The difficult thing about Empress of the Seven Hills is that I can't decide whether or not I like it more than Mistress of Rome. I definitely like it just as much; I may like it more, which I can't say about the prequel to Mistress, the immensely enjoyable but slightly frustrating Daughters of Rome.

Empress is exactly the kind of book that I've always wanted. It has everything I like: flawed main characters; Women Who Do Not Please; multi-dimensional villains; and long, drawn-out drama. Long live the love/hate relationship of Vix and Sabina. (I can't say the same of his marriage, which while realistic and appealing, made me grind my teeth. And that has nothing to do with my preference of the former pairing.)

Much of our story takes place from the perspective of Vix, son of Arius and Thea from Mistress. He is our hero, moreso even than his love interest and counterpart Sabina. Of course Vix is likable. We as readers are already sentimental about him due to his many adventures as a child in the previous book. But Vix is also deeply, deeply flawed. And I've got to say that I feel that a lot of reviewers seem to miss that when critiquing Sabina's every move and decision? Sabina's lack of effort and sacrifice in their relationship is constantly criticized; in fact, the pair are two of a kind. Just as Sabina chooses duty to Rome over Vix, so Vix consistently chooses duty to Rome over his lovers and loved ones and later his wife and children. No matter how happy Vix becomes with Mirah (and really, they aren't that happy because she deserves better treatment and he's too practical for someone so tied to her Jewish heritage and the symbolism in Masada) he will ultimately leave her for orders from Rome--and the sickly loving arms of Sabina, who is Rome. Vix constantly made decisions that kind of disgusted me. He's really quite the asshole, which sort of surprises me considering the kind of mother he has. But at the same time, he made decisions that I admired and I loved him for being him. He loves blindly and is distracted by the next shiny sparkly thing that catches his eye. His only consistent loves are Trajan (and Trajan is Rome) and Sabina, who he also hates (and don't forget, Sabina, too, is Rome).

Sabina is an even more complex character. And she's a complex female character! Who, thus far, hasn't been raped! She controls her sexuality and she weaponizes it and she does what she wants because she wants to! How much do I love that Sabina can be in love and still choose to do something other than follow that man wherever he goes? Sabina accepts that she loves Vix. She also accepts that she can't be with him the way he wants her to be, not just because it's not in her nature, but because she, like him, has other duties. (And how much do I love that Vix is incapable of seeing his own hypocrisy, just as a real person would be?) Their relationship is just captivating to read about because it is so obviously doomed and yet so obviously the most important relationship, platonic and romantic, in their lives. For all the action and plot that happen in this book (and do they happen) the key of it is character and that particular relationship. The novel would be nothing if it didn't work. And oh, does it work.

The other characters are strong as well. Plotina is a sort of foil to Domitian's empress: a wannabe kingmaker who is as mad as "Domitia" was cool, as well-treated by her (admittedly sexually uninterested) husband as "Domitia" was abused. Hadrian, a man Vix hates as soon as he sees him (at first due to petty jealousy and then, slowly, because of much deeper and more founded reasons) is one of those lovely Quinn antagonists who is very. slowly. unveiled. He doesn't walk onto the stage cackling, though you know from the freaking summary of the book that he's the "bad guy". Hell, Hadrian is recorded as one of the Good Emperors, and the book certainly gives an explanation for that as well. The one thing I will say is that I didn't completely buy Vix and Sabina's devotion to Trajan. I understood it more from Sabina, who spent so much personal time with the man. I couldn't get why this very obviously flawed man so captured Vix's attention. Then again, perhaps that's a part of what makes Vix so wonderfully flawed. He clings to the flaws of people like Sabina, and is blind to many others (including his own). But hey, he grows up.

We see a lot of returning favorites like Marcus and Calpurnia, and a few (nicer than the others I mentioned) new darlings like Titus and Faustina. I am biting my nails on that one. As for Mirah--as I said before, I'm not crazy about her relationship with Vix, though I think it is necessary and at times likable enough. (It seems a bit plot device-y, and sometimes it reminds me of the Michael/Apollonia marriage in The Godfather.) I also found Mirah herself incredibly frustrating in her lack of practicality. Her religious fervor is admirable, but made me want to shake her by the shoulders sometimes. And a lot of her traits made me imagine that she's meant to be the "good woman" next to Sabina's "bad woman". Not that Quinn views one or the other as either. But it's there, nonetheless.

That aside, Empress is a really, really great book. I loved it to pieces and am biting my nails until the next installment. (I need some kind of resolution to my Vix/Sabina relationship, though I can't imagine that it'll be good.)