The Bishop's Daughter, by Tiffany L. Warren

When Darren decided to investigate a mega-church in Atlanta in an attempt to discredit its bishop, he finds himself having to re-evaluate everything he has come to believe. The characters in Tiffany Warren's book are vivid - the reader sees them, hears their intonation patterns, easily recognizes each one as a caricature of someone in real life. She confronts issues of race, sexuality, ethics, family, and money using believable situations. I love the blogger brotha. Despite her delightful characters and their authentic struggles and her very readable prose that moves fast, the characters' life-changing decisions: to get baptized, not to abort a pregnancy, and for a committed virgin to seduce a fast player happen too fast, too easily, and always resolve into a church-approved choice in too pat a manner for me. Darren and the bishop are the most consistent of all the characters and both of them struggle (for the most part) in an authentic internal debate to reconcile their identities and emotions. So, my conclusion is that The Bishop's Daughter has a lot done really well but it stands as a cozy church morality play that is enjoyable and very much the kind of novel grandmothers might give their teenage grand-daughters for Christmas.

Tiffany L. Warren. The Bishop's Daughter. 2009. Hachette Book Group. New York