Church Girl is a beautifully well-written story with a well built plot that will keep you intrigued. It's an exceptional love story of faith, love, self-discovery, real life emotions and connection. It's a roller coaster of intense and raw emotions, powerful drama and the classic Naima Simone SPICE.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

A 2024 favorite of the year!

I absolutely devourered this romance.

Is Von intense as hell? Yes. But watching men like that be wholly undone by someone while trying to deny it is my *catnip* 🤌

And I loved their romance against the backdrop of the heroine paving her own life. Naima Simone balanced both so well, and I loved following the heroine learning not only what she wants, but how to stand up for it as well

Naima Simone delivers an emotionally charged and deeply intimate story in Church Girl. With raw vulnerability and her trademark steamy romance, this book explores faith, identity, and the courage to embrace one’s true self. A must-read for fans of complex characters and powerful love stories.

I don’t have words for how I felt about this book because it was just that good. Please tell me there will be more of this as a series!

I liked this one. I love stories of women coming into their own and finding out about themselves.
Aaliyah's determination to make it on her own terms and leaving the suffocating expectations of her religious family made me root for her the entire story. On the other end, Von's devotion to his daughter and making sure that she feels loved, protected and seen, warmed the heart.
The way these two came together was definitely a ride that I enjoyed reading.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and all opinions expressed are mine.

This is my first Naima Simone and it's perfect for fans of single parent and opposite attract romance. The book follows Aaliyah a preachers daughter who is a runaway bride and ends up in Chicago working for Von a tattoo artist with a beautiful daughter .I enjoyed watching Aaliyah grow into herself and find love and that baby mama drama was so much. I liked how the author tackled growth ,love ,parenthood and expectations.

Aaliyah is a preacher’s daughter, runaway bride and an inexperienced nanny. Von is a sexy tattoo artist, divorced single father and in need of a nanny for his seven-year-old daughter. Aaliyah finds herself in Chicago with big plans for her life. Breaking away from her dominant father and her mother she is finding her own way. Von’s ex-wife is not such a nice person with every turn she is right their making trouble especially when she sees that Von has feelings for Aaliyah.

This is a great read with a runaway bride finding her way, divorced single father with an ex-wife creating trouble, dominant preacher father and a mother that goes along with her preacher husband.
I am a big fan of the author Naima Simone, can’t wait to see what she has in store for her readers next.

I received an ARC via NetGalley and Harlequin - Romance | Afterglow Books by Harlequin and I am leaving my review voluntarily.

I wanted to like this so much. I am needing an audiobook to get through this one. The main character is so insufferable and it is something that i cannot take. The writing is also a bit questionable for me, I know this is something that I will return to but now is just not the time.

First of all, what a gorgeous cover! That's what drew my eye in first, and the blurb was intriguing. I always love a good single dad, and this hero was so sweet with his little girl. I also liked that the heroine had a bit of bite to her, even if she seemed innocent and naive at first glance, and acted that way on occasion. This is definitely more lust-focused than romantic, and some of the thoughts going on in the hero's head were kind of off-putting. I don't think the relationship development was particularly good, though I loved the instant sparks. With a longer length, this could've been a lot stronger, but it ultimately felt very surface level to me.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot was cute and i loved the contrast between the sweet church girl and the rough around the edges tattoo shop owner. I love the growth from Aaliyah and Von as well as the relationship between Aaliyah and her cousin Tamara (I’m excited for her story).

I wanted Chelle to fight Sheree because she absolutely would have deserved the butt whopping 😂. And of course little Gia was so adorable and i loved her relationship with her dad as well as with Aaliyah.

Overall i really enjoyed this story and would 100% recommend it.

🌶️🌶️🌶️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is a new author for me but I’ve enjoyed this taste of her voice. Characters are solid, could use more originality or depth. Plot was promising and intriguing, could be refined a bit more. Romance was a balance of emotional and realistic!

I really enjoyed this release from Naima Simone! Good girl meets bad boy, but he's not really a bad boy when you dig deeper. Definitely a slow burn and the story's build up is slow, but it's satisfying. I like Von!

This was such a satisfying romance. These 2 characters ended up with so much chemistry and I loved the angst of the perceived good girl, nanny, runaway bride tropes. The inner monologues of these 2 are highly objectifying of the other but it works for me because it's so mutual. Like seriously no eyes except for each other in a world against them. The spice also HITS.

Thank you to Harlequin for the eARC!

I grew up in the church, so when I saw the title and blurb, I felt this to my core. I was so excited that i was approved for an arc, I was just blown away, and this book personally did not disappoint. Not only could I relate a lot to the FMC (my father was a preacher and I experienced some of what she dealt with), I especially loved how her character was written and how she acted and grew as a character and a person. And to be honest, I could see how Von reacted to her the way he did, but I appreciated his growth and eventual understanding. I absolutely loved this story and can't wait for the next book from this author.

I was a little worried about this since I’m not the biggest fan of religious themed books, but this one wasn’t what I was expecting at all. Her parents are heavy in the church, but she barely escaped in a way that I can admit never crossed my mind lol (Make sure you read the synopsis y’all smh lol)

Ok so the romance in this was SO REAL. Von was down BAD since he saw her, but the part that made it real was his inner monologue about her. He kept saying he couldn’t think about her but his thoughts always wondered. And as someone who has done this before, I know for a fact that this is something real people do lol The whole thing with the truck tho? He was doing too much lol But like I said, he was down bad from the beginning and I loved it. Now Aaliyah had some stuff to work through, so I could understand why she wasn’t with it right away. She had a lot of deconstructing to do, but I applauded her because that in itself is a lot. And the way she handled that AND her feelings for him was a boss move. Let’s not forget that she also felt some type of way about his daughter too! She was a bad b and I loved that about her. And if you’re wondering if the smex is weird, since this was titled Church Girl, but it wasn’t at all lol

Von had some shit going on tho. And I was glad she gave it some more depth. Like the way he felt about what his ex had done to their marriage. But I do wish she had done the same with his daughter. I wish we got more information about how they fixed things and how he basically made that damn lady simmer down about going to court. I know that that wasn’t exactly a huge part of the plot, but the way he talked about his daughter and how she meant everything, I just wanted to see more of him as a dad I think.

I’m also very happy to see that she will be writing another book for the cousin because she was a major key in this story. I need to know why she was shunned but still the bad ass she was. And to still accept her cousin after she was also one that did that to her? Yeah I liked her character a lot and I still have so many questions. I can’t wait to see them get answered.

This was such a good read! Finally I see what Afterglow is tryin to do. Very different than her usual Harlequin stuff but in a good way. I love that they talked like real people. That they were allowed to sit in their cultural identity. I also loved how sensual this was.

Church Girl by Naima Simone is one of the many reasons why I will always adore Harlequin Romance novels. The story are the perfect balance of sweet love story and commentary on the inner strength of women. In the Instance of Church Girl Ms. Simone is able to tell a story on how familial obligations can cause you to lose yourself. In the instance of our FMC Liyah, the inciting incident of this novel is her realizing she is about to make the biggest mistake of her life. Liyah ends up opening the novel as a runaway bride, crushed under her parents’ expectations for her as the daughter of the local bishops she flees into the arms of her cousin Tamera, running away from home to attend the University of Chicago. It is after her arrival when she applies for a position as a nanny that this novel takes off. I am a sucker for a bad boy who’s a good man. That is the only way to describe this novel’s MMC. Von is a single dad running a prosperous tattoo studio who is trying to do the best that he can for his daughter Gia.

Without giving away the plot of this super sweet, but slightly spicy, novel Liyah, Von and Gia made every moment of reading this novel worthwhile. I will absolutely be reading again, especially since I was able to finish it in two and a half sittings.

Church Girl is a beautiful and well-written love story between an unlikely pair: Aaliyah (small-town daughter of a preacher) and Von (big-city celebrity tattoo artist). Well paced (less than 300 pages), this can be read quickly, and is just heavy enough to make you think - but not heavy enough to take away from the weight of the story. Both Aaliyah and Von are well developed, funny, deep and emotional characters - with their relationship developing nicely and feasibly throughout the story. The external conflicts and elements didn't take away from the story development, but added enough conflict to force the characters to trust themselves and each other.

Many thanks to Naima Simone, NetGalley and Afterglow Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Church Girl is the first book I've read by Naima Simone, but it definitely won't be the last! Aaliyah is a runaway bride determined to escape her small town and the weight of her family's dictations on her life. She stumbles on Von, a tattoo artist with serious baggage who only wants to give the best life to his young daughter and is desperately looking for a nanny.

I absolutely loved everything about this! The writing was captivating and realistic. I really felt like I knew all of the characters in this story. The focus on breaking away from familial pressures, being vulnerable, and trusting in yourself was encouraging.

Thank you to NetGalley and Afterglow Books (Harlequin Romance) for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I will be the first to admit, that I often judge a book by its cover, and this one pulled me in with no questions asked. Naima Simone’s Church Girl masterfully weaves desire, self-discovery, and the tension between tradition and liberation. The story follows runaway bride Aaliyah, a preacher’s daughter who has always lived by the rules. But she decides to let go of the life that was planned for her and walk into the life she wants. Only one problem she needs a job, that works for her. Von is a tattoo artist and single dad in need of a nanny. What makes Church Girl so compelling is Simone’s fearless exploration of how faith and sexuality intersect for Black women. Samara’s journey feels deeply personal and familiar—a dance between the expectations placed on her as a "good girl" and her yearning to claim her full self, flaws and passions included. Simone’s writing is lush and intimate, pulling readers into every stolen glance and whispered confession. At its heart, Church Girl is about reclaiming agency and redefining what it means to be true to yourself. If you’re looking for a steamy, emotionally resonant read that honours the complexity of Black womanhood, this is a must-read. Keep a fan nearby—this one’s as hot as it is heartfelt!