There were a few spelling/grammatical errors-next book I'll take note of where, etc.
My interests are listed on http://www.netgalley.com/ as Christian, Historical, Romance, and a few others. Just so you know a bit about me, I'm a devoted Jane Austen fan, love Mary Connealy's humor and spunk, and love Julie Lessman's and Deeanne Gist's 'hotness factor' (to coin a phrase from my dear friend, Angie). I really tend to see things like a movie in my head as I'm reading. Although the description listed with this book appears to be like any typical historical romance, Valeria's Cross was not for me.
It's Christian and Historical to be sure. I learned the probable beginning of people making the sign of the cross across their face or chests and the use of ashes on the forehead. However, it was like reading about a woman's love life and spiritual struggles in the middle of a 3rd century holocaust. Well, it was a holocaust.
Valeria's personal struggles with being a new Christian and a royal seemed real. Also, her realization of her physical response to a man's touch were very real. However, the spiritual and romantic struggles took a back seat to the Christian slayings (probably because of my visual imagination) and that's where things went wrong for me. There is no part of Valeria's life left unscathed. From her emperor father that arranges marriage to her beloved's killer to her son's blood splattering on her face to the color of her eyes changing as her head rolled off the chopping block(--ew/cringe--and I'm a surgery nurse)!
I'm thinking,'This was not what I expect from a romance novel.' She does experience love and joy to some extent, but, for me, she took a back seat to the pagan sacrifices and Christians deaths.
