Crushed Hopes and Hopeful Beginnings — Carol Ashby

Crushed Hopes and Hopeful Beginnings: a Roman-era adventure with dangerous choices, unlikely friendships, and world views in conflict. Can God work all things for good if you don't even think he's real? Lusario was content in Cyrene as part of the Philandros household. After he returns from serving the youngest son, Diokles, while he studies in Alexandria, Lusario expects to become a paid tutor for his master, earning the money to buy his freedom. But when Diokles uses him to pay a gambling debt, he must go to Carthago as the slave of a man who hates him. His once-bright future is gone forever. So why does his Christian friend Timon insist things will turn out so much better than he expects? But Carthago brings new people, like Caelus Martinus, and new possibilities into Lusario's hopeless world. Could Timon be right? When Lusario sees a chance to escape his fate, will going for it give him a future again, or only hasten his death? Crushed Hopes and Hopeful Beginnings is a short novel about the turbulent lives of Lusario and his friends three years before Carol Ashby's next full-length novel, River of Life, when two of them embark on a journey up the Nile that changes everything. This is a fabulous ancient-world series of novels that follow the lives of fictional early Christians. Carol is meticulous with her research and a true expert on Ancient Rome! History lovers and those who enjoy my biblical books are going to LOVE this series! -- Roseanna White, best-selling author and Christy Award winner. If you enjoy the Roman-era Biblical fiction of Tessa Afshar and Francine River's Mark of the Lion series, you'll love the stand-alone novels of the Light in the Empire series.