Review: The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper
The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper is the intense third installment of The Wolf Den trilogy. My reviews for books 1 and 2 can be found here and here. To be honest, I kind of put off reading this final installment because I knew it was going to be rough with the culmination of the stories and character arcs against the backdrop of the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption.
Temple opens three years after the events of book 2 with Amara living as a wealthy courtesan in Rome under her patron Demetrius. But when political ambitions and feuds threaten Amara’s safety, her patron sends her back to Pompeii with the expectation of their marriage later that year.
Amara is at once unseated by returning to Pompeii’s gritty streets where memories of trauma and abuse run wild. While she reunites with her former fellow “wolf”, the Iceni warrior Britannica who is now a gladiator, Amara also comes face to face with her past love Philos and their three-year-old daughter Rufina. They live at the estate of Julia Felix under the pretense the Philos, still enslaved, is Rufina’s caretaker while most believe she is the daughter of Amara’s former patron Rufus. Amara is at war with herself in her proximity to Philos, for it is clear she still loves him and he in turn, yet both know the utter danger involved in acting upon those feelings–especially with their daughter now in the mix.
Tremors rock Pompeii in growing frequency, and while the citizens shrug them off as normal, the reader will be feeling the heightened anxiety of what is to come. Amara briefly faces off with her old adversaries Felix and Victoria, now married, and worries her and Philos’ secret will come undone at Felix’s behest. All of these problems, however, will soon pale in comparison to the coming catastrophe that really hammers home the idea that many human problems and social constructions are trivial compared to the might and terror of nature.
About 60% through the book, the eruption begins. I will not give away too much, but rest assured I had to stop myself from binging the rest of the book in one sitting after this part because things move very fast and very intensely. Your heart races knowing what will happen on a grander scale, yet aches for the characters and their possible fates. Will all their struggles be for naught, or will they–against all odds, find their happy ending after all? Again, I don’t want to give away too much, but I found the end both surprising and satisfying. The Temple of Fortuna is a wonderful conclusion to this amazing trilogy filled with complex and nuanced relationships, characters, and social structures.
Below, please find a few choice photos from my own visit to Pompeii in 2022. It was both magical and eerie at dusk.
