Like all the volumes of the Light in the Empire series, Blind Ambition, set in AD 114, and Faithful, set in AD 122, can be read and enjoyed as stand-alones, but they share some characters. The families of Tiberius Cornelius Lentulus, Gaius Licinius Crassus, and Baldric of the Vangiones are key players in these two tales of courage, faithfulness, unselfish love, and transformed lives set in Germania, Rome, and points between. Other stories that feature Lentulus or Crassus family members include The Legacy (AD 114 in Rome), and Honor Bound (AD 122-3 in Rome and Germania).
Now available in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and international Amazon sites. Also available at Kobo world wide, at Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardcover, and Nook (epub), and at local bookstores by special order.
Blind Ambition by Carol Ashby
Volume 2 of the Light in the Empire Series
Sometimes you have to almost die to discover how you want to live.
It’s AD 114 in the Roman province of Germania Superior, and being a Christian carries a death sentence. Tribune Decimus Lentulus is on the fast track for a stellar political career back in Rome. When he’s robbed, blinded, and left for dead, a young German woman who follows the Way finds him. Valeria knows it’s his duty to have her and her family killed, but she chooses to obey Jesus’s command to love her enemy and takes him home to care for him.
It’s not his miraculous recovery that shakes Decimus to his core. It’s the way they love him like family and their unconcealed love for Jesus. In spite of himself, he falls in love with the Christian woman Rome wants him to kill. Can Valeria hide her faith to follow him into the circles of Roman power? Or should he abandon his ambition to help rule the Empire and choose to follow a different way?
Blind Ambition is the second volume in the Light in the Empire series, a mosaic of stories that follow the interconnected lives of the members of several Roman families during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. The fourteen 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.
Historical background for Blind Ambition
Now available in paperback and Kindle formats at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com.au, and international Amazon sites. Available at Kobo world wide and at Barnes & Noble in paperback and Nook (epub).
Faithful by Carol Ashby
Volume 4 of the Light in the Empire Series
Is the price of true friendship ever too high?
In AD 122, Adela, the fiery daughter of a Germanic chieftain, is kidnapped and taken across the Roman frontier to be sold as a slave. When horse-trader Otto wins her while gambling with her kidnappers, he entrusts her to his friend and trading partner, Galen. Then Otto is kidnapped by the same men, and Galen must track them half way across the Empire before his best friend loses a fight to the death in a Roman arena.
Adela joins Galen in the chase, hungry for vengeance. As the perilous journey deepens their friendship, will the kind, faithful man open her eyes to a life she never dreamed she’d want?
A trip to the heart of the Empire poses mortal danger to a man who follows Jesus, especially when Galen must seek the help of an enemy of the faith for Otto to survive. Tiberius hunted Christians when he governed Germania Superior and banished his own son when he became one.
When Tiberius learns sparing Galen offers a chance at reconciliation with his son, he joins the trio on their journey home. Can his life-long hatred for the followers of Jesus survive a trip with the Christian man whose courage and faithfulness demand his respect?
Faithful is the fourth volume in the Light in the Empire series, a mosaic of stories that follow the interconnected lives of the members of several Roman families during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. The fourteene 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.
Historical background for Faithful
Where to get Carol’s books:
Paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com.au and international Amazon sites
Paperback, hardcover and Nook (epub) at Barnes & Noble.
Paperback and hardcover at many online booksellers
Paperback and hardcover at independent bookstores
Ebooks at Kobo world wide
Other books in the stand-alone Light in the Empire series
Volume 1: Forgiven Are some wounds too deep to forgive?
Volume 2: Blind Ambition Sometimes you have to almost die to discover how you want to live.
Volume 3: The Legacy When Rome has taken everything, what’s left for a man to give?
Volume 4: Faithful Is the price of true friendship ever too high?
Volume 5: Second Chances Must the shadows of the past destroy the hope of the future?
Volume 6: True Freedom The chains we cannot see can be the hardest ones to break.
Volume 7: Hope Unchained Can the deepest loss bring the greatest gain?
Volume 8: Honor Bound Honor had forced him to protect her. Time would tell if he’d regret it.
Volume 9: Hope’s Reward Must the secrets we hide destroy our hope for a future?
Volume 10: More Than Honor
As he hunts the one who killed her father, will he discover the secret that could lead to her death?
Volume 11: What Matters Most When faced with impossible choices, how do you decide what matters most?
Volume 12: Truth and Honor Is truth worth the price if it costs you everything?
Relationships between the Light in the Empire Novels
Lists and charts of the times, locations, and people in the different novels. All can be read stand-alone, but you might enjoy reading some together because of what they share.
Important aspects of Roman history for each can be found in the short articles at the end of each novel linked here and in longer articles in this website.