![Image of a heart with rainbows](/WP/wp-content/themes/express-blog/images/heartrainbow.png)
Genre:
Young Adult / New Adult
Themes:
Against All Odds
Coming of Age
Coming Out
Danger / In Peril / On the Run
Family Relationships
First Love
Found Family
Friends to Lovers
Girl Next Door
Interracial / Multicultural Relationship
Love At First Sight
Low Angst
Only One Bed
Quirky Characters
Religion
Single Parent
Taboo / Forbidden Relationship
Heat Level:
Sweet (kissing, holding hands, etc., but no other on-the-page physical intimacy)
Archetypes:
Student
Geographic Location:
United States: South
Setting:
Academic / School / University
Hotel / Inn
Museum / Library
Sexual / Gender Identity:
Bi or Pansexual
Lesbian
Queer
Tomboy
Questioning
Protagonist Identity:
Asian
Biracial / Multiracial
Gay the Pray Away
By Natalie Naudus
From religious trauma to Queer joy
Valerie Danners is in a cult. She just doesn’t know it yet. When she finds a queer book at the library and smuggles it home, her conservative Christian homeschooling world begins to crack. And when the cutest girl she’s ever met shows up to Bible class, she starts to question everything.
Riley is so confident and kind, and she and Valerie bond quickly over existing as multiracial teens in a very white Christian community. As Valerie explores her feelings for Riley, she begins to see that the world she knows is a carefully crafted narrative.
Publicly, the girls are close friends–holding hands in prayer, rooming together at a conference. Privately, they grasp at any chance to continue their forbidden romance–until they are found out. Now Valerie must choose between staying with a family she fears will never accept her, or running away with the girl she loves.