Healer of Carthage: A Novel (The Carthage Chronicles)

by Lynne Gentry

A modern-day doctor gets trapped in third-century Carthage, Rome, where she uncovers buried secrets, confronts Christian persecution, and battles a deadly epidemic to save the man she loves.

A twenty-first-century doctor. A third-century plague. A love out of time.

First-year resident Dr. Lisbeth Hastings is too busy to take her father's bizarre summons seriously. But when a tragic mistake puts her career in jeopardy, answering her father's call seems her only hope of redeeming the devastating failure that her life has become.

While exploring the haunting cave at her father's archaeological dig, Lisbeth falls through a hidden hole, awakening to find herself the object of a slave auction and the ruins of Roman Carthage inexplicably restored to a thriving metropolis. Is it possible that she's traveled back in time, and, if so, how can she find her way back home?

Cyprian Thascius believes God called him to rescue the mysterious woman from the slave trader's cell. What he doesn't understand is why saving the church of his newfound faith requires him to love a woman whose peculiar ways could get him killed. But who is he to question God?

As their different worlds collide, it sparks an intense attraction that unites Lisbeth and Cyprian in a battle against a deadly epidemic. Even as they confront persecution, uncover buried secrets, and ignite the beginnings of a medical revolution, Roman wrath threatens to separate them forever. Can they find their way to each other through all these obstacles? Or are the eighteen hundred years between them too far of a leap?

• ISBN10: 1476746338
• ISBN13: 9781476746333
• Publish Date: 4 March 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 28 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[cherryblossommj]

*I read a digital ARC via NetGalley, and cannot wait to get my hands on a real copy.*

In my line of reviewing, I acquire a lot of books but do not always have time to read all of them. Often I read a little bit and see if I'm captured to read more. In most cases, I'll want to read more and do along and along until something "more" comes along. With digital ARCs, I do not always have a cover image, and thus books might slip my memory -- so it was a special day when I opened up the digital file to begin my journey and adventure within the pages of [b:Healer of Carthage|18143978|Healer of Carthage (The Carthage Chronicles, #1)|Lynne Gentry|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1376314052s/18143978.jpg|25539426].

I had never read a story by [a:Lynne Gentry|4987522|Lynne Gentry|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1377288302p2/4987522.jpg] before, and now after the fact, she tops on the list of my favorite authors. I found myself enthralled from page one and couldn't put it down. It took my free time in the days following my birthday and the Thanksgiving holidays and it was enchanting and delightful. Often I like stories that combine the contemporary and historical and this one does and it doesn't. Essentially the prologue and epilogue are contemporary settings while the whole of the novel is historical, set in the days of ancient Carthage.

The heroine is spunky and intriguing and coming from a medical background I thoroughly enjoyed her challenges and struggles. The hero is thrilling and attractive in words on the page (I'm picturing an intelligent religious zealot for the Lord Spartan man). All of the characters were perfect for their setting and placement in the story. The family angle, the "bad guys", and the "special" supporting roles as well.

This is a story about fighting, and about change. It is a wonderful literary escape, yet also something to find more of yourself in the page and venture forth with it all changed. I loved it. I definitely want to read the eBook prequel and the sequel as it comes available in 2015.