The temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper

In this third volume of The Wolf Den trilogy, we meet Amara in Rome as the wealthy concubine of Demetrius, former counselor to the just-deceased emperor Vespasian. But Amara still longs for her old lover Philos and her daughter Rufina who reside in Pompeii. But several challenges will await her in Pompeii: her old pimp Felix knows her deepest secret and then there is Mount Vesuvius that will strike mercilessly.

I’ve been heavily looking forward to the third volume in this great series for a while and The temple of Fortuna did not disappoint. The book begins with a sidestep in Rome where we meet Emperor Titus and his power-mad brother Domitian. Amara flees at one point to Pompeii, where only new dangers follow. We meet Felix, Victoria and Berenice again, as well as Drusilla, Livia, Julia, Philos and Rufina. Pliny the elder and his rescue mission is also portrayed. And Britannica, a genius character in my opinion who might be my favourite.

Of course, we all know the volcanic eruption is about to happen and the horror and ignorance that follows is well portrayed. The ending is bittersweet and does fit well. My only criticism is that a suspicious number of characters do survive the disaster and the epilogue was unnecessary for me. It feels weird to end the book not from the main character’s point of view but from one of the side characters.

I hope Elodie Harper keeps writing books and preferably still in Roman setting. Warmly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Have you read this series? Any other recommendations about Ancient Rome?