About the Book
Who is Elizabeth Miller? is a romance drama about a young woman raised in a Christian fundamentalist community who leaves home for college, where she becomes infatuated with her religion professor, Dr. Viera. As their connection awakens her intellectually, religiously, and sexually, Ellie begins questioning everything she was taught—finally being able to answer her lifelong question: Who is Elizabeth Miller? Filled with a whirlwind of emotions and pleasure, Ellie embarks on a journey of self-discovery that threatens to tear her reality apart.
Who is Elizabeth Miller? isn’t intended to just be a romance or drama novel; it is a warning about the dangers and effects of religious conservatism and how easily young women can fall prey to the influence of power figures when they enter an environment where their religion and parents no longer control their lives.
Romance dramas and coming-of-age novels are increasingly popular genres, and it’s a fantastic way to enter the literary world and start conversations about life and the human experience while creating a story people want to read.
Growing up in a segregated religious environment, Nayo experienced and witnessed the struggles of identity, sexuality, and independence during those critical young adult years. Blessed to have a father grounded in philosophy and Taoism, he inspired her philosophical endeavors after her separation from the church, and remains her lifelong teacher
Sneak peek:
“I see God in people and I also see the devil there. I think good and evil were products of humanity, the best and the worst of what we as humans were capable of. The pleasures of heaven are with me and the pains of hell are with me,” He continued. “I see religion in the very existence of our lives. In the devotion to others—the worship of love and life. God is in everything, God is the divinity of the human spirit and the celebration of oneself. It might be difficult for you to understand what I’m saying but I think one day you’ll feel it. One day bedsheets will be your chapel walls and you will understand what it is to pray there before love when your body connects with that of another. One day the grass underneath your bare toes will be like the clouds of heaven and the breeze, like the whisper of a holy spirit, and you will understand what it is to have heaven without struggle. One day you will look in the eyes of another and feel divinity within their soul—you will look in the mirror and see something worthy of worship, you will feel it “in the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass” and only then will you know the God I speak of.”
— from Chapter six
Nayo Barroso 