A review by bluestjuice
Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn

4.0

I utterly tore through this, loving Sabina despite her flaws, and being amused by Vix despite his utter ridiculousness in some cases. I thought Quinn did a good job here of spinning off from the story told in Mistress of Rome without too much overlapping 'sequel' flavor - Vix and Sabina are both so different from their childhood versions in the previous that it isn't distracting, and the other characters who overlap are minor characters in one or the other of the stories. Overall, it all works. I loved the first half and the end left me a little cold, perhaps because it doesn't really sound finished - there is no tidy wrap-up, and another sequel is pretty obviously necessary to learn how it all goes down. That's my only real complaint - I don't mind the lack of a happy ending, but the sense that there is still so much left to tell is a bit frustrating.