Madeleine Marie Winger sits in church one August Sunday morning in Chino Hills, California, battling with her biggest vice. She tells us:

I’m not looking over there again. I’m not. I wish I had not seen him walk in. Now I’m all distracted. I’m supposed to be in a state of worship, but instead, I’m fighting with lust. I feel like standing up and confessing out, “Hi, my name is Madeleine and I’m a lust-o-holic.” Oh Lord, please help me to stop lusting over this guy. In Your name I pray, Amen.

“Maddy!” My dorm roommate Maggie hisses through clenched teeth. “Madeleine!” She jams the offering basket into my elbow, snagging the sleeve of my new crocheted cardigan. I quickly untangled the black thread and pass the basket to the woman sitting next to me.

LUST, you say? Yes, lust. In church no less. How can this be? A fine upstanding Christian young lady in her last year of college at a fine, upstanding Christian university struggles with one of the most base and primal aspects of the human condition. Sigh.


The Garden Key grew out of the Song of Solomon 4:12, “A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a rock garden locked, a spring sealed up.”

The novel unlocks the story of four young women in their relationships and their struggles with sexual purity during their last year at Biola University. The novel follows the two main characters, Madeleine and her mad-crush Peter, as they cultivate their relationship and pursue purity through some rough and comical situations.

Though the topic of sexual purity is controversial in the church, it is very timely. The Garden Key addresses this issue by showing practical examples and guidance on how to maintain purity, as well as revealing the harsh repercussions that stem from disobedience in this area of life.

The Garden Key also appeals to adults as well as teens. Women who have read The Garden Key give it adamant praise as an entertaining, sweet romantic story that has helped them broach the subject of sexual purity with their daughters.

For some women, the book provided healing from some past painful situations in their lives by turning these situations into a powerful testimony to share with others of a path in life better left untaken. Beauty for ashes, as Isaiah 61:3 says. The Garden Key is instrumental in spreading this potential beautification of many souls, as well as instructing others how to live a pure life beyond just saying “no” to premarital sex and other kinds of compromise.