The Legacy (Light in the Empire)

By Carol Ashby

Description:

When Rome has taken everything, what’s left for a man to give?

Betrayed by a ruthless son who’ll do anything for power and wealth, Publius Drusus faces death with an unanswered prayer―that his treasured daughter, Claudia, and honorable son, Titus, will someday share his faith. But who will lead them to the truth once he’s gone?

Claudia’s oldest brother Lucius arranged their father’s execution to inherit everything, and now he’s forcing her to marry a cruel Roman power broker. If only she could get to Titus―a thousand miles away in Thracia. Then the man who secretly told her father about Jesus arranges for his son Philip to sneak her out of Rome and take her to the brother she can trust.

A childhood accident scarred Philip’s face. A woman’s rejection scarred his heart. Claudia’s gratitude grows into love, but what can Philip do when the first woman who returns his love hates the God he loves even more?

Titus and Claudia hunger for revenge on their brother and the Christians they blame for their father’s deadly conversion. When Titus buys Miriam, a secret Christian, to serve his sister, he starts them all down a path of conflicting loyalties and dangerous decisions. His father’s final letter commands the forgiveness Titus refuses to give. What will it take to free him from the hatred poisoning his own heart?

Forgiven is the third volume in the Light in the Empire series, which follows the interconnected lives of the members of three Roman families during the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. The eight 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.

Book Takeaway:

No heart is so hardened against God that He can’t reach it, and it’s often the agape love of His followers that is the tool He uses to crack the shell.

Why the author wrote this book:

The Legacy picks up the story of a key character from Blind Ambition, the second novel in the Light in the Empire Series. Publius is a Roman father who discovers the Jewish God is real, learns what Jesus did, and becomes a Christian. His oldest son wants to be free of his father’s control, so that son arranges his father’s death for his faith. But after Publius’s death, how will his other son and his beloved daughter learn enough about what and why their father believed so they might consider following Jesus, too?

In real life, there’s no greater joy for a parent than knowing your grown children love the Lord. But we’ve all heard the saying, “God has no grandchildren.” Every person has to consider what Jesus did, why he did it, and then choose to follow or not. We do our best to guide our kids toward God, but sometimes life brings circumstances that prevent that. Sometimes it takes God bringing someone else into their lives to show them His love and bring them to the decision point. The Legacy tells the story of how a father’s choice to believe spins out into the future of his grown children.