I really could not describe this book any better than the way it was described on Amazon; so here is their take of this story:

"What If …?

What if you were studying for your Ph.D. in archaeology and decided to take a break from your crummy life by working on an archaeological dig in Israel?

What if you met a great guy in Jerusalem who happened to be a world-famous theoretical physicist working on a crazy idea to build a wormhole that might make time-travel possible … someday?

What if he had a nutball colleague who turned the theory into reality — and then decided to use YOU as a guinea pig to make sure it was safe?

What if the nutball had a gun and went on a crazy, impossible mission to hunt down and kill the apostle Paul?

It’s A.D. 57 when Rivka Meyers walks out of the wormhole into a world she’s only studied in books. Ancient Jerusalem is awesome! Rivka can’t believe her friend Ari Kazan’s theory actually worked. But when she runs into Ari’s whacko colleague, Damien West, in the Temple, Rivka starts to smell a rat.

When Ari discovers that Damien and Rivka have gone through a wormhole that’s on the edge of collapse, he has to make a horrible choice: Follow them and risk never coming back — or lose the woman of his dreams forever

About The Book

Transgression is a time-travel suspense novel that mixes science, history, religion, romance, and suspense. It’s about learning to stand up for yourself, when you just want to be let alone. It’s about making hard decisions. It’s about asking whether life has meaning and whether God exists. . ."

Looking forward to reading the next two books in this series. It kept and held my interest and I am waiting to see what happens to these people in book two, "Premonition". ( )

Randy Ingermanson’s Transgression succeeds in asking all the awkward questions about time travel, without insisting on answering them. Characters and plot give “time” and “travel” voice, rooted in a pleasing pseudo-science that convincingly borders on real, and seasoned with evocative, well-researched detail. An intrinsically different and thought-provoking approach to “free will” grows out of the story’s progression without ever distracting from the tale.

Transgression is an enjoyable blend of science fiction with Biblical historical fiction. Customs and culture of New Testament times feel thoroughly convincing and well-researched, and the varying faiths and beliefs of characters are suitably intrinsic to the plot. Jerusalem in the time of Saint Paul comes to life with all the senses employed, and a world of political and religious upheaval, oppression, and hope, proves not so different from today.

Author Randy Ingermanson balances faith, science, history, suspense and even a touch of romance in a cool exciting tale of today and yesterday, set in the boiling pot of Jerusalem’s conflicting faiths and ideals, both now and then. I enjoyed the way all points of view were offered with just enough respect and honesty to make the characters real, and I loved the way the author leaves some questions open-ended, almost unasked, as freewill and unchangeable histories collide.

Disclosure: I found it on a deal and couldn’t resist. I offer my honest review. ( )

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I downloaded this as an Amazon freebie because I like time travel. I didn't really know what else the book was going to be about to be honest. I'd recommend you not to read the full blurb since it's one of those that tell so much about the story already.

American archaeologist Rivka (who happens to know a lot of dead languages by the way) learns about Ari and his time travel device and gets trapped in the Jerusalem of 2000 years ago.

At first I thought the book was a bit too strong on the religion side, and although is was more interesting since I know less about the different groups of Jewish faith but there's a scene particularly anti-Christian (and I don't like my books anti-anything). I was afraid this would be the tone for the rest of the novel, but luckily, although religion does seem to play an important role in the rest of the novel it didn't feel pushy anymore and it didn't really bother me.

Rivka's transgression into the new society is very smooth. She happens to know the language and figures out extremely easy how it's supposed to be spoken. There are a few mentions in the beginning of her finding the right wording, but after that she can hold very long and difficult conversations. The same goes for the rest of her transgression. The story that Damien tells her is utter crap and I can't believe she fell for that even in the beginning.

Besides these things I did find myself enjoying the novel, but not so much I'm already planning to read the rest of the novels. Perhaps some day.

Transgression is the first book in the City of God series, the other books are Premonition and Retribution. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It had everything I love: A Biblical world view, intelligent characters, a little romance, adventure/action and to top it off it really made me think about issues of religion and science. What would we cling to if we were placed back in a time before all the christian traditions, before the new testament and before the fall of Jerusalem? Interesting to think about. ( )

A good read involving time travel, archaeology and biblical fiction. Very interesting to me!