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Published May 2022
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Joya Goffney, author of the acclaimed Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry, delivers a powerful second novel about a preacher's daughter in small-town Texas and her journey toward loving herself and her body, filled with heart, humor, family drama, and a dynamic love triangle. Perfect for fans of Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles and Calling My Name by Liara Tamani.
Monique is a preacher's daughter who detests the impossible rules of her religion. Everyone expects her to wait until marriage, so she has no one to turn to when she discovers that she physically can't have sex.
After two years of trying and failing, her boyfriend breaks up with her. To win him back, Monique teams up with straight-laced church girl Sasha—who is surprisingly knowledgeable about Monique's condition—as well as Reggie, the misunderstood bad boy who always makes a ruckus at church, and together they embark upon a top-secret search for the cure.
While on their quest, Monique discovers the value of a true friend and the wonders of a love that accepts her for who she is. Despite everyone's opinions about her virtue, she learns to live for herself, inspiring us all to reclaim our bodies and unapologetically love ourselves.
"Thanks to Goffney's superb storytelling and dazzling prose, this candid exploration of a sensitive subject is also a heartfelt, funny, and irresistible read. Smart, sex-positive—and positively terrific." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Goffney infuses her narrative with humor and Black culture and beautifully expands on Monique's relationships with her family. Her journey toward recognizing her own value is hard-won, and her awareness of her own worth, when it comes, feels like a true victory. An empowering read for teens." - Booklist
"Powerfully sex-positive, boundary pushing, and charmingly funny, Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl is a story that touches topics all too often shoved under the rug, especially for Black girls." - Camryn Garrett, author of Full Disclosure and Off the Record
"Deeply empowering. Sweet yet candid. Ms. Goffney's fearless story about the path to self acceptance and the unexpected people who help on the journey is the perfect antidote to purity culture. A necessary tale that reads like a secret that everyone should hear about." - Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan, authors of Unpregnant and Save Steve
This information about Confessions of an Alleged Good Girl was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Joya Goffney grew up in New Waverly, a small town in East Texas. In high school, she challenged herself with to-do lists full of risk-taking items like "hug a random boy" and "eat a cricket," which inspired her debut novel, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry. With a passion for Black social psychology, she moved out of the countryside to attend the University of Texas in Austin, where she still resides.
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