Jemmah has always thought of herself as perfectly ordinary . . . until she faces extraordinary circumstances. When her mother, the Persian king's famous senior scribe, is kidnapped, Jemmah and her sister must sneak undetected into enemy territory to rescue her. But infiltrating their adversary's lands proves easier than escaping them. Fleeing through dangerous mountain passes, their survival depends on the skills of a stranger they free from prison: a mysterious prince named Asher. Asher is not who the world believes he is. Despite his royal blood, he has had to climb his way out of poverty to forge success from nothing. A manufacturer of some of the best weaponry in the East, Asher has only one goal: to destroy his father. But following his escape from prison, Asher is irresistibly drawn to Jemmah, unaware that she guards her own secret. Jemmah must convince Asher to give up everything he has worked for, all for the sake of a higher purpose he's not sure he believes in. The fate of the Persian empire—and possibly the Judean people—hang in the balance and in the persuasive power of one ordinary woman.
Author
TESSA AFSHAR is a Christy and Christian Book Award winning author of historical and biblical fiction, and non-fiction. Her books have been on the Publishers Weekly, ECPA, and other bestseller lists, and translated into eleven languages. Her novel Daughter of Rome is a Carol Award Finalist. Land of Silence won an INSPY Award and was voted by Library Journal as one of the top five Christian fiction titles of 2016. Harvest of Gold won the prestigious Christy Award in the Historical Romance category, Harvest of Rubies was a finalist for the ECPA Christian Book Award in the fiction category, and Thief of Corinth was an INSPY Award finalist. Tessa’s Bible study, The Way Home: God’s Invitation to New Beginnings, based on the book of Ruth, won ECPA’s Christian Book Award in the Bible Study category, 2021. Tessa was born in the Middle East and lived there for the first fourteen years of her life. She then moved to England, where she survived boarding school for girls, before moving to the United States permanently. Her conversion to Christianity in her twenties changed the course of her life forever. Tessa holds a master of divinity from Yale University, where she served for one year as co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship at the Divinity School. She worked in women and prayer ministries for nearly twenty years before becoming a full-time writer. Tessa is a devoted wife, mediocre gardener, and chocolate enthusiast. Visit her online at Tessaafshar.com.
