie Harper is a journalist and prize-winning writer. She is currently a reporter and presenter at ITV News, and before that worked as a producer for Channel 4 News. Elodie studied Latin poetry both in the original and in translation as part of her English Literature degree at Oxford, instilling a lifelong interest in the ancient world. The Wolf Den, the first in a trilogy of novels about the lives of women in ancient Pompeii, was a number one London Times bestseller. Elodie lives in the UK. You can visit her at elodieharper.com and find her @ElodieLHarper.

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