The true confessions of First Lady freeman by Deesha Philyaw

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 stars

The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw is dramatic, messy, juicy, and incredibly entertaining. If you took an old-school primetime soap opera like Dynasty or Knots Landing and dropped it into the world of a Black Southern megachurch, you would get something close to this book—and I mean that as a compliment.

Scharisse Freeman is the wife of a powerful megachurch pastor and therefore a “First Lady,” but she has never quite felt accepted by the other pastors’ wives. She grew up on the east side of town, wasn’t raised in the church, lost her single mother when she was young, and has spent much of her adult life trying to overcome other people’s assumptions about who she is and where she came from.

Now she has been invited to participate in a pageant for First Ladies, and what follows is an absolutely WILD ride involving secrets, scandals, money, power, sex, faith, and a whole lot of protecting people who probably shouldn’t be protected.

Scharisse was easily my favorite part of this book. She is complicated and sometimes messy, but I loved following her. I also really appreciated how Philyaw incorporates scripture and faith into a story that is deeply critical of the institutions built around them. There is an important distinction here between criticizing faith and questioning what happens when people become more committed to protecting a church, its reputation, and its powerful leaders than they are to holding those leaders accountable.

The book also digs into the megachurch industrial complex—the enormous amounts of money involved, the celebrity status afforded to pastors and their families, and the systems that can develop around keeping powerful people powerful. There are strong #ChurchToo themes throughout, particularly around the ways religious communities can silence people in the name of protecting the church.

And then there is the MESS. 😂 There are so many secrets and revelations that I don’t want to say much more about the plot because discovering them is half the fun.

One warning for readers whose tastes are similar to mine: this is NOT a romance, but there are some surprisingly spicy scenes. They came out of left field for me and definitely had me blushing and clutching my pearls. 😂 I know plenty of my friends are going to consider those the good parts, and absolutely no shade to them! They just aren’t my particular cup of tea.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Janina Edwards. The story itself was very easy to follow on audio, even with all of its twists and drama. I thought the narration was solid, although the performance felt a little flatter to me than some of my favorite audiobooks when it came to differentiating voices. I enjoyed listening, but I don’t think audio is essential for this one—I think it would work equally well in print.

What is especially impressive is that this is Deesha Philyaw’s debut NOVEL. She is already an acclaimed short-story writer, but this is her first full-length novel, and what an entrance. It’s bold, funny, scandalous, thoughtful, and compulsively readable.

If you like big Southern family dramas, stories about complicated women, examinations of church culture, or the gloriously messy energy of an old-school soap opera, put this one on your list.

⭐️ 4/5 stars

🎧 Thank you to Mariner Books and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy.

📚 Publication date: September 29, 2026
🎧 Narrated by Janina Edwards