THE PLOT: The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw is a rags-to-riches novel about the wife of a megachurch pastor in the Southern USA. It’s the 2010’s and Sharisse Freeman is a wealthy woman on a mission. Born in poverty and raised by her drug-addict aunt, she married a wealthy pastor fifteen years her senior and is now First Lady of a prestigious church. Despite her skilful social-climbing, Scharisse still isn’t fully accepted by good Christian society. So, she is delighted when selected for the First Lady USA – an exclusive beauty pageant for churchwomen. Winning would solidify her social status but as family secrets are revealed and lies are told, the hypocritical world of megachurches comes crashing down around her.
SUMMARY: I wasn’t sure about this book at first. There was too much exposition and the author withheld information for too long. It felt like the author didn’t trust the reader to deduce things and everything was too on-the-nose. However, the book settled into itself and, by halfway, I was absolutely hooked. It felt like watching reality TV. I kept wanting one more episode. In particular, I loved the relationship between Scharisse and her daughter (which felt tender and real with the right amount of intrigue). There were laugh-out-loud moments between Scharisse and her antagonists (Daphne and Sheila are worthy adversaries). The storyline with Scharisse’s British best-friend was entertaining (OK, some of the UK slang felt a little ham-fisted but there’s a wonderful portrayal of a lesbian relationship). And chilllldddd…. I’m not usually a fan of spicy books but this even got me hot under the collar. Overall, I would definitely recommend this novel. It has a strong message about religion, ethics and how the world treats women, plus the beauty pageant machinations were fun to read.
GOOD BITS: At first, Scharisse felt too bold and brash. Early scenes of her ostentatiously flaunting her wealth, flagrantly social-climbing and arguing directly with church matrons felt incongruous with a character who was desperate to be respected and accepted. In fact, I blamed the author for not creating a subtler character. I wanted the tension to be revealed in subtext, rather than the on-the-nose dialogue. But then I realised it was my problem. I wanted or expected Scharisse to be a different character, and needed to let go of my preconceptions. By the end of the book, I understood Scharisse and her boldness. I could see that the author created her that way intentionally to defy the stereotypes and she felt like a unique, real person who I wanted to spend time with.
NOT SO GOOD BITS: The first 100 pages of this novel were frustrating. Scharisse’s wealth was hammered home, with a ridiculous amount of references to expensive cars, clothes, handbags, shoes etc., and the constant allusions to what happened in Honolulu felt annoying rather than curiosity-inducing because the reveal was delayed for too long. This was compounded by Scharisse having a lot of revelations dumped on her, rather than finding them out through her own investigations or deductions. So instead of dominoes tipping over it felt like one plot point stacking on top of another. However, as the novel went on and everything slotted into place and I could see the cause and effect. I wonder if the first 100 pages were too heavily edited, or reworked too much to make it “understandable” to wider audiences. Once the author settled into her style and, perhaps, had less intervention from editors I liked it better. As a huge fan of the author’s debut short story collection, I want her to trust her reader and trust herself more as she continues her writing journey.
OVERALL: I’d recommend this book to fans of Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke because of the theme of performative womanhood in the face of “traditional Christian values”. I also think it would appeal to fans of authors Kennedy Ryan and Tia Williams.
Thank you to DoubleDay for my #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. I was lucky enough to meet Deesha at a brunch in honour of the UK publication of this novel and I wish her every success.
The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman has just been published in the U.S. and is out in January 2027 in the U.K.
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