Looking For Some Great Young Adult Time Travel Books? Look No Further Than The Marsh Sisters' New Novel Charity Versus Tyranny

Charity Versus Tyranny: Time Travelers in Ancient Rome is what I hope will become the first of many young adult time travel books written by the Marsh sisters, Therese and Rose. I can't tell you how excited I am to share this book with you! Before I go into a summary of this novel, let me begin by talking about the importance of this kind of literary work.

Written by two traditional Catholic girls living in Kansas, this book not only rivals with secular books like it but definitely feeds the soul as well. 

Of course, Catholics crave and enjoy the same sort of entertainment that their secular counterparts do and they deserve entertainment that does not contradict their morals. 

How many times have I been shopping at Costco and picked up a book, started thumbing through it thinking, "This could be interesting, but I'm sure it has something in it."

With a sigh, I must put the book back and continue walking. As far as fiction goes, I haven't really read anything written in the last 50 years.

The Marsh girls, and many Catholic artists like them, have finally provided a kind of entertainment that is free from such errors. Gone are the days when Catholics have to enjoy up-to-date novels and movies which are in conflict with their beliefs. Now we have young adult time travel books that are both current and thoroughly Catholic.

Charity Versus Tyranny explores Ancient Rome as seen through the eyes of people from vastly different backgrounds in the twenty-first century.

Two traditional Catholic cousins, a mediocre Protestant millionaire, and an agnostic actor and his wife find themselves suddenly whisked from their lives into completely different ones during a completely different time.

Therese and Rose Marsh published this book in 2023. It's a story that will capture audiences with its truthfulness, historical value, and even, sometimes, its humor.

A Quick Outline Of This Top Recommended Young Adult Time Travel Book

As with all young adult time travel books, the story takes place in two places at two very different periods of history. The first place is our own country in 2021. (It struck me how much importance this date has as it means after the plandemic and everything else. It's as though it's a different era than the earlier two thousand years.)

The characters are suddenly transported to Rome in 64 A.D., a time and place notable for Nero's great fire and the martyrdom of St. Peter. The bulk of the story takes place in this second time with Adam and Ann, Ronald and Louis, and John experiencing it as slaves, patricians, and plebeians, respectively. Each is given a dose of what he needs by the good God who, of course, ordered everything to be the way it is. 

This book is a historic adventure that shows how God, although maybe not as dramatically as He does in this story, only gives us what we need—not to punish us, but to bring us closer to Him so that we can, as the catechism tells us, save our souls and be happy with Him in heaven.

But this isn't told forcefully and in-your-face in this novel, but subtly, as all good stories do. The story also brings to readers' attention the brutal reality of what Christians under the reign of Nero faced, in fact what all of his subjects faced under this man's cruel tyranny during this opening phase of the fall of the Roman Empire.

The Virtues Practiced And The Lessons Learned Hold Something For Everyone

As aforementioned, the novel follows various characters through their experiences in Ancient Rome. The first of the time travelers are tossed together shortly after they suddenly find themselves taken from twenty-first century America and placed in first century Rome. Ronald Cooper is a seventy-five-year-old influential millionaire—a good Protestant who does what he can to help his fellow man.

Soon after his arrival, if I may call it so, he meets a young Catholic boy named Louis Geld who has also been brought from the future. Ronald immediately takes this teenager under his protection.

Ronald and Louis are soon to learn a new meaning of the word "charity" when they are called to navigate the trials brought upon them in the time in which they find themselves. Ronald is also in for a surprise as he takes a closer look at the early Christians and their beliefs. Hard as it is to admit, they seem strikingly similar to what the Catholics in his time believe and practice.

John Longston also abruptly finds himself in new surroundings just to realize that it is also Rome in the first century.

Fortunately, some Christians quickly find him and take him into their family. While living this life, he realizes how well he really has it with his real family in America.

Through his experience in this new life, he learns to depend wholly on God. By living with the Christian family who are forced to give up everything for their Faith, he realizes the true meaning of patience and long suffering. He is tossed into a whole new world, materially and spiritually, when Ancient Rome whisks him far away from home.

Anne and Adam Herde are an agnostic Hollywood couple who are about to come face to face with raw Divine Power when they are suddenly transported from their comfortable lives to slavery in Ancient Rome. This experience teaches them the virtues of faith, hope and charity which for the other time travelers are already mostly internalized at least on a natural level.

It is these two unbelievers who have personal experiences with the saints of the Early Church. Sts. Paul, Anastasia, and Basilisa all gently influence the darkened minds of the well-intentioned couple. Although Rome is for them a living hell-on-earth, what Adam and Anne learn is beyond measure.

Need More Convincing To Get You To Pick Up The Book? Hear This Out And Get Ready For An Experience!

Charity Versus Tyranny

This book was extremely well-written provided that it is the first book written by the Marsh sisters. They did a really good job of ending their chapters with cliff hangers to keep you hooked and reading.

"One more chapter," I kept hearing when I was reading out loud to my family. Pretty soon I had read for over an hour!

This effect was especially true in the beginning of the book with extremely short and intriguing chapters. 

It is apparent that these authors are inspired by the great works of classical literature.

The characters are true-to-life in the sense that they are real people that many of us come into contact with. This was done in an easy style that did not make the reader feel like they were "forced" in any way.

Even the Roman characters were so natural that their appearance in the story doesn't feel fake. The Romans did speak with many "thees" and "thous" which can be hard to read aloud but it is easy to get used to and its use underlined the cultural differences between the time travelers and the Romans. 

Far from being predictable, the book keeps you at the edge of your seat waiting for how it all is going to end! Maybe it is because I mostly consume old literature, but I was excited to see and listen to references that I can relate to: the struggle in the Church right now, the somewhat flat argument of Protestants that private interpretation is the right way to approach faith and morals, and the madness we were put through during COVID-19.

All subtly shows the virtues as they grow in the characters throughout the story. Each character comes away with having been forced to practice particular virtues, virtues which may have been neglected had they not experienced all that they had.

Charity Versus Tyranny was well worth the read, and I would recommend it to all young readers looking for something new with a bit of adventure. And, I hear that the Marsh girls have many other good young adult time travel books planned. So stay tuned and subscribe to their newsletter to receive bimonthly updates!

I am eager to see where they go with these thoroughly Catholic young adult time travel books!