I’m delighted to bring attention to Sheldon Collins’s The Legend of Valentine, a gripping tale of love and defiance set during one of Rome’s most turbulent chapters. I am absolutely delighted to be hosting Sheldon today, who will be telling us about the day his book hit the best seller list.
But first, a little about the book...
The Blurb
The story unfolds in the year 268 AD, when the empire is fractured by cruelty and fear. Valentine, a warrior once defined by violence, emerges from near death with a new sense of purpose inspired by his love for Agatha, a woman whose blindness cannot dim her strength. Risking everything, Valentine secretly blesses Christian couples in marriage despite the emperor’s ban, each act of devotion both a rebellion and a beacon of hope. As he defies tyranny, Valentine becomes more than a man—he becomes a symbol, his sacrifices shaping a legend that centuries later would be celebrated as Valentine’s Day. Collins delivers a novel that blends the intensity of rebellion with the tenderness of romance, transporting readers to a world where faith and love are tested by the harshest of empires.
Book Details
ISBN: 979 8991362412
Publisher: Hutchinson and Collins
Formats: e-book, hardback and paperback
No. of Pages: 352 (paperback)
The Day My Book Hit the Bestseller List
On January 24, 2025, The Legend of Valentine reached the Amazon bestseller list for Classic Roman Literature — only three days after release. For many authors, that moment would be all celebration. For me, it came three weeks after the Palisades Fire destroyed my home and nearly everything I owned.
At the time, I could barely register the achievement. My days were consumed with relocating my family, replacing the basics, and simply surviving. It wasn’t until months later that the significance of that milestone sank in — and when it did, I was struck by how much my own life seemed to echo the very story I had written.
Valentine, my protagonist, is a soldier of Rome. He’s courageous on the battlefield, but emotionally unmoored — a man who has lost family, lost a true sense of home, and nearly loses his own life. The only anchor he knows is the brotherhood of warriors at his side. What makes his journey powerful isn’t just the clash of empires, but the quieter battles: the movement from emptiness to belonging, from faithless to faithful, from loveless to love-full.
After the fire, I felt some of those same fractures. A house is more than walls; it is a sense of place, of rootedness. Losing that left me feeling adrift, as though the ground itself had shifted. But, like Valentine, I began to see what remains when everything else is stripped away. For him, it was faith and love reborn in the midst of loss. For me, it was the outpouring of community — friends, neighbors, and even strangers showing up with tangible acts of kindness.
What deepened the experience was hearing back from readers. Some wrote to me about the history, others about the love story, still others about the themes of endurance, forgiveness, or faith rediscovered. I realized then that the book wasn’t one-dimensional; I had packed many threads into it, using Rome as the stage to explore truths that still resonate today. There issomething in it for everyone to take hold of, because the themes are timeless.
That, to me, has been the real gift. Hitting a bestseller list is meaningful, of course, but the deeper joy is discovering that a story born in another century can meet readers right where they are — just as it met me in the ashes of my own life.
In the end, the lesson is the same for both author and reader: when everything seems lost, love and faith have a way of finding us again.
About the Author
Sheldon Collins began his creative career in Hollywood, where he wrote and directed films acclaimed for their strong characters and powerful narratives. His projects earned awards and were broadcast on premium networks before he turned to fiction with The Legend of Valentine, his debut novel, which is also available as a multi-cast audiobook he co-directed. Today Collins lives in California with his wife and daughter, drawing inspiration from the beauty of the outdoors and enjoying hiking, biking, surfing, and skiing. He holds a BA in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute. Discover more on his website or follow him on Instagram.
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(media courtesy of Book Amplifier)
(all opinions are my own)
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