Fire & Brimstone by Laurinda D. Brown

Chris Desmereaux has her own special relationship with God, and it doesn''t include raising hell six days a week and repenting on Sundays. Her lover, Gayle Evans, sees nothing wrong--or hypocritical--about that arrangement. Gayle is the minister of music at their local church, and she delights in leading the congregation in joyful, foot-stomping song once a week. But Chris is secretly ashamed of sneaking around with her lover and wonders how Gayle can guide nearly a thousand upright congregants while carrying on a secret lesbian affair. She is starting to have major issues with their relationship, as well as with her entire life. But a change is coming to Memphis that will challenge the faith, belief, and tenuous bond of both women. For Chris, it is a journey fraught with perils, pitfalls, and temptation that will take her in unexpected directions and could lead to a second chance at love. An exhilarating and liberating tale of one woman''s odyssey of self-enlightenment sans the usual guideposts, 'Fire & Brimstone is both a wickedly sexy story and a modern-day parable about what it means to be black, Christian, and lesbian today. Written by a uniquely gifted storyteller, it is a novel like no other in recent contemporary fiction.