For Love of God
BOOK 1 OF THE BLESSED BE SERIES
It’s Manhattan, 1983. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is going strong at the 8th Street Playhouse. HIV/AIDS is still called “the gay plague.” The Twin Towers still stand tall. And Spencer Hill is convinced God has called him to the Episcopal priesthood.
There’s just one problem. He’s gay.
Determined to stay the course, Spencer avoids Donald Rainey, a young actor he’s attracted to. Then he tries dating a woman, another candidate at General Theological Seminary. Then, as a last resort, he considers a life of chastity.
His attempts to deny his orientation fail, and he has a crisis of faith that nearly sends him over the edge. He’s saved by an insightful therapist and by his relationship with Donald, which he can no longer avoid. Then his life is in disarray again when Donald’s life takes a religious turn Spencer cannot accept, and he must find a path where there is no conflict between God and gay.
For Love of God can be read alone or enjoyed as part of Spencer’s story. Book 2 of the Blessed Be series is For Love of Self. Book 3, For Love, will be available September 26, 2024.
Listed in QSpirit's Best Books of 2022
“To seek and serve God takes all that one has, body as well as spirit, for God made both. But the journey to integrate the body’s passions with those of the spirit is rarely easy. Robin Reardon has chronicled with exquisite care the ups and downs, the tragedies and triumphs of the journey of body-and-spirit integration in the lives of her finely detailed characters in Love of God. From it, readers both gay and straight will gain insights about their own journey into God, and find their hearts warmed by her winsome characters and their struggles to incarnate divine love in the embodied realities of their day-to-day lives.”
(The Rev. William W. Rich. PhD, Vicar (retired), Trinity Episcopal Church, Copley Square, Boston)
“Spencer's story is an introspective, heartfelt portrait of a young man at a crossroads in his life, and this novel is yet another compelling example from this author's impressive body of work that exquisitely conveys an individual's character and strength when faced with an unfamiliar situation. [It leaves] the reader breathlessly anticipating the next book in the series.”
(Christopher Verleger, Contributor, Edge Media Network)
