Valley of Decision

The most hardest part of getting involved in any series, is that one day is has to come to an end. Sometimes you want to refrain from picking up the final book because if you have truly come to love the characters, you know this is the conclusion to their story. They're not just characters in a book to you. You've come to know them, to care about them and to know what motivates them and those are the earmarks of a fine novel and an exceptional writer. If you're looking for such a series, I would encourage you to pick up the Carthage Chronicles from Lynne Gentry. It's both a bit of science fiction, involving time travel and historical romance, as the characters are traveling back to ancient Carthage and find themselves so involved in that culture, they don't wish to return.

In the conclusion to this series, Valley of Decision is that place where all of our beloved characters have once again been transported back to Carthage and must make some defining life choices, to stay where their hearts call them or to head back to the present day and hope they can convince those that they care about to join them, but to do that, would forever change history. Is the risk worth it in the end? This is not a series you can pick up any of the novels and jump right in, hoping there is enough of a back story to help move you forward in the novels. You must begin with the first one as any great adventure would suggest. But trust me when I share with you, it will be so worth the time to do so. For those of us, that have been reading them as they are published, the wait has been long in between, but with each novel, it simply gets better and better.

In Valley of Decision, Magdalena has been arrested for the death of the proconsul Aspasius, whom she tried to save by amputating his leg, but when he succumbs to complications due to the time frame they are living in and lack of surgical sterileness. Now she must try and find a way to save her life if she is continue her fight to save the city of Carthage from the disease of typhoid and measles that threatens to destroy the city. Her granddaughter Maggie, now 18, has run away back to Carthage in hopes of not only saving Magdalena but also her father Cyprian whom she just met when accompanying her mother Lisbeth Hastings more than a decade ago. She knows her mother would never approve but she must do what she can to help in any way possible, with the time she has left if the history books are correct and her father has less than a month before he is condemned to death.

I received Valley of Decision by Lynne Gentry compliments of Howard Books, a division of Simon and Schuster Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation outside of a free copy of this book for my review and the opinions expressed here are my own honest and personal ones. I won't give away the ending but it is so worth reading this entire series. I am sad that the journey is over, but it was well worth the wait between all the novels to experience what is might have been like living in the third-century with the tremendous amount of research that Lynne did to enable this novel and her characters to become simply more than words on a page. In my opinion, this one easily earns all 5 out of 5 stars. There is a Reader's Discussion Guide at the conclusion as well as some great questions that Lynne Gentry takes the time to answer about this amazing series.

For more information about Valley of Decision, Lynne Gentry or where you can pick up a copy of this novel today, please click on the links below:

Valley of Decision by Lynne Gentry 

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To read more reviews on Valley of Decision, please visit Howard Book's website.

The Carthage Chronicles Series:
1. Healer of Carthage
2. Return to Exile
3. Valley of Decision