If there is one topic that is a hard one to tackle, it's sex. Today's society is heavily influenced by sex. The culture seeks to normalize things such as porn, casual sex, and same-sex attraction. It pressures women of all ages and marital statutes to conform. So for the Christian woman, embracing God's design for sex and purity can be challenging and even confusing.

We wrestle with whether God's design for sex is truly good or what purity even means. We wrestle with our questions about our own sexuality and the purpose of it. On the other hand, as sex is a hard topic to discuss in Christian circles, sex often comes off as something dirty and bad. Which, then, leads us even further into confusion.

In their book, Sex, Purity, and the Longings of a Girl's Heart, Kristen Clark and Bethany Beal share honestly about their own struggles and victories related to sex and purity. They take on the hard, often unspoken topics that everyone wants to talk about: sex, purity, masturbation, porn... And they talk about it honestly. Kristen and Bethany help women understand why God's design for sexuality is good and leads to true hope.

I was thankful when I got a copy of the book to read and review. Mostly because this is a topic that I think needs to be talked about, in a good and biblical way. The authors do a good job of covering this topic and the questions that often rise up.

As for the writing, I found it a bit hard to read the book at times. As I'm not familiar with Kristen Clark or Bethany Beal from Girl Defined, for me it was confusing as the text jumped from one to another talking. Because of the two authors, I also found the text often didn't go that deep. It covered the basics, yes, in a good way. But it was just that, and not more. So while it can answer some questions, I felt at times it didn't quite do that.

I have been looking forward to reading this book for quite some time now. So when I finally got my hands on it, I read it cover to cover in one single day!

Ladies, this is a much needed book that you need to get your hands on! It's raw, it's honest and real. Kristen and Bethany are very open and direct about the problems girls struggle with in terms of sexuality and purity. They do not shy away from talking about masturbation, pornography and lust. With this book, they counter the lie that "girls don't struggle with these things" and offer practical help and show what sexuality defined by God looks like. The book was easy to read and understand with many examples and personal stories to illustrate their points. All throughout the book, what they say is based on Scripture and they refer to it. There's also a study guide and an appendix on healing from sexual abuse at the end of the book.

This book did not focus on biblical womanhood or God's design for relationships, because these topics have already been the focus in their first two books. One might therefore want to read Girl Defined and Love Defined to see how it fits into the whole picture :)

I can only recommend this book to any young Christian woman trying to figure out sexuality and fight temptation. I think this is Kristen and Bethany's best book so far! However, please note that if you grew up very sheltered or have not been confronted with these issues so far, you might want to read this with your mom or a mentor.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy in exchange for a review via Netgalley.

I am amazed how honest the authors are. They are sharing openly their struggling in the sexual area and trough this breaking the taboo topic.

I love how they are giving the practical advices how to break the cycle of the sexual sins – like for example masturbation – and how to battle temptations.

I love how the authors are explaining the point of sexuality – good gift from God with deep meaning, directing us to show the level of intimacy between people and God.

So good, that Kristen and Bethany are breaking the cultural lies about sexual design and underlining the Biblical truths. Sure, for some of us this lies are so obvious, but for many young people they are not so obvious anymore.

They are writing: “If we, as Christian women, are not vigilant to discern the lies from the truths, we will end up listening to whichever voice is shouting the loudest” and “just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we should give up on truth”.

I like to idea, that authors used a lot of real questions from the girls around the word as a base to this book, including the really hard questions, which they are answering from the Biblical perspective.

I love how they are writing about the purity and all the narratives – wrong and good: “Sexual purity is not just about saying no to sex before marriage; it’s about taking every thought captive and living in a way that reflects the perfect holiness of your Father. It’s ultimately about embracing your identity as a daughter of God and striving every day to become more like Him. That’s true purity.”

I recommend this book from all of my heart. It’s so needed for our generation today.