The sequel to 'Speak Its Name', this book finds Colette and Lydia a few years past graduation, Colette struggling on with her PhD, and Lydia working for the council while applying for ordination.

It feels very honest and raw, with our heroes trying to work out what they want to do with their lives, and what they will sacrifice for that.

I felt the ending was a bit sudden and glum though. It's nice that they've got each other, and they've got their faith, and they can stare at the infinite possibilities of what comes next, whether that's marriage, ordination, a PhD, or something completely different, but I wanted the neat tidy happy ending for them! Maybe the whole point of this book is that you don't always get that. ( )

This is a sequel to Speak Its Name, in which evangelical Christian Lydia, a second-year university student and dutiful hall monitor for the fundamentalist Christian Fellowship has to face up to the secret she tries to hide from herself (and possibly God): that she is a lesbian. Falling for Colette, a bi-sexual Methodist student, who is open and certain of her identity and her Christianity, finally gives Lydia the courage to come out – and her public announcement is glorious.

Now, three years later, Colette is working on her PhD while Lydia supports her with a paid job at the local council. Speak Its Name was from the point of view of Lydia; this is Colette’s story and very different in feel as she’s an introvert to Lydia’s extrovert. In a way their roles are reversed, Lydia being certain of who she is and wants to be, and Colette feeling rather lost, even though she doesn’t say so (in a parallel Lydia’s original journey, I realised). Lydia has found a gay-friendly church and is very active in it, feeling called to be become a vicar despite the Church of England’s ban on same-sex marriages and restrictions on candidates. I felt for Colette, dealing with a difficult and mostly absent PhD supervisor, knowing that if Lydia is accepted for training, Colette’s life will be hugely different, difficult, and in some ways necessarily hidden and a lie because of church politics.

Despite not knowing the world and culture they move in that well, I was totally engaged in Colette and Lydia, their lives in ‘the real world’, their friends (Peter makes a reappearance!), and was sorry to get to the end and say goodbye. All the characters are so well drawn and, yes, real, that I felt very involved in their lives and sorry to leave. I hope there will be a sequel. ( )