Fire and Sacrifice

Now available on Amazon, paperback and e-book.

**In this enthralling new historical novel, two women - a priestess of fire charged with protecting the Roman empire, and an unwanted slave - are brought together in a triumphant tale of survival, intrigue and deadly loyalty.**

Based on the untold true story of ancient Rome's most scandalous trial of Vestal Virgins, 114BC. Rome will sacrifice anything to protect the empire, but this slave will do anything to save her priestess. These are women of fire.

**Readers' praise for Fire and Sacrifice:**

• 'A quite extraordinary book that held me fascinated and amazed.' Oliver Baudert

• 'A page turner! Was not bored for one second. Loved it.' Olive Allen

• 'This is a fascinating story, intricately structured and beautifully written.' Simone F

• 'Overall, Fire and Sacrifice is amazing. I believe it’s Collins’s debut novel. More, more!' Sherry, Goodreads reviewer

• 'An intriguing story based on a very real and forgotten past.' Helen, Goodreads reviewer

SLAVE: She is Secunda, or she was at the start. Disfigured by burns, the girl named ‘number two’ longs to be truly seen. But when drawn into the world of the famous Vestal Virgins the fiery slave must find her place where scrutiny is constant, and deadly.

PRIESTESS: Aemilia sees. The aristocratic priestess has given a lifetime tending the fire believed to be the living heart of Rome. Now gripped by temptations of a new life of freedom and passion, a shock scandal threatens to trap her where all that once protected her is now peril.

SACRIFICE: As frontline losses to Barbarians unnerve the realm, a vortex of political power and superstition pulls Aemilia into a fight between her survival, and the Roman empire's. Secunda must somehow save her but these are women of fire, and fire knows only to cure through total destruction.

A new release by Australian author Victoria Collins, Fire and Sacrifice is a celebration of the ancient power of the sacred feminine, in a Western world ruled by men.

Readers are transported to the time with quotes from actual writings around the events, and notes from real-life excavations and historians, leaving a sense of being an archaeologist on a dig, unravelling the truth of the 2000-year-old scandal, during one of ancient Rome's most precarious periods.

Readers who enjoy Robert Harris, Michelle Moran, Madeline Miller, Philippa Gregory and Colleen McCullough, will enjoy Fire and Sacrifice.