A Rose from the Ashes Book

Pompeii, AD 79. Life as a slave in the Roman Empire is anything but happy. So when Lucius, fresco painter in the villa of his kind master Titus Crescentius, is allowed to marry a fellow servant—he can't believe his good fortune. Yet when his young wife dies in childbirth, the future Lucius hoped for crumbles at his feet. Alone and grieving, the last thing he wants is for God to plant any surprises in his path.

At eighteen, Fabia Crescentius is already an old maid. Irrepressible and creative, her interest in the arts has been her first love. But then her mother dies unexpectedly and her wealthy father moves the entire family from their country estate to his villa in Pompeii—turning the only life she's known upside down. Distrustful of the God her family worships and fearful of an impending arranged marriage, Fabia has but a few short months to learn to paint frescoes under the watchful eye of a new tutor.

As Vesuvius slumbers, will Lucius and Fabia learn to trust God's plan for their lives? And when the giant finally wakes…will love survive?