I know, as I said in a picture book review just the other day, that people are much the same the world over and in every time period. Their problems are modern day problems: homosexuality, abortion, materialism, young adult rebellion, lack of respect for tradition, divorce, mystical spirituality, radical feminism. They’re more like twentieth or twenty-first century people plunked down in an authentic set of first century Rome. Marcus, Julia, Hadassah and the others are all interesting characters, people I want to know more about, but they’re not people of the first century. The author did her research and got the details of the time period, how gladiators were trained, how a Roman household was set up, how Christians met together in secret, all the historical setting, all right and well described. It’s not nearly as goopy as I may have made it sound, but there is a problem. Not only do their differing stations in life separate them, but Hadassah’s faith and Marcus’ lack of belief in anything make the consummation of their love impossible. Then, Hadassah, the slave, and Marcus, the Roman master and heir to a fortune, realize that they are falling in love. Hadassah attempts to serve these people as Christ would have her serve them and to witness to the truth of the gospel in her life while keeping her Christian identity a secret.
Only because of the old double standard, Marcus can indulge himself in living selfishly as a libertine with few consequences while Julia is expected to behave herself, do as she is told, and avoid scandal. Julia has an older brother Marcus who is as spoiled and pleasure-loving as his baby sister. Hadassah’s mistress is Julia, a spoiled, willful brat who becomes worse in character as the story progresses. She is taken to Rome as a slave where she becomes the personal servant of the daughter of the house of the patrician family Valerian. A Voice in the Wind is the story of Hadassah, a young Jewish Christian who survives the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Liz Curtis Higgs says (on the back of the book), “This series is without peer in Christian fiction!” Janet Parshall liked it, too. A Voice in the Wind is the first book in The Mark of the Lion series by Christian author Francine Rivers.
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