The Widow of Pompeii (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798198629905)

A city buried. A truth preserved. A woman history almost forgot.

Pompeii, A.D. 79.

Aurelia Valeria is supposed to be silent.

As the young widow of a respected Roman merchant, she is expected to mourn quietly, protect her household, and surrender her husband's unfinished affairs to the powerful men circling his estate. But when a dying man arrives at her side gate carrying Marcus's hidden seal, Aurelia discovers her husband left behind more than debts.

He left names.

Widows stripped of their rights. Children stolen and renamed. Freedmen whose papers were buried. Witnesses marked for silence. At the center of it all is a missing ledger powerful men are willing to kill for - and a child named Junia whose very identity is being erased before Aurelia can save her.

As Pompeii trembles beneath its painted walls and Mount Vesuvius begins to wake, Aurelia is pulled into the secret mercy network Marcus built in the shadows: a baker with hidden doors, a Jewish healer who prays without bargaining, a scarred former soldier, a sharp-tongued household woman, and a scribe whose own freedom was left unfinished.

But Titus Flavius Sabinus, Pompeii's polished patron and most dangerous predator, wants the ledger destroyed, the witnesses silenced, and Aurelia declared too unstable to control her own house.

Then the mountain opens.

With ash falling, roofs collapsing, and the city turning from marketplace to tomb, Aurelia must choose what can be carried, what must be left behind, and what must never be allowed to burn.

Because some names are worth saving even when the world is falling.

The Widow of Pompeii is a sweeping standalone historical novel of courage, faith, hidden corruption, and survival in the final days of Pompeii - perfect for readers who love ancient Roman historical fiction, emotionally powerful women's fiction, and faith-threaded stories of ordinary people standing against impossible darkness.