Dangerous times, difficult friendships, lives transformed by forgiveness and love
Are some wounds too deep to forgive?
With a ruthless father who murdered for the family inheritance, Marcus Drusus plans to do the same. In AD 122, Marcus follows his brother Lucius to Judaea and plots to frame a zealot for his older brother's death. But the plan goes awry, and Lucius is rescued by a Messianic Jewish woman. Her oldest brother is a zealot and a Roman soldier killed her twin, but Rachel still persuades her father Joseph to put his love for Jesus above his anger with Rome and hide Lucius until he heals.
Rachel cares for the enemy, and more than broken bones heal as duty turns to love. Lucius embraces Joseph's faith in Jesus, but sharing a faith doesn't heal all wounds. Even before revealed secrets slice open old scars, Joseph wants no Roman son-in-law. With Rachel's zealot brother suspecting he's a Roman officer and his own brother planning to kill him when he returns, can Lucius survive long enough to change Joseph's mind?
Forgiven is the first volume in the Light in the Empire series, which follows the interconnected lives of six Roman families during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. Each can be read as a stand-alone. The twelve novels of the series will take you around the Empire, from Germania and Britannia to Thracia, Dacia, and Judaea and, of course, to Rome itself.
This was a beautiful story. It was interesting to see how life was for Messianic Jews years after Jesus’s crucifixion. To know what they had to endure made me think of how many of us, as Christians, don’t take our faith seriously. I loved Joseph and his family. The love he had for the Messiah and his children came leaping off the pages.
— Amazon Reviewer
I thoroughly enjoyed Carol Ashby’s Forgiven and am excited to read the entire series (Light in the Empire). I am so interested in Christianity in this time period and I thought it was excellently researched and it was easy to immerse myself in the cultural and historical background that she painted.
— Amazon Reviewer
The best part of the book is the wonderful Christian story it tells and the way the love of Christ and His sacrifice is woven into the pages and weaved into the character development. I will definitely be reading more from this author.
— Amazon Reviewer
