'So, this is what it means to be desired by an emperor, ' she whispered to herself.
Free from prying eyes, Poppy threw her head back with a laugh of sheer triumph then pirouetted across the broad expanse of the cool marble floor.
She danced until it made her head spin.
30 A.D. The Roman Empire approaches the peak of its power and human life is of so little value, it can be snuffed out like a candle's flame. A girl known as Poppy is born to a minor patrician family in the relatively insignificant city of Pompeii. She becomes a stunningly beautiful and intelligent young woman, but one day her life is changed forever.
The victim of an act of indescribable evil, Poppy is filled with a white, hot anger that demands revenge. Intent on destroying those who have caused her such pain, she rises higher and higher in influence, until she is the most powerful and wealthy woman in the whole of the Roman Empire. She becomes Empress of Rome.
Fiercely loyal to those few she trusts and to the city where she was born, Poppy's friendship with her childhood friend, Farzana, anchors and supports her. This is the story of the real Empress barely touched on by the ancient Roman historians. In an age of murder, greed and obsessive ambition, she clings to her love for Pompeii and is loved in return by its people. As Pompeii's destruction by Vesuvius grows ever closer, she risks losing everything. But there is one secret that can never be destroyed.