Deo Volente! (If it’s God’s Will): Love in the First Century
Setting: Puteoli, Italy, 69 AD
Deo Volente! (If It’s God’s Will): Love in the First Century—a finished, original, inspirational, historical, romantic novel. It's a Romeo and Juliet story with a happy ending!
Claudia is the 20-year-old daughter of the magistrate of Puteoli, Italy, (where the Apostle Paul landed on his final trip toRome). Her cousin, Paolo, takes her to a clandestine meeting of a first-century Christian church. There she meets and falls in love with Anthony, the son of a local merchant, and a leader in the church.
However, her father betroths her to his middle-aged assistant, Darius. The story goes on to tell of Claudia and Anthony’s struggle to be together and grow closer as she grows in her Christian faith. She is baptized, but has to keep her newfound beliefs secret while faking pre-wedding rituals to the Roman gods. The day before the wedding, her father learns of her romance with Anthony and the church meetings and has Anthony arrested on trumped-up charges.
Will Anthony’s friends free him in time to stop the wedding?
The fact-based historical setting details the lives of Roman nobility, their pagan beliefs, their homes, culture, a Roman wedding, the baths and government. It also provides a look into the early Christian church—where they met, what they did, how they converted people and how it developed.
