Empress of the Seven Hills

Empress of Rome, Book 3

By: Kate Quinn

Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley

Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Powerful, prosperous, and expanding ever farther into the untamed world, the Roman Empire has reached its zenith under the rule of the beloved Emperor Trajan. But neither Trajan nor his reign can last forever....

Brash and headstrong, Vix is a celebrated ex-gladiator returned to Rome to make his fortune. The sinuous, elusive Sabina is a senator's daughter who craves adventure. Sometimes lovers, sometimes enemies, Vix and Sabina are united by their devotion to Trajan. Trajan's ambitious Empress has her own plans for Sabina. And the aristocratic Hadrian - the empress' ruthless protégé and Vix's mortal enemy - has ambitions he confesses to no one, ambitions rooted in a secret prophecy.

When Trajan falls, the hardened soldier, the enigmatic empress, the adventurous girl, and the scheming politician will all be caught in a deadly whirlwind of desire and death that may seal their fates and that of the entire Roman Empire....

©2012 Kate Quinn (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Quinn handles Imperial Rome with panache." ( Kirkus)

5 mins in AND ITS WONDERFUL!

Would you listen to Empress of the Seven Hills again? Why?

I would listen to both "Mistress of Rome" & "Empress of the 7 Hills" all in one sitting if I could!

Which character – as performed by Elizabeth Wiley – was your favorite?

Vix, is my favorite character with he's vulgar attitude in Elizabeth Wiley's voice (HA!)

Great story

I thought this was the best book in the series so far. It had a lot of action

The best of the series

This book was just so fantastic. My favorite of the series so far! Cannot wait to listen to the next book. I will be sad once this series is done!

Maybe this author isn’t for me

I’ve read four of her books now and she seems hit or miss for me. I absolutely loved the Alice Network and Diamond Eye was overall good as well. However Rose Code and this one were just okay, and I was left wanting something more. The stories had promise, and some of it was captured but they are slow and repetitive which is annoying. In both books I found myself skipping ahead and listening on at least 1.5x speed to get to the next bit of the story.

this was good

Audible is certainly helping me flush out my TBR list! I love how I get a free one of my choice every month. It is brilliant.

I've been wanting to read this, but every library over the years either a line out the door or the book isn't available (I haven't checked this new library in my new town yet). When I saw this was for grabs on Audible I swooped in and picked it up.

The story follows Vix who is the son of the couple in the first book (oh how I miss them). He is back in Rome and ready to get a career going. Sabina is the daughter of a powerful senator and the niece of the emperor. The two stumble upon each other (childhood friends) and they get a little romance going. Things happen and they fall apart. However, they remain friends over the years. They occasionally become lovers and become enemies. I like to consider them frienemies. They hate but love each other at the same time.

At the same time, we get some snipbits of the emperor's wife (gods I wanted to smack her silly) and Titus. I loved him! I want more from him in the future.


Like this author's other work she really knows how to bring the past alive and make these characters blossom. They are always so complex and they feel so real. I really could relate to Sabina in a lot of ways. Especially the love of traveling (*grumbles about needing a passport*) and wanting to consistently learn and be her own woman. I felt bad for her, but she did put a lot of her issues on herself. She should've married Titus............I digress.

I enjoyed the story for sure. My only real issue was how Vix's POV and how it was written. He was given 1st person while the other characters were given 3rd person. Also, Vix seems to be telling this story to someone so it has forewarnings and little notes. This was indeed annoying. Luckily we had a good narrator that loved using different voices so I always knew who's POV it was.

The narration was pretty good. It took me a while to really get into how she narrated. She really did add a lot of passion into her storytelling. I grew to appreciate it especially during the battle scenes and high intense scenes.

In the end, this was good. Not as good as the other two, but still a good read. I enjoyed the characters and I enjoyed the story. There were a couple of things that bugged me, but I am curious to see where the series takes off next. I'll stamp this with 3 stars.

Disappointing

This one did not hold up well. Way too much of Vix whining about Sabina and not growing up. Plus our villian, Plutuna, was more annoying than evil. Will be a while before I venture into another one of these.