The Rules in Rome: Large Print Edition (The Ley Brothers)

Behind enemy lines, two American spies struggle to survive their high-stakes assignment—and grapple with resentment turning into romance.

German-born Bastien Ley has an undying determination to defeat the Nazi regime that killed his father and drove the remnants of his family into exile. Now working in Italy for the US Office of Strategic Services, Bastien has been tasked with sabotaging German convoys. When his team kills an officer headed for Rome, the man’s similarity to Bastien is undeniable, and seeing an opportunity to turn the tide of the war, Bastien makes a bold decision: he will assume the dead officer’s identity. He becomes Adalard Dietrich, an Iron Cross–wearing German officer—an ideal position from which to infiltrate the Nazi ranks in Rome.

To help with his task, his superiors send him a reinforcement in the form of the fiery Gracie Begni, an intelligent and eager radio operator with absolutely no undercover experience. Despite initial hostility toward each other, to maintain their cover, they must portray a couple in love.

Their reluctant alliance gradually grows into teamwork and then something more, but enemies threaten them on every side, and the Gestapo stalks their network of contacts. As they engage in covert battle against a ruthless enemy, it will take only one misstep to doom both their mission and their growing love.

Winner of the 2015 Whitney Award for Best Historical Novel.

Also available in Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, and Audio editions.

A. L. Sowards is the author of twenty historical fiction works, with settings spanning the globe from the fourteenth to twentieth centuries. Her stories have been named Foreword INDIES finalists, earned an Editor's Choice selection from the Historical Novel Society, and won multiple awards, including Whitney Awards, a Praiseworthy Award, and Readers' Favorite gold and silver medals. Sowards grew up in Washington State, spent a few decades in Utah, and now resides in Alaska with her husband, three children, and ever-growing library. She enjoys hiking and swimming, usually manages to keep up with the laundry, and loves it when someone else cooks dinner.