Curses and Smoke: A Novel of Pompeii by Vicky Alvear Shecter (author)

Two star-crossed lovers. One city on the brink of destruction.

Tages is a medical slave, doomed to spend the rest of his life healing his master’s injured gladiators. But his warrior’s heart yearns to fight in the gladiator ring himself and earn enough money to win his freedom.

Lucia is the daughter of Tag’s owner, doomed by her father’s greed to marry a much older Roman man. But she loves studying the natural world around her home in Pompeii, and lately she’s been noticing some odd behavior in the landscape: small lakes disappearing; a sulfurous smell in the air. . . .

When the two childhood friends reconnect, each with their own longings, they fall passionately in love. But soon after an argument divides them, she’s sent to Rome for her wedding, while he’s thrust into his first gladiatorial contest. Then an earthquake shakes Pompeii, in the first sign of the chaos to come. Will they be able to find each other again before the volcano destroys their whole world?