I really can’t wait for the sequel (I believe it’s titled ‘The House with the Golden Door’?) and I am both very excited and very afraid of what could happen next… (And in the background, you can hear the cracking sounds of my heart breaking into pieces…if you’ve read this book, you’ll know.) It took several unexpected turns in rapid succession and I thought it was absolutely amazing. I’ve mentioned the ending already but I’m going back to it again because it was so incredibly tense.

The anguish of tangled moral dilemmas and compromises that Amara and other characters face were very tangible to me, and the subtle romance thread was almost unbearable to read in how futile it seemed. “The shortest-lived whores in the business. “I should have told him to f*** off.”ĭido laughs, taking her by surprise. “I shouldn’t have let him touch you,” Amara says. It wasn’t romanticised or gratuitous in its violence and darkness – there were even some actually quite funny and joyful moments – and I really felt for the characters, in all the shades of their love and rage and hope and grief. “I guess I’ll get used to it, all of it, eventually.”

Within a richly immersive setting, the story felt very raw and honest. There was also an interesting inclusion of the famous historical figure Pliny the Elder that also introduced some subtle ace-aro rep, which was quite a nice surprise. The ‘slow’ parts for me were mainly in the first half, and things pick up pace- and stakes-wise at about the 60% mark. The main character Amara is absolutely compelling, and because I cared so much about her fate (will she really be able to regain her freedom? Lord PLEASE) and the lives of her fellow she-wolves, I was still generally hooked even when the plot was technically dragging. Felix is very intriguing and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him, if that ending was anything to go by… (One came pretty close though, the resident cinnamon roll of this book.) Even the main antagonist and some minor ones aren’t without their sympathetic and/or humanising elements, despite how horrible they can be.

Pretty much everyone (important) felt distinct and realistic, flaws and all – even the characters that are most ‘good’ out of them all, aren’t perfect. Speaking of characters, they are truly the standout point of this book, with the complexity of each person and the relationships between them. While ‘The Wolf Den’ works well as a standalone – goodness me that ending packed a punch – I really care about the characters and don’t want to say goodbye. Yet another new-to-me author that has blown me away! ‘The Wolf Den’ was an engrossing look into a part of Roman history I’d never known about and I’m so glad this turned out to be the first in a trilogy!

The wolf den trilogy book 2