I must admit… although I love Christian fiction, I don’t read as many novels now as I did in my teens and early twenties. Nowadays, I seem to favor non-fiction books that encourage me in my faith, marriage, parenting or ministry. So anyway, the only reason I chose to review this novel was because a few other books I wanted to review weren’t available yet. Oh, but I am so glad I got to read it! I read through the book in a week, which is quite uncommon for me in my current state of life :).
City On Fire: A Novel of Pompeii is a historical Christian fiction book written by Tracy Higley. The story is set in first-century Italy and incorporates everything from gladiators and Roman politicians to Jews and early Christians. My first impression of the book was that it reminded me of “Quo Vadis”, but of course, the two books cannot be compared.
The story revolves around a Jewish slave girl (Ariella) who pretends to be a gladiator in order to escape from an immoral master. She ends up in the city of Pompeii where a wealthy politician (Cato) uncovers her identity and is determined to keep her safe from predators.
The author subtly weaves early Christians into the story-line and brings about their meaningful encounters with the lead characters. I love the way Ariella, a Jew who’s lost faith in her God… and Cato an honest politician on a quest for justice, both understand the truth about Christ in their individual ways.
The author has obviously done a lot of research before writing this book which is evident in the minute details. Although the immoral state of the people at that time has been described, it is rightly presented as the result of humans falling prey to evil forces that take advantage of their weaknesses.
I loved the book, although I wouldn’t recommend it for younger readers. A few scenes that I connected with seemed to be right out of the book of Acts in the Bible. The last few chapters especially are fast-paced and soul-stirring. If you like historical fiction and the stories of early Christians, you’ll love this book.
Disclosure: I received a free Kindle version of this book from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.