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Send questions to Terrance Dean at: girlworkonyou@aol.com Hello Beautiful People!

Good day, people! I hope you all are having a wonderful week.

Today is, “Read A Book” Thursday, and myself along with the wonderful and smart, Nakea Murray, share our reading experiences on varied books in varied genres. We call the segment “He Said, She Said” Book Review.

This week our book pick is by Shannon Bellamy, Pimps In The Pulpit (Infinity Publishing – October 2009; $23.95). She tells her true story about her experience in the hands of a Pastor of a Mega Church in the hopes of empowering other women who have been manipulated or misled into inappropriate relationships with someone they’ve trusted.

The subtitle of Shannon’s book, “He was my…Counselor, Friend, Confidant and Lover, “Her” Husband, “Their” Father and “OUR PASTOR” is a strong message about the secret lives a lot of Pastors lead in today’s churches. The story shows how a strong woman could become weak and vulnerable and get manipulated into an intimate relationship with her Counselor /Pastor who is married. Her story is not about tearing down the church but rather to expose inappropriate relationships between Pastors and Parishioners and Counselors and Counselees and how it can affect these wounded victim’s life, self esteem, spirituality and soul. It is her desire for change to occur in which counseling is being conducted to include but not limited to same sex counseling or mandatory assist of the same sex during the counseling session.

Check out mine and Nakea’s review of Pimps In The Pulpit:

He Said:

I am a big fan of supporting other authors. It’s a difficult and challenging career to take on because you open yourself to scrutiny and critics of your grueling creative hard work. I also am an avid reader. Many different books pique my interest.  And, Pimps In The Pulpit, was one of those books.  As an author I find it hard not to be critical of other author’s works, so I let go of judgments and allow myself to be open to experiencing different writing styles, genres, and techniques.  The book was okay, but it left me wanting more and asking a lot of questions. The book is marketed as a work of abuse, survival, and redemption, but I didn’t see it. I felt although weak and vulnerable Ms. Bellamy stepped into a situation willingly and is crying foul ball after. As for the pastor a.k.a. “Mr. Smooth Talker” he was controlling and manipulative and should be thrown out of The Baptist Boys Club! I hope Ms. Bellamy continues to write, while improving, and sharing more of her stories. Everyone has a story in them and we in the literary community have to be willing to help others along the way, as well as be able to accept criticism with love.

She Said:

With everything in me I tried to avoid reading this book. Being from the city of Philadelphia, and working in publishing, so many things were wrong to me – the price primarily and packaging second. I’ve heard the author on several radio programs and, yet, I always walked away troubled. As a survivor of a manipulative relationship I feel it’s important to not place blame and accept that people only do what we allow. Ms. Bellamy did not appear to be mentally challenged. Most of what I took away from Pimps In The Pulpit was a, “Whoa Is Me” message. We as adults make choices and have to live with them. In the book, two families were hurt during the process of the year after year affair. Moving on to the mega church where the two parties met and frolicked, I was shocked to find out  there was a major cover up and no help was offered by a very popular and well liked Bishop. Although I could’ve done without this read I will applaud Ms. Bellamy on her movement to push for same sex counseling. I do agree that it will curb this type of behavior. Can’t say I’m looking forward to the “sequel”.

Also, we have a give-aways of the new book by Oasis, Duplicity (Strebor – June 2010; $15). Motion-picture mogul Parrish Clovis learns that everyone is in his life by design-including Hana Kafka, his wife. In just a few short hours, Parrish’s affluent life take a downward plunge into a seedy world that lands him on the front page of every newspaper in America. He’s been accused of the unthinkable. One problem, though-he can’t remember brutally assaulting and raping his wife. In order for Hana and a crew of out-of-work actors to drain Parrish’s multimillion dollar estate, they must first set the stage for Parrish to murder his sister by tricking him into thinking he’s really going to kill the woman he was forced to hate: Hana. Parrish, however, discovers the con, and throws an ingenious twist in the script that will either win him an Oscar…or get him a closed-casket funeral.

The first five persons to email me at girlworkonyou@aol.com the name of Zane’s first novel will receive a copy Oasis’s new book, Duplicity.

Also, please share in the comments section your favorite Zane book and why you love it so.

Lastly, if you are an author, or if you know an author who should have their book reviewed for our “He Said, She Said” column, then send us an email to: hesaidshesaidreviews@yahoo.com – Once you send an email of the book to be reviewed you will receive a response with the submissions guidelines.

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.