Author(s): Sherri Smith

Popular Fiction

Offered up by her parents at the age of six to become a Vestal Virgin, one of six hand-picked women who symbolically protect the Roman Republic, Aemilia has spent her entire adult life in the all-female, strictly-guarded House of Vesta. Now, having committed a mortal sin, she has suffered a horrifying punishment. Buried alive, Aemilia sits in her pitch-black tomb awaiting certain death. With the end drawing near, she looks back over her claustrophobic, restricted life: the intense friendships she formed, the implacable enemies she made, the ingenious ways she devised of breaking the endless monotony of life as a Virgin. Finally, Aemilia recalls the passionate but forbidden romance which caused her downfall. Providing a tantalising glimpse into a little-known, forbidden world, The Virgin