Life is a funny thing, and just because you’ve never met someone in person doesn’t mean you don’t know them. Such is my friendship with Carol Ashby. Our friendship began with the shared grief of a mutual friend’s sudden death.
Carol and I shared the shock and prayed for each other as the wound of our friend’s passing slowly healed. As life continued, our prayers for each other did, too. The grieving ebbed, giving way to more chatty emails about life events. Though I’m sad our friend left us, I’m grateful for the life of friendship she gave Carol and me. We’ve become go-to prayer partners on writing, family, and life in general. And her meticulous-scientist brain is very helpful to my chaotic creative thoughts!
Book Description:
River of Life: a Roman-era adventure with dangerous choices, unlikely friendships, world views in conflict, and a love story you won’t forget.
When the future you dreamed of looks impossible, maybe God has a better one planned.
Driven from home because of her Christian faith, Neferu lands a position tutoring Jason, her childhood friend’s young son. Jason’s father despises him and banishes both the boy and Neferu to his ancestral estate, where Jason becomes the target of a family member who wants Jason’s inheritance for her own boys. How can a mere servant thwart her mistress before her young charge is killed? Knowing what she does, is her life at risk as well?
When Lusario’s new master, Caelus Martinus, decided they would train together to work as architects, Lusario’s once-bleak future seemed bright. But if they don’t get a commission within a month to design a building, both will lose the future they long for.
During their trip up the Nile to compete for a building contract, disaster strikes, forcing Neferu to rescue Lusario and Caelus from certain death. As the threat to Neferu and Jason grows, both men would do anything to protect her and the boy. Might death await them all if they fail?
River of Life is another exciting addition to the stand-alone Light in the Empire series of Early Church Biblical fiction novels. The story is complete in itself, but if you’re curious about how the men’s friendship started three years earlier, you’ll enjoy Carol Ashby’s novella, Crushed Hopes and Hopeful Beginnings.
My Review:
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 4 Smiles
Carol Ashby’s newest addition to the Roman-era series, Light in the Empire, is a beautiful testament to her research skills. Setting River of Life in first-century Egypt adds a whole new depth of fascinating detail to Ashby’s storytelling. Characters are well-developed, including the spoiled and entitled Roman boys and their wicked mother. The main characters are real and believable, the wild land of Egypt is also a character to be reckoned with, and the ancient culture in which those characters grapple with real life is expertly woven into their story without feeling like a college class.
As always, Carol Ashby includes the Gospel message in a very clear and believable way. River of Life is full of adventure, history, the reality of danger for Christ-followers in the first-century early church, plus a developing sweet romance. If you enjoyed Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion series or the Roman-era Biblical fiction of Tessa Afshar (those marked “New Testament),” you’ll enjoy River of Life and every book in the Light in the Empire series.
More About the Author:
I mentioned in the intro that Carol was a scientist and brings that scientific brain into her writing. However, her novels never sound like a textbook! Though she, like me, has a passion to teach, her novels are all about telling a story. Carol’s website is where you’ll find the fascinating information (and downloads) for homeschool teachers and students. CLICK HERE to find her website’s home page. You’ll find a “tip of the iceberg” there but at least get an idea of where to begin searching for what will serve you best.
CLICK HERE to discover more details about ALL of Carol’s early-church biblical fiction. CLICK HERE to learn more about her newest release, River of Life.
About Those Links…
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