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A review by lisa_setepenre
Empress of the Seven Hills by Kate Quinn
2.0
A few years ago, I read and loved Kate Quinn’s first two books, [b:Mistress of Rome|6581303|Mistress of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #1)|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442722370s/6581303.jpg|6774744] and [b:Daughters of Rome|8577314|Daughters of Rome (The Empress of Rome, #2)|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1281115123s/8577314.jpg|13446294]. They were everything I wanted in a book: immensely readable, complex characters, amazing villains, solid plots that kept me entertained, authentically historical without feeling stuffy and so on. Given all that, I don’t know why it took me so long to read Empress of Rome.
Now that I have read it, I really wish I’d loved it a lot more than I did, that it lived up to my memories of Mistress of Rome and Daughters of Rome. Because this book was a chore to get through and I ended up liking it very little.
And all for one reason. Well, mostly for one reason. And that reason was Vix.
I get that he was supposed to be a lovable rogue, a ruffian-with-the-heart-of-gold. I get that. But I loathed him. He was too abrasive, too brutal, too much of a womaniser, too much of a man who makes plans for his girlfriend, never tells her, then gets pissed at her for not automatically knowing and bowing to his almighty plan/heart/boner. I would liked this book a thousand times more if he’d been killed off in the first chapters. Unfortunately, he survives, and I’m still meant to like him, as all of the ‘good’/’hero’ characters do, and think he’s an excellent judge of character. It also did not help that his POV sections were written in first-person, often making foreboding statements that felt unnecessary.
Other issues with Empress of Rome included Hadrian’s characterisation. By the third section, it felt like his character had shifted significantly, but inexplicably, for the worst. Without understanding why, it was hard to really accept — although I suspect there was a one-sentence explanation of “he was always like this, he was just hiding it before”. I also didn’t really like how his sexuality was treated, it felt a bit too much like a punchline to a joke.
Plotina’s POV was also a chore to get through — she was flat out unlikeable and meant to be, but she lacked a deliciously evil, faintly ridiculous edge and intrigue that made Quinn’s earlier villains so entertaining.
The plot felt a bit undeveloped and undefined, filled with many divergent threads that don’t really go anywhere. Even the relationship between the two protagonists, Vix and Sabina, didn’t really go anywhere. They’re in love, they have sex, they stop having sex, Vix hates her until he stumbles over her again and then they’re right back at the start of the cycle again. I’m not sure what the brief diversion into the problems of be a Jew in the Roman Empire was about. It’s a serious topic, Quinn hints at a serious debate, but it goes nowhere and just sort of sits there, feeling unnecessary to the story.
The ending was inconclusive, so much so that I have a feeling that Empress of Rome and the next book, [b:Lady of the Eternal City|20486495|Lady of the Eternal City (The Empress of Rome, #4)|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404850357s/20486495.jpg|32737496], are really meant to be the one novel, but the story got too big to be confined in one book.
But really? All of this could have been forgiven if I hadn’t spent most of the novel wishing Hadrian would brutally murder Vix.
Now that I have read it, I really wish I’d loved it a lot more than I did, that it lived up to my memories of Mistress of Rome and Daughters of Rome. Because this book was a chore to get through and I ended up liking it very little.
And all for one reason. Well, mostly for one reason. And that reason was Vix.
I get that he was supposed to be a lovable rogue, a ruffian-with-the-heart-of-gold. I get that. But I loathed him. He was too abrasive, too brutal, too much of a womaniser, too much of a man who makes plans for his girlfriend, never tells her, then gets pissed at her for not automatically knowing and bowing to his almighty plan/heart/boner. I would liked this book a thousand times more if he’d been killed off in the first chapters. Unfortunately, he survives, and I’m still meant to like him, as all of the ‘good’/’hero’ characters do, and think he’s an excellent judge of character. It also did not help that his POV sections were written in first-person, often making foreboding statements that felt unnecessary.
Other issues with Empress of Rome included Hadrian’s characterisation. By the third section, it felt like his character had shifted significantly, but inexplicably, for the worst. Without understanding why, it was hard to really accept — although I suspect there was a one-sentence explanation of “he was always like this, he was just hiding it before”. I also didn’t really like how his sexuality was treated, it felt a bit too much like a punchline to a joke.
Plotina’s POV was also a chore to get through — she was flat out unlikeable and meant to be, but she lacked a deliciously evil, faintly ridiculous edge and intrigue that made Quinn’s earlier villains so entertaining.
The plot felt a bit undeveloped and undefined, filled with many divergent threads that don’t really go anywhere. Even the relationship between the two protagonists, Vix and Sabina, didn’t really go anywhere. They’re in love, they have sex, they stop having sex, Vix hates her until he stumbles over her again and then they’re right back at the start of the cycle again. I’m not sure what the brief diversion into the problems of be a Jew in the Roman Empire was about. It’s a serious topic, Quinn hints at a serious debate, but it goes nowhere and just sort of sits there, feeling unnecessary to the story.
The ending was inconclusive, so much so that I have a feeling that Empress of Rome and the next book, [b:Lady of the Eternal City|20486495|Lady of the Eternal City (The Empress of Rome, #4)|Kate Quinn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1404850357s/20486495.jpg|32737496], are really meant to be the one novel, but the story got too big to be confined in one book.
But really? All of this could have been forgiven if I hadn’t spent most of the novel wishing Hadrian would brutally murder Vix.