This is My Church by Sasha Avice: My Review
This is My Church by Sasha Avice is not getting nearly the attention that it deserves.
Do not sleep on this book! It is amazing.
It has sports. It has best friends to lovers. It has opposites attracting. It has hella heat. The cover is on point. The tension is everything.
Why in the world is this book not at the top of every gay romance best-seller list right now?! It absolutely should be.
In fact, do me a favor. Just go read the book! When you’re done, come back and read my review. Then, let’s talk about the book in the comments! Here is the link to get started reading This is My Church!
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This is My Church
by Sasha Avice
This is My Church – Summary
Mates with everyone and beholden to none, Lacy is a twenty-seven-year-old football superstar who parties as hard as he plays. It makes no sense for him to become best mates with their new ruckman, the bible reading, softly spoken celibate, Thaddeus Clay.
But from the moment the freshly traded twenty-three-year-old walks into the locker room, they do everything together.
Well, almost everything.
When Thad stumbles upon Lacy’s extracurriculars—a drug-fuelled gangbang where Lacy loses consciousness to the number of men who take him—he knows they can’t do that together.
But what Thad does next will change the course of their relationship in irreversible ways. Except Lacy doesn’t remember. And Thad is left with a secret that threatens his friendship and his faith.
This is My Church – My Review
The blurb for This is My Church is easily one of the most compelling blurbs I have ever read. It only ticks about a million of my boxes. I was counting the days until this book dropped.
While I was excited about reading This is My Church, I was nervous about it being the fourth book in the Contested Possession series. Luckily, the book is all but a stand alone and definitely doesn’t require a read through of the series!
Overall, this book is something really special.
Is it perfect? Not at all. I have things that bothered me. But what it does have is a depth and rawness that hasn’t been matched by any other book I’ve read in quite some time.
Let’s jump into what really makes this book work so well.
Lacy and Thad are total opposites.
Lacy is the tiny superstar on the football team. Thad is a giant who is barely keeping his spot on the roster.
Lacy is loud and tattooed and loves to party. Thad is quiet, overly polite, and deeply religious.
Lacy is proudly gay and mostly out. Thad assumes he will marry a woman and have children someday. He just can’t seem to find a woman he is interested in.
Lacy likes to get drunk and high and lose himself at parties full of men who want to use him. Thad has never even been kissed.
These two have no business being in the same room as each other, let alone being friends.
But not just friends. They are immediately best friends. Lacy and Thad respect each other so much for two men who have wildly different lifestyles, backgrounds, and belief systems.
Lacy first gets a glimpse into how deep Thad’s devotion to his religion goes when he visits Thad’s house for the first time. This exchange is absolutely hilarious:
Lacy had to ask, "you're into church?" Thad smiled, nothing ashamed in it, and nodded. "Yes." Lacy glanced around the walls of the dining room - Jesus having a meal with some other dues, more crosses, baby Jesus in his mum's lap. "It's a lot of crosses." "The crucifixion," Thad replied as he started to clear their plates. "It's good to have the reminder." "Well," Lacy leaned back in his chair, "mission accomplished."
Somehow their differences never become a roadblock to their deepening friendship.
So how in the world do these two men end up together?
It is a wild, wild ride.
I don’t want to spoil too much, but Thad ends up following Lacy to one of his parties. What happens there pushes the Lacy and Thad together.
There are a few caveats to this.
Thad still fully expects to marry a woman someday and have children with her like his religion dictates. He just forgot to clue Lacy in on this.
Every night Thad prays for forgiveness for what he and Lacy do together.
This eventually drives a wedge between the men and they have to work hard to come back together.
The beginning and end of this book are far superior to the oddly toned and time-lapse filled middle of the book. It was not my favorite, but the rest of the book drags the middle up to a cumulative four-and-a-half stars.
This is My Church gets as easy five pepper spice rating. Lacy (and eventually Thad) are into some intense stuff. This is one of the spiciest books I’ve read.
All of this to say, I highly, highly recommend this book.
Hey, I’m Heather!
I read M/M romance books exclusively, and I help other readers find their next great M/M romance read.
