A review by chlojo91
Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn

*edit 4/01/14* In light of this not being the final volume (there's a sequel coming this fall)I'm going to clear my rating until I see how it all plays out.

I wanted to love this... but I didn't. Now, that isn't to say it isn't a good book, it is. Kate Quinn is a marvelous writer and her books are not only incredibly well written they are also incredibly well researched. No other authors I have read have been able to write so captivatingly about ancient Rome as Ms. Quinn does. I've been looking forward to this release since I finished Mistress of Rome last year. I loved Mistress of Rome, and I loved Daughters of Rome, but this one fell somewhere between like and meh.

As I've already said the writing was fabulous but the characters *sigh*. Let me start with Vix. I love Vix I love him to pieces, his 'voice" took some getting used to since I believe this is the first time we've had a male voice in a Kate Quinn novel (don't quote me on that) and Vix is just very straighforward and a little bit crude. But once I heard Sabina, Vix's idiosyncracies where nothing compared to how badly I wanted to fling my ereader across the room when it was Sabina's turn for a chapter. No, really, anytime Sabina was talking I wanted to punch her right in her mouth. She was very analytical about things and would look at everything like it was a lesson to be learned, some great knowledge giving quest.

Now my tiny rant should be a testament to how well Ms. Quinn developed Sabina's personality. That's how she was supposed to be but it annoyed me so much I couldn't connect to her. And don't even get me start on Plotina. *headdesk* So I suppose that the main thing I disliked was the female characters in this novel.

Moving on, as with Mistress of Rome I loved the love story in this book. 
Spoiler
 even though we didn't get the happy ending we got in mistress of rome 
 Every time the two characters in the same room my heart started beating triple time. Ms. Quinn certainly enjoyed taking us on a rollercoaster with these two.

All in all I did enjoy it even if it was considerably less than it's sister books. But would still recommend it to fans of Quinn's, fans of Ancient Rome, and fans of romantic historical fiction.