A romance about love, loyalty and the danger of confusing the two.
Spoiler-free overview of Cheryl’s Song: Until the Sun Comes Up.
Cheryl Fields comes to Maryland State University from Chicago carrying a father's dream that she become the first Fields to earn a college degree, the memory of a mother she lost young, and a lifelong awareness that people often see her beauty before they see her.
Mike Johnson seems different. Athlete, musician, fraternity leader and survivor, he is the first man Cheryl believes looks past the surface. Their relationship becomes the emotional center of her college life.
Then Perry enters her orbit: a younger student with an easy smile, a Bible study, and a desire to pledge Mike’s fraternity. Cheryl becomes his friend and guide to the Greek world. Perry becomes something else for Cheryl—a spiritual catalyst who asks her to put God in the place she has reserved for romantic love.
As pledge season intensifies, the same traditions that gave Cheryl and Mike community begin to expose their capacity for coercion, secrecy and harm. Old wounds in both of them rise to the surface. Friendship, sexuality, faith, betrayal and the price of loyalty push Cheryl toward a question that is larger than whether she and Mike belong together: Who does Cheryl belong to first?