Welcome to Litsy!

In antebellum Charleston, a Catholic priest grapples with doubt, his family's secret African ancestry, and his love for a slave owner's wife. Joseph Lazare and his two sisters grow up believing their black hair and olive skin come from a Spanish grandmother -- until the summer they learn she was an African slave. While his sisters make very different choices, Joseph struggles to transcend the flesh by becoming a celibate priest. Then young Father Joseph meets Tessa Conley, a devout Irish immigrant who shares his passions for music and botany. Joseph must conceal his true feelings as Tessa marries another man -- a plantation owner who treats her like property. Acting on their need for each other will ruin Joseph and Tessa in this world and damn them in the next. Or will it? Necessary Sins is the first book in the Lazare Family Saga that will transport you from the West Indies to the Wild West, from Charleston, Paris, and Rome into the depths of the human heart. If you like The Thorn Birds or the novels of Sara Donati, dive into Elizabeth Bell's epic yet intimate historical fiction today.