To Be Child of God [A Merome Story]

Mitch- Charity- knows something is wrong. At 18 she is of the age to be betrothed and since a young age she has been told again and again it is her duty to be a good wife and godly mother to the children she is supposed to bear. But she doesn't want to be a wife and she doesn't want to be a mother. She doesn't have the words for it yet, but she knows she isn't a girl.
His saviour comes sooner than he expected as he cries in the field, his name having been read out that day at church. One of the 6 eligible boys around his age has been given permission to court and eventually propose to him and five other girls also chosen, but he isn't ready for it. It was against the rule to talk to boys, yet Jerome comforts him- and then suggests something crazy.
A way to get out. A way to be free, live their lives the way they want to. But to do that, both have to cope with knowing that if they left, they would never talk to their families again. But first, they need to contact the outside world, and to do that, they need to be married.

This book is based on partially on I am not Esther, a book about a girl in a religious cult, and partially on a real life religious cult. Gloriavale is a Christian fundamentalist group near Greymouth, existing separate from our modern world. I highly suggest searching Gloriavale on YouTube and reading the book for some more detail about this world.