Clean-cut Mormons may preach purity and wholesomeness, but sometimes repressing sexual instincts forces those feelings to erupt in unexpected ways. In these stories, two young women vie for the sexual affections of the same missionary. An elderly farmer marries his best friend's mistress in order to feel closer to both of them. A former missionary becomes an escort to put himself through nursing school. A woman fantasizes about her sex life as one of Jesus' future wives. These tales are not for those who deny the reality of sexuality, but the rest of us will enjoy getting a glimpse into the Mormon bedroom.

Mormon spirits are willing but the flesh is weak, wayward and kinky in these edgy stories.

The bans on alcohol, coffee and swearing are hard enough, but it’s the Latter Day Saints’ strait-laced sexual strictures that have Townsend’s Mormon characters tied up in knots. Their supreme commandment is to enter a sanctified marriage that will last through eternity and perhaps make them rulers of their own planet, but any pleasure taken outside or before wedlock can get them “dis-fellowshipped” from their close-knit, nosy congregations. From this crucible of inflamed but repressed desire flows a riot of furtive evasion and exuberant transgression. A woman who has sexual fantasies about Jesus—it’s ok, she reasons, because she intends to marry Him in the afterlife—panics when her bishop insists that she find a mortal husband. Read more